Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Robin Pasley (00:01):
HB welcome back.
This is part three of theGrowth Advocate Meets Pasley
Commercial Interiors interview.
You are our guest, hb Pasley.
HB Pasley (00:14):
Thank you for stating
the blindingly obvious.
That is true.
I love it that you're you.
I've been listening to yourpodcasts.
They're very informative.
Thanks for doing that.
Yeah, they have.
You know, it's all aboutcommercial interior design.
Some of them are kind of nerdy,Some of them are a little more
where I can understand it.
And you've been interviewed byRandy Lynn, who's with us now.
(00:38):
I don't know if the listenerscan hear her breathing, but
she's at the table.
Okay, there she is.
Who is our client experienceofficer?
Yes, she is, which means that,randy Lynn, how would you
describe your role in the firmIf you were going to self define
?
What is, what does it mean tobe the client experience officer
for Pasley commercial interiors?
Randi Lynn Johnson (01:00):
To jump back
to episode one, where we talked
about why you do what you do,not just what you do.
I'd start with a story of how Igrew up feeling very celebrated
and always making things a bigdeal and helping people feel
championed.
And so I get to do that for ourfirm.
I get to just check in with ourclients, celebrate their
(01:22):
successes even apart from usit's like, oh hey, we opened a
new thing or we had our highestgrossing quarter ever and just
getting to really champion them.
But as well in a practicalsense, celebrating projects
wrapping, just checking in withthem during the process, feeling
how do you feel everything'sgoing, et cetera.
HB Pasley (01:42):
That's really
exciting, but really caring for
people.
Randi Lynn Johnson (01:44):
That's what
it comes to.
It is a human element.
HB Pasley (01:46):
I think often nerd
firms who do nerdy things, like
commercial interior designers,make the mistake occasionally of
thinking that their skill andthe outcome itself is all that a
client needs to be happy.
Quite often we all needsomebody to put their hand on
our shoulder, give us anencouragement and just ask us
how we're doing and feelingalong the process, especially if
(02:08):
it takes not weeks but monthsand months.
Robin Pasley (02:10):
Or years.
We've got projects that taketwo or three years to get
finished.
HB Pasley (02:14):
Taking care of the
people that we love.
It's really in some ways morefun than the nerd stuff we do.
The people we love are reallythe center of our universe.
Anyway, I was congratulatingyou.
We looped all the way around tosay it's great to hear you talk
about your business.
It's also great to hear youtalk to other people.
Now I'm the first of manyinterviews to come.
You've got architects, you'vegot designers, you've got CPAs,
(02:34):
you've got all kinds ofdifferent business people in
town and clients that you'regoing to get to interview on
your podcast, and I was luckyenough to be the inaugural guest
interviewee.
Robin Pasley (02:45):
Yeah, I thought it
was appropriate, since you've
been with us all year.
HB Pasley (02:47):
And I've been with
you for 30 years.
Robin Pasley (02:49):
You've been with
me for 30 years but, you've been
embedded as a fractional COOsince January of this year.
HB Pasley (02:56):
I take all those
letters and I jumble them around
and I spell anything I want.
That's weird.
Robin Pasley (03:03):
I don't really
think you should do that.
HB Pasley (03:07):
Never mind.
Never mind, I can't talk aboutthat.
Okay, so client experience thisis great.
This is when we started thislonger conversation.
This is the third element ofstuff that I work with.
As a growth advocate, which Iwork as a business advisor or a
business growth leader, I oftenjoin teams.
My present role is usually Ijoin teams in a fractional way,
(03:27):
which means I'm sort of joiningas a part-time member of the
executive team.
We're going to work on strategytogether.
We're going to work onleadership skills together,
systems, and sometimes we'regoing to work on how to build
your firm, not just on strangerslearning about you.
Right, I'm talking about salesnow, revenue, new growth, new
(03:49):
clients, not just on strangerswho don't know you, but how to
build your firm on the strengthof the advocacy of your favorite
clients.
That's what I call growth fromthe center.
When I talk about this, I oftenshow a picture of a tree and I
ask there's leaves and there's atrunk.
You know, you can see it's aclassic spring tree.
(04:10):
You know which part of the treeis most exciting, which has the
most color?
What do people celebrate themost?
And the answer is always theleaves.
Yeah, and that's where marketingpeople spend most of their time
is the leaves.
They talk about the leaves howto get new clients, how to
attract new clients, how tospend money on the latest new
social media program, blah, blah, blah.
It's all great and you've gotto have those people, but they
(04:31):
never think about the trunk ofthe tree.
But they never think about thetrunk of the tree.
