Picture your mom. Picture her life. Picture her face. As you serve your customers and affect their lives, picture how does that have an impact on your mom’s face?
Now, be honest with yourself. Have you ever done anything to your customers that you’d never ever do to your mother?
“Be the person I raised you to be”
Make-mom-proud companies seek talents whose values align with what they want their companies to stand for. And together, they bring that vision to life by bringing out the best version of themselves. These companies take deliberate steps to:
- Honor the dignity of their customers’ lives
- Develop and build trust with their employees
- Empower employees to extend grace, joy and memories
- Reward and develop congruence of ‘heart’ and ‘habit’
“Don’t make me feed you soap!”
Have you ever had your mouth washed with soap or your mom forced you to do this? Of course, not. Make-mom-proud companies are always on the lookout for Bar-of-Soap moments that they can remove from their customers, because they know these moments make their customers’ lives harder than they should be. As a customer, your bar-of-soap moments usually:
- Take up your time
- Drain you physically and mentally
- Overload your brain by overcomplicating things
- Lead to service exhaustion because at the end, you’re the one doing the work
“Put others before yourself”
“A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” – Tenneva Jordan
That quote exactly is how make-mom-proud companies earn their sport at the marketplace and their customers’ loyalty. They make themselves stand out by making their customers’ priority their own. They bring:
- Clarity for how they make their customers’ lives better
- Intuitive and empathetic customer journey
- Innovation guided by customer experience
- Fearless redesign of what’s always been done
“Take the high road”
The high road is a choice. It’s not always an easy choice but it’s the one you need to earn the happiest customers in the rearview mirror. Make-mom-proud companies are driven by ‘goodness-growth’. They choose to walk away from practices that create an imbalance customer-company relationship. Instead, they choose to:
- Build win-win balanced relationships
- Act from honor and respect
- Practice ‘radical transparency’
- Earn goodness-driven growth
“Stop the Shenanigans!”
Now, be honest and ask yourself the following questions to see where your company stands. Remember to picture your mom as you answer.
- Do we show up as a caring company?
- Do we trust, empower and hold our people to the highest standards?
- Is hiring the most important decision we make?
- Do we focus on improving our customers lives?
- Is our growth inclusive, ethical and respectful?
- Do we care and nurture frontline heroes, rather than policy cops?
- Do we reward the congruence of ‘heart’ and ‘habit’?
- Do we celebrate customer success stories, no matter big or small?
- Do we cherish memory makers?
- Do we make it easy for customers to get help?
“Join the moment to make mom proud”
We all know that mom’s love is unconditional. When we believe and treat our customers the same way, rewards are customer love and loyalty. Make-mom-proud companies get a disproportionate piece of the peace because they’re taking actions they’d take at home, with their mom.
So, make a choice. With each promise you create and deliver, you make a choice about how you show up in the marketplace. Remember your employees and customers together define who you are and what you value, based on the behaviors you bring to work with them. Make it happen. Make your mom proud.
“Call your mother. Tell her you love her. Remember, you’re the only person who knows what her heart sounds like from the inside.” – Rachel Wolchin