I’ve been thinking about how the concept of networking has shifted negatively in recent years. The superficiality that has taken over is not only shallow, but it has also fooled people into thinking that what they are doing is eventful. They believe that it is a game of numbers rather than relationships.
Unfortunately, many business organizations are also operating this way, as well. They have convinced themselves that because they can never really get to know their customers, they can treat them impersonally. In addition, they have embraced an “arms-length” business protocol that helps them marginalize their customers because they believe that the customer does not want a relationship with them. It creates an environment in which organizations resort to defining customer loyalty as re-purchase and referral to others, which confines them into the mindset that the end goal is to shape buying behaviors. This is a very one-dimensional approach.
Customer-centered organizations, on the other hand, see a deeper relationship with customers. Even though they might not know each customer personally, they operate with a generative, idea-developing energy focused on what is best for these customers. By moving beyond a product-centric, “A to B” mentality, these higher performers operate a culture of continuous improvement for all of their customers and a more substantive relationship happens. They are legendary, rather than ordinary.
Successful organizations understand the power of purposeful, customer-centered relationships. They generate a results-oriented kind of energy which pulls their customers in a heliotropic system that draws customers toward their positive energy the way a plant is drawn toward a life-giving light source. The effect is greater trust and more passionate recommendations of the service you are providing or the product you are selling.
Aligning your organizational culture around what is best for your customers gives it purpose. Suddenly, your network becomes dynamic and full of life, rather than static. Great ideas seem to spill over from the collective energy. Everyone benefits because, instead of simply being a one-dimensional provider of goods or services, your organization will become the center of an ecosystem that delivers what customers need to be successful.
