Ah, that bush smells great

I've been enjoying all the flowering trees and plants as I walk through my neighborhood in the last month. Yes, spring is that late in New England. The other day I walked by a terrifically fragrant bush, but I had no idea what it was (and I know a good number of trees and plants). I took a tiny clump of flowers off this tree (it was next to the subway station near my house) to the local florist.

The two employees and one customer in the store stopped what they were doing to help me identify this plant. We were talking about it and finally the customer realized it was a Spiraea (picture of bush here). What a terrific smelling bush--and it is perfectly beautiful and unique from other flowering trees. I added it to my list of trees I want in my yard when I finally buy a house.

To get back on track, while we were discussing what plant this was, one of the employees went to the Internet and pulled up information about Spiraea and proceeded to print it out and give it to me. Hello! That is terrific service. Clearly they weren’t going to get a sale from helping me identify this plant, however, these savvy employees knew that relationships grow business.

The moral of the story here is to take care of customers, to invest in the relationship not just transactions. Meaning, don’t just focus on those who can buy right now, but help and support those who might need your services in the future or reach out to you for connections, ideas, information or whatever. Value is delivered in different ways, and help with information was valuable to me during this store visit. I can tell you I will go back to that store (and I’ve never bought anything there before) to buy something--and soon. What a fun experience. I felt connected to these fellow plant lovers and that is a nice connection. And here I am telling others--just like that (in other words, a relationship focus grows word of mouth, too).

How can you nurture relationships instead of transactions only? Can you spend a bit more time on the phone with your customers/clients and listen to their needs and challenges, and not only focus on the transaction at hand? How much time do you spend now on relationship building compared to or in addition to handling the transactions of business? That’s food for thought.