In this week’s AMN Guest Commentary, Mindshare Technologies President
Lonnie Mayne continues his series on the five pillars of service and
leadership. Today, he presents his thoughts on Pillar No. 3: Everyone
Has a Story. 
To read the previous articles in this series, click here for the introduction, here for Pillar No. 1, and here for Pillar No. 2.
Everyone Has a Story
Every
last person out there has their signature features — visible clues that
tease out their story. It could be a glaring flaw or a glowing trait: a
tendency to talk too fast, a flair for the dramatic, a hard time
getting out of bed, an appreciation for birds, an addiction to texting, a
love for baseball, even a broken finger that never healed right.
It
doesn’t really matter whether it’s negative, positive or neutral — what
matters is that it’s there and it outwardly marks their experience.
These
unique clues are powerful elements in the customer experience, because
they are personal — just like good business is today. Commerce has taken
on a very integral role in our daily lives, and I’m not saying this as a
lament that “Corporate America” and “the Material World” are taking
over our lives; I’m saying that technology and community have
(thankfully) allowed personal life to reassert itself within the
workplace and marketplace.
We can’t afford to forget what Christopher Locke so perfectly states in his book, "The Cluetrain Manifesto":
“Corporations
are legal fictions, willing suspensions of disbelief. Pry the roof off
any company and what do you find? The Cracker Jack prize is ourselves,
just ordinary people.”
Journey to the Center
I hearken
back to childhood often, and I invite anyone who will listen to do the
same. The reason I do this is that it gives me perspective. There’s
something amazing about looking back on a person so innocent and so
different from us — yet who IS us.
Viewing our personal leap
from then to now is both awe-inspiring and instructive. By retracing the
knotted thread that ties us back to our childhood selves, I believe we
get closer to our true selves. We get closer to finding an answer to
North’s question in "Rise of the Guardians:" What is your center?
That
thread, that magical twine that perfectly explains your lifelong
metamorphosis, is your story. I encourage you to retrace it whenever you
get the chance.
The Things You Keep
We all began this life without much more to our name than an appetite for food, for knowledge, for love.
Our
interests and possessions increase quickly, and fairly suddenly, but we
outgrow most of them in a matter of months. We advance through our
early development so rapidly that what’s useful one day is outgrown the
next. I can name so many things from my childhood that I no longer have
use for: my onesies, my liquids-only diet, my diapers, my 11-hour
nights, my bib, my night light, my tricycle, my wagon and the list goes
on.
We do so much outgrowing of childhood things that we can be
excused for feeling like everything from the past is meant to be
outgrown and left behind. But the reality is that the most important
things from our childhood — the relationships, the bonds, the purity of
motive — are meant to grow with us.
When you retrace your story,
pay attention to the things that have grown with you. Those are the
things that define your story the most.
See Your Customer’s Story
Customers
can connect in a more meaningful, committed and loyal way to the human
side of your company than they can to the material or operational side.
That’s not to say loyalty isn’t contingent upon fulfilling transactional
expectations, but the hard, historical truth is that people are wired
to connect best with each other. It’s through other people that we find
validation, positive emotion and meaning.
When we, as customers,
interact with company employees who are guided first and foremost by
human empathy, our instinct is to welcome that employee, and the brand
they represent, into our lives. Yes, companies should train employees to
make sure they are also guided by brand attributes and company
policies, but they can’t afford to bury employees’ personalities under
scripted procedures.
The key to fitting your company into a
customer’s story is to help them validate their own story through yours.
That takes human understanding. If we as leaders can cultivate a
culture of human appreciation that reaches frontline employees and
empowers them to see, appreciate and validate the stories of individual
customers — then we will have won.
Who Knows Yours?
Looking
and listening for clues into your customers’ stories should take
priority over publicizing or promoting your own — but that doesn’t mean
you can take without giving. As individuals and as brands we must be
willing to openly share our real, imperfect selves with others if we
expect to gain their trust and loyalty.
I’ll speak more about
this in Pillar No. 5, “Putting Yourself Out There,” but it’s worth
asking right now if you have retraced your own thread recently to get a
sense of your story, self and center? Have you done anything recently to
show that true identity to others?
Who knows your story?
If you have a moment, which I know many of you don’t, I encourage you to check out BYUtv’s Story Trek. This wonderful program follows reporter Todd Hansen as he knocks on doors and finds amazing stories behind every single one.
You can do the same.
