Want Fries with That? Moving From Transactions to Relationships

Monday, July 26, 2010 | 10:50 a.m.

“I’ll take a Big Mac and a large Coke.” “Want fries with that?” “No thanks.” “That will be $4.29 at the first window.”

We’ve all done it. We’ve ordered fast food or purchased a product or commodity. Sometimes we even receive good customer service in the process, but the purchase is a classic transaction. We pay for something, we receive something and there is no promise for anything else.

But that is not our expectation when we hire someone to perform a professional service such as accounting, law or consulting work. In purchasing professional services we have a higher expectation, one that is more than the service itself. We expect a relationship to come along with the service. We want our professional service provider to care about our work, to care about us, and to provide great service.

Then why do many firms market their services as a commodity or transaction? You’ve heard the language. “We propose the following menu of services.” “You can choose from our shopping list of services.” Services are not products, but they, too, can be transactional or commodity driven. I surmise that most firms don’t want to be known as a commodity or a transactional firm. Following are a few steps that you can take to move from transactions to relationships:

Focus more on the relationship, and less on the transaction. The fundamental shift between transactions and relationships is the focus. Transactional companies measure the number of transactions, i.e., McDonald’s “over 5 billion served” slogan. Relationship firms shift focus from the transaction to the client or customer and build loyalty and longer-term relationships with their customers. For professional service firms that practice within a relationship structure, the sale is secondary to the relationship. Not that the firm doesn’t want to sell its services to the client (this is essential for any business), it operates with a belief structure that if the relationship is developed, the firm will eventually be able to secure contracts or sales from the client. But more importantly, through the relationship-building process, the firm will be able to understand the important aspects of the proposition to be made.

For instance, as I have previously written, I had a client who came to our firm asking us to design a warehouse for his organization. I had a good relationship with the client and because of this, I knew he needed something else — better procurement practices. If I did not have a relationship or was only focused on the transaction at hand, our firm would have designed a good, functional warehouse for him. But because we were able to help the organization develop a better procurement process, we built our relationship stronger and have worked successfully together for over 15 years.

I work with a financial planner who manages my firm’s 401K plan. I interviewed several firms prior to selecting the firm that we did. The main reason for our selection was that the firm talked with us as people and didn’t make us feel like an account. It demonstrated that it cared, got to know us, and customized solutions that met our goals. Contrast this approach with the other firms, who tried to sell us off-the-shelf services without taking the time to understand our firm and its unique needs. At the end of the day, my financial planner delivers services, but he does it in a way that strengthens the relationship between the firms.

Relationships build trust. Building trust doesn’t happen over night. People need to feel confident that when they make a purchase, they are making the right choice. As the importance of the purchase rises, so does the level of confidence or trust that the purchaser needs to have to buy the product or service. Without a tangible product to sell, trust is even more important to the professional service marketer. Professional services are purchased primarily on faith and trust. Building this trust takes time and rarely happens without building a relationship first.

Relationships build loyalty. This is not to say that people don’t develop loyalty to brands or products, but most loyalties are built “person to person,” especially in the professional service ranks. Focusing on the relationship between the client and your firm will result in a loyalty that is rarely tested.

Until next time…

Craig