Building Relationships One Story at a Time

I spent 17yrs at a global delivery company who at the time "run the tightest ship in the shipping business" and I loved it, most of the time. Back then you were left alone to do your work and trust that when you were done for the the day you were done.

The best part of the work was the relationship I developed with the people I/we served. It was a relationship that developed with each story we shared with each other, stories about work, family, goals, you name it. Stories that built trust and care, trust that allowed us to better serve each other, care that showed we are human. A customer knew that if they needed a package earlier than usual so that they can serve their customer I would deliver and, in turn, I could rely on them being a loyal customer.

Things changed when there was a push to rush things along throughout the day. And work was no longer pleasing, there was less or no time to interact with customers. It became strictly transactional with the familiar "time is money," which is true but framed incorrectly based on spreadsheet data.

I give you an example. A customer asked me to wait half an hour at the end of the day while they prepared a package to ship internationally. I was told that I cannot wait because it would push me into overtime. Mind you, the cost to ship the package is 10x the overtime pay.

Reframing. Transactional or relational?

The customer told me that I was the only reason they did not change accounts to the competition, because of our relationship.

A relationship built on the stories we shared with each other.