And I was exaggerating a tad,but I haven't met a marketing
agent recently who focuses oncultivating the advocacy of
present clients.
Why?
Because that takes more work.
It takes personal commitment,it takes conversational
commitment.
The firm has to think that it'simportant.
You have to put money and timeinto it.
(04:53):
You have to hire wait for itRandy Lynn, a client experience
officer.
Yes, your role is to personally,hand-to-hand, cultivate
relationships with clients.
Why?
Because we want them to behappy.
We love them and we know thathappy clients will refer.
That's right.
They will introduce, they willadvocate for us in the
marketplace.
A lot of firms need thisbecause without advocacy we
(05:15):
can't develop enough trust.
Because we're doing big,expensive, amazing things Right,
you do big, expensive, amazingthings here at Pasley Commercial
Interiors.
Robin Pasley (05:25):
We do.
HB Pasley (05:25):
And I don't mind
saying the word expensive,
because it ain't like buying anew pair of shoes.
No, when you go to renovate anoffice or build a multi-story
building, you're going to bespending a bunch of money, a
bunch of money.
I like it that we've beenworking on.
How do you help peopleunderstand how to make that
choice?
How do you choose the rightarchitect?
How do you choose the rightbanker?
How do you choose the rightinterior designer?
This should be based on morecriteria than just a 10-second
(05:48):
glance at their portfolio.
You need to know if thesepeople are going to fit on your
team Right.
So you know, we've spent apretty good bit of time
developing our client experienceacumen around here, and I'm
thinking about a couple ofthings on my mind.
But when you and I, robin, talkabout client experience at this
point because you've been withme through my whole journey of
(06:09):
learning about client experienceFive years ago, I didn't know
that this was what it was Right.
Certainly not as a I didn'tknow what to call it.
Robin Pasley (06:16):
Right.
HB Pasley (06:18):
What would you think
would be one of the key elements
for you that has created moresuccess in your business around?
Robin Pasley (06:31):
the client and not
thinking like the designer was
one of the first things that youintroduced me to that I thought
it was the game changer in mybrain, my mindset, you know,
because I'm always thinkingabout what, the things that I
think are important.
(06:57):
And when you asked me to getinto their shoes at every point
of the process and think what dothey need to hear, what do they
need to know right now?
It changed the way that wecommunicated, the way that we I
mean everything from note-takingto our internal processes now
are based around what does theclient need to know right now?
HB Pasley (07:11):
I want to touch those
steps a little bit and help
your listeners know exactly howto start doing what we call
empathy mapping thinking likethe client through each step of
their journey with you.
If you're a business owner,here's what you do Take out a
piece of paper right now.
You could do this with yourleadership team, but you might
as well do it now just for fun,and all I want you to do is name
the steps that your clients gothrough, from beginning to end.
Robin Pasley (07:37):
From the start of
whatever you do with them, until
they say goodbye to you.
You've completed your thing.
HB Pasley (07:41):
That is correct.
Some of you have a clientexperience that's five minutes
long, because they come in yourstore and they leave.
Some of you have one that's aweek.
Some of you have it, like Robin, it might be 18 months or two
years or longer.
Some of you have lifetimeclients.
But it'll have stages like thevery first time they hear about
you.
You know, because they have aproblem, but they don't know
that you're even in the worldand they discover you.
(08:03):
That's actually a step.
The first time they get on thephone or go to your website or
get anything from you, that's astep.
The first time they come in andmeet with you and spend an hour
or have a conversation or haveto show documents, that's a step
.
When you're designing thingsfor them, when you're
implementing things for them,when you complete things for
them these are all steps in theprocess.
Now you have names for this inyour business.
(08:24):
Just write them out on a pieceof paper in front of you, just
make them into a line and then,when we get done with that, go
aha, okay, that's what we do.
That's all the things that myteam does to get this thing done
.
Pow, you might have five steps.
You might have 20.
I don't care.
Next might take a cup of coffee.
You're going to do what Robinjust described doing, which is
you're going to go into eachstep.
You're going to put the shoesof your client on your feet and
(08:47):
all you're going to do is, like,turn the other way in your mind
.
Right, you turn to the otherside of the equation.
Pretend like your client Justother side of the equation.
Pretend like you're a client.
Just ask yourself how am Ifeeling at this stage?
What am I suffering with?
What are the questions that Ihave?
What am I concerned about?
What's the big thing I mustsolve at this step?
Because you make a mistake ifyou think your clients come to
you to solve one thing andthey've got that on their mind
(09:09):
all the way through.
It's not true.
At each phase they change theirsense about how is this going?
Did I make a good choice?
Are they going to treat me likethe last people did?
