Here's how you can cultivate strong relationships with clients and customers in an entrepreneurial career.

Genuine Care: Show a sincere interest in your clients' and customers' needs and goals. Active Listening: Truly listen to understand their challenges and preferences. Exceed Expectations: Deliver exceptional service that consistently surpasses what they expect. Open Communication: Maintain clear and transparent communication throughout the relationship. Value & Support: Offer value beyond the product or service, and support them throughout their journey with your business. Appreciation & Recognition: Express gratitude for their business and acknowledge their contributions. Adaptability: Be flexible and adapt your approach to meet their specific needs. Proactive Problem-Solving: Anticipate and proactively address any issues they may face.

Active listening is key for anyone who wants happy clients, positive reviews. And, in the business world, the holy grail of all business leads is: referrals. In addition to nodding your head or making short affirmative statements, you also demonstrate you are actively listening by asking pertinent questions based on what your prospective client is sharing. Another way that I personally have used for years is to say something like: “let me make sure I heard you correctly”. To break this phrase down: when you say “make sure” you are asking for a confirmation about what you heard, and let’s face it, the ideal way that any one of us wants to be heard is…correctly. Right? To me, this is the perfect way to kick off a new relationship.

Personalization is very key in today’s online world, especially with AI. In fact, the more that you can personalize, the more real you are perceived. And, the more you prove you are NOT artificially intelligent. You are in fact, a human. And being human means that you have things you care about, people you care about, good times, and hard times. So, take the time to really think about the person you are trying to serve. Think about what they care about, who they care about, what their aspirations and fears are, and help them in a way that serves them. Remembering little details like their birthdays is just the beginning, try to remember as much as you can and bring it up in conversation just like you would with a friend.

Feedback is maybe the most critical component. It is literally the thing that many companies look for and use to develop the next iteration of products or services. Do whatever you can to get as much feedback as you can. And which kind of feedback do you want? Good or bad? BOTH. Why? Because the good tells you what to keep doing and the bad tells you what to start doing or what to change. As an example, if I run an oil change business and I find customers keep asking me if we do brakes, then I might consider hiring a tech to do brakes. At the same time, if customers tell me the coffee always tastes burnt in the waiting room, I might go get a new coffee pot. Now, in both scenarios, I have hopefully created more happy clients.