Taking Some Great Personal and Business Advice From Our Dogs!

Our Family has a new addition: a Dog named Red.

He is a Red-Tic English Coon Hound.  (No, I also had never heard of this particular breed!)

We have had him one full week; a small duration of time during which he has already:

• Urinated once on our Bedroom Floor. 
• Busted out of his supposedly solid and full-proof metal crate.  Every single day I should add since we got him.
• Decided to empty every single trash can in our house on several occasions.  Unfortunately because of our young children the contents of most of the trash cans I am referring to included diapers. 
• Helped himself to a big bag of Potato Chips....eating about 50% of the bag and then spreading the remaining chips, very neatly, all around our main living area.

Patience is a Virtue!!

Despite all of this, I have grown to love Red; he is a keeper.  It has been several years since we had a Dog and both my Wife and I love dogs in general.  We are happy to again have a loving and trusting Dog in our lives; and our two little ones are so happy they care barely contain themselves!

This afternoon as I took Red for an hour-long walk and great conversation (mostly one-way) I got to thinking: what exactly is it that so endears us to our Dogs?  Why do we grow to love them so much despite the hard work and sacrifice required to care for them on a daily basis?

After considering this I concluded the secret to their success is: the establishment of Trust and Faith!

We have complete trust and faith in our Dogs. 

I then, shortly thereafter, because I have been thinking so much lately about my new consulting business (Selling By Building) and the many issues and ideas I want to address and share, realized that Business Owners and Entrepreneurs can learn some important lessons from a Dog like Red.

If you (or we I should say) want to be successful and grow your Business you too need to, as a result of how you service and treat your Customers or Clients consistently, successfully establish Trust and Faith.

This is no easy task because indeed there are many dishonest, selfish, unscrupulous, and unethical Business People out there.  Because of this fact Customers or Clients are going to be hesitant, cautious, and resistant to instantly and without good reason, trust us right out of the gate.

But, We can Build Trust and Faith by adhering to the following suggestions and goals:

1. Be honest with your Customers and Clients.  Do not sacrifice honesty and long-term trust and relationships by being dishonest in any way to achieve a short-term benefit.  Nothing helps Built Trust and Faith in the minds of your Customers more than their earned perception that you are honorable and truly operate with their best interest in mind at all times.  (Dogs don't lie!)
2. Listen clearly and intently and sympathetically to concerns and problems expressed to you.  Real and honest empathy both felt and expressed is a tremendous asset.  When something goes wrong with a product or service you have represented and sold very often that is when you can prove what kind of person you are and what kind of Business you are.  If you are resistant to learning about problems being experienced and conveyed to you and not sympathetically passionate about helping service your customer and help find the best solution to the greatest benefit of your customer then you are missing out one the greatest opportunities to lock in a long-term Customer who would have been a willing promoter of you and your Business.  (Dogs are the best listeners!)
3. Do not consistently and automatically judge.  Again, keep the focus on listening openly and sympathetically to your Employees, Customers, Vendors, Management.  Always seek to gain a greater understanding from those you may disagree with or not understand.  Render judgement only when asked or absolutely necessary.  But make sure you are communicating in a positive manner expressing only constructive criticism.  (Dogs don't judge!  They just keep on listening)
4. Be reliable.  I believe to consistently achieve this goal you have to truly care about those you are interacting with and not solely be existing for the benefit of yourself.  If more people would embrace this Philosophy the world would be a better place.  If you are perceived as highly reliable by your customers they will stay with you and keep coming back to you and your Company for help, value, solutions to their problems, etc.  The reason we all turn to our Trusted Dogs at the end of a long, stressful, day is because we know, unquestionably and without reservation, that they will be glad (and excited as only our dogs can get excited!) to see us, listen to us, and help us feel better.  That is why we love them so much.  (Dogs define being reliable!)

So, taking Red's and your Dog's Advice, we can all benefit from focusing on these basics of Communication and Customer Service, to better ourselves and our businesses. 

Now I have to ask Red to proof-read my communication here to see if he approves!  I don't want to misrepresent him in any way.