What we get credit for in life is not necessarily the most important thing we do.
At ADDO, we have a team that works tirelessly to serve our clients and customers with excellence. They spend countless hours sending emails, analyzing progress, negotiating agreements, and editing content to make sure we deliver the best service and products possible. Our customers appreciate the work we do. However, if they don’t feel important to us, they quickly become frustrated.
Let me explain—when we’re busy doing important work on meaningful projects, it’s easy to justify waiting a little longer to respond to a client’s email, letting a call roll to voicemail, or forgetting to reach out to keep the customer updated on the progress of their project.
The challenge is that the customer doesn’t see, well, what they don’t see. Make sense? Our clients and customers care about what we deliver, but they care even more that we communicate well when they need us.
At ADDO, I believe that what we’re doing behind the scenes is important. It’s the unglamorous work of long hours spent planning, creating, and delivering programs that builds up leaders. But what we get credit for is the most important thing to the person who is giving the credit. Therefore, excellent customer service and client-facing communication is essential to maintaining the opportunity to do the work we do.
Think about how this concept applies to other organizations.
An associate pastor doesn’t get credit for the hours of administrative work he does throughout the week, but he does get credit for how he responds to a church member that comes to him with a need.
In a retail environment, the customer doesn’t give a team member credit for the effort they put into designing and building a new display, but they do give them credit for finding the right product when asked for help and doing it with a smile.
The director of a nonprofit doesn’t get credit for the time invested in planning a successful fundraiser, but they do get credit for how promptly they respond to the email of an important donor.
The teacher doesn’t get credit for the hours she puts into lesson planning and classroom instruction, but she does get credit for how quickly she responds to a parent’s inquiry about their child’s progress.
The doctor’s office doesn’t get credit for filing the insurance paperwork correctly the majority of the time, but they do get credit (or criticism) for how promptly they solve a billing dispute or deliver an important test result to an anxious patient.
Again, the things we get credit for may not be the most important part of our jobs. However, if we don’t make our customers and clients feel valued, we may lose the opportunity to do the work we love.
In a way, our clients hold our jobs in their hands. Even if you’re “the boss,” you ultimately work for the people who purchase your products and services. Without them, our organizations would not exist. We should become obsessed with taking great care of our customers in a way that makes them feel important to us—because they are!
Don’t neglect the important work of communicating promptly and intentionally with your customers. Investing in those relationships now will impact your company’s success in the future.
