How To Be A Caring Company
Business
I recently got this letter in the mail and I was honestly floored by it. Let me tell you the backstory. I had to put down my almost 13-year-old yellow lab (named Trout) earlier in the year. It was very tough for me and my family. My local vet, Tad Moseley, and his staff were amazing throughout the whole thing. It was totally like the ending of Marley and Me, but I had way less composure than Owen Wilson did in the movie. To understate it, I was a mess.
Tad and his staff had sent me a great note on Trout’s birthday with their condolences and letting me know they had made a contribution in his honor at the Auburn vet school. I thought that was incredibly kind and caring so I posted the note on social media.
That is the only post I ever made on social media about Trout’s passing. I also have not seen Stacy Bush in at least a year and I have never been a client of his. Yet, this letter comes in the mail from Stacy expressing his condolences and even included a great poem.
This is not the first time I have received a note in the mail from Stacy. He sent me a laminated copy of the newspaper article that announced me winning the local business plan competition and I’m pretty sure I’ve received a few more copies of articles about me from the local paper.
How in the world does a busy guy like Stacy make the time to be this caring? Do Stacy’s efforts make me more likely to recommend him or invest with him? Absolutely. If someone shows this much care and concern when I am not a client, I imagine the care would be even greater if he was helping me with my finances!
I wish I could be this caring. I think we would all like to be more caring and I think we all can. Below are some steps that can help us step up our caring game.
- Schedule the Time – The time to write personal notes will never magically appear on your calendar. We must schedule the time and protect it. Our time is a reflection of our priorities. Clearly, I have not prioritized caring like I should.
- Have a Process – My dad has always made the time to read the local paper and send personal notes with clippings. He read the paper, cut the articles and had his assistant put them in the mail for him. It worked. Now we need to also be monitoring the web and social media. That was the only place Stacy or one of his staff could have seen my post about Trout.
- Hire Caring People – A journalist once asked Howard Shultz how they trained the Starbucks baristas to smile all the time. He said it was simple. They only hired people who smiled all the time. Chick-fil-A asks potential hires to recount a recent time when they did something for someone with no expectation of return. If they have a hard time coming up with an example, they probably are not as caring as they need to be to thrive at Chick-fil-A. It is difficult for us to change our stripes, so we are best served to hire people with the character traits we want on our team.
- Care – People watch their leaders and do what they do. If a leader cares for their people, they are more likely to care for their customers. I was inspired enough by Stacy’s act of caring to write this post. I am sure he inspires his team as well.
I’ll try to get Stacy out for lunch soon to find how he does it, but these 4 steps should get us moving in the right direction. To learn more about Stacy, his team and the great work they do, go here – www.bushwealthmanagement.com.
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