How is this next step going tobe successful?
How long will this take?
They've got all these questionsthat change Map and I call this
empathy mapping map theirquestions across those steps.
(09:29):
That's your phase one forbuilding you and your whole
team's empathetic IQ.
Okay, eq people call thisemotional.
You know your emotional IQ orwhatever.
I think this is very specific,though this has to do with
empathy, not just an emotionalsensitivity.
You've got to think like yourclient.
If you can map that, thenyou're on a journey to decide
(09:51):
how will you answer them and putthat into your systems.
You mentioned something earlier, robin, that you went into your
CRM and you literally createdan automation that reminded your
team members to reach out toclients on a particular interval
during construction phase.
That's not the only thing youput in your CRM, but you made it
(10:12):
so that the system tells you toact in response to the
empathetic map that you made forthe client.
So you're acting it out.
I think this is super important.
Now, thanks for letting me talkabout this conversation.
As you know, I may have writtena book about it.
Robin Pasley (10:29):
I was just going
to say we have to tell them
about your book before we endtoday.
We'll have Randy put the linkin the podcast episode Sure, but
it's called Never Drop the BallAgain.
HB Pasley (10:38):
Yeah, you can look it
up at Amazon.
A lot of people just skip theline and go straight to Amazon.
Look up.
Never Drop the Ball Again.
By HB Pasley.
I love it because it's shortand I am dyslexic, so reading is
a bit of a chore for me.
Tiny hardback, 100 pages.
Tiny hardback, big print.
Look at the pictures.
Just skip the words if youdon't want the words, there's
not pictures.
(10:59):
There are lots of diagrams.
I don't even remember them.
Randi Lynn Johnson (11:03):
Oh come on.
HB Pasley (11:03):
I read the eight
steps of client experience.
Robin Pasley (11:05):
Oh, I do remember
that.
HB Pasley (11:06):
There you go.
I just had to draw it with myfinger and you saw it, I put
together eight what I considerto be just foundational steps
for any trust-based business.
I put them into this littlebook so you could see them.
So if you and your team want apractical guide for mapping how
a client feels about theirprocess, all the way through,
with you you can start to buildyour client experience IQ and
(11:27):
then, instead of just talkingabout it and having a feeling,
you can put it into your systemsand start delivering better
responses to them.
I bet you won't even have to domore.
You'll just add intelligence towhat you're already doing.
This is good news for thebusiness owner.
Randi Lynn Johnson (11:40):
Right.
HB Pasley (11:41):
And the outcomes will
be more referrals, clients more
willing to write reviews foryou on the Internet, clients who
want to come to your socialsand parties that you're throwing
.
Robin Pasley (11:53):
I think that one
of the biggest things was
clients who knew how to refer menow.
HB Pasley (11:57):
Oh, not just that
they wanted to, but they knew
exactly how to do it.
Robin Pasley (12:00):
Right Cause they I
helped them over time, over the
the journey that we wentthrough together, understand
better who I was to them, sothey would know how I could be
that to someone else thatthey're friends with or other
business owners.
HB Pasley (12:15):
Yeah, it's been great
to be Yep.
Robin Pasley (12:18):
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
I was already expressing mythanks for being invited here.
HB Pasley (12:21):
I'm sorry I
interrupted you.
You know we were on the sametone right there.
Yeah, it is cool to get toshare a little bit about my work
because I've been able to workwith you, but I do my own thing
out in the world with differentkinds of businesses.
I've worked with financialadvisors, commercial real estate
developers, people in medicineand healthcare, people in design
Anybody who builds trust inorder to do what they do.
(12:44):
I've really enjoyed helpingthem grow and I just appreciate
the opportunity to come and talkabout it.
Robin Pasley (12:51):
I know that people
could come to our website to
see your sweet face, but if theywere, going to come learn more
about this part of what you do?
Where would they go?
HB Pasley (12:59):
HBPasleycom.
Robin Pasley (13:01):
P as in.
HB Pasley (13:02):
Paul A, as in Apple,
Happy birthday first.
Robin Pasley (13:04):
S as in Sam L-E-Y.
HB Pasley (13:06):
You spelled over the
top of my spelling I did.
Robin Pasley (13:09):
We are just.
It's good for Mary, though youdon't stop anymore when I start
talking.
HB Pasley (13:11):
We just talk over
each other, we just talk
simultaneously yeah, h-b B as inbirthday, or Honey Bear B B as
in birthday, or honey bearPazley, honey, biscuit, Honey,
biscuit, pazley, hot.
Don't fill any more blanks.
Okay, no more fill in the blankgames.
You guys have got it.