So my last 9 blogs have been about "empathy." "Client Empathy" specifically my experience living through the renovations to my own home after 30+ years of helping others with their home renovation projects.
So, last week when I headed down to the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Orlando, I thought I might be getting a small reprieve...but no,
The Business Trip to KBIS
but no, I was surrounded by all the new products and trends making me second guess my selections again....but it is too late....I needed to remind myself to put my blinders on like I tell my clients and take note of the trends for my next client.
New base cabinets for the Galley Sinks....in all the coolest, trendiest colors imaginable.
Like anyone that has had to travel lately, I found myself with some time to sit and read and I picked up the January -February 2018 Harvard Business Review. The article titled "Sorry is not Enough," caught my attention. The article talked about empathy being an "emotional state".
I am here to say that as we are heading in to the home stretch of our renovations, I am deep in the "EMOTIONAL STATE" as empathy has been categorized and I am not having to imaginatively understand your suffering as empathy is defined by Merriam-Webster. I am sharing your feelings of displacement and defeated by the dust and feeling pressured to weigh in on one more detail, come up with the perfect pulls and knobs for my kitchen and select paint colors before tomorrow. It is no longer "vicarious," these feelings and the stress are real!
Knobs and pulls that are coming to market in March...can I wait till then?
Then the article went on to discuss the need for more "Compassion" in business and not 'Client Empathy.' Defining 'compassion' as "the ability to remain calm and clearheaded and more capable of rendering assistance." As I reflected on this, and our journey of renovating our own home, I have felt that perhaps I was not empathetic enough to past owners and to their predicament of living on a construction site....when I realized that the reason people hire Clawson Architects, and the reason we continually get the "Best of Houzz" for our Customer Service is because, clients don't want us to "be sorry" or emphatic, the research, as well as our online reviews, confirm that clients need and want us to do what we do best....
Remain:
- Calm
- Clearheaded
- Capable of rendering assistance.....
They want us to show Compassion by problem solving and relieving the pressure of being bombarded by questions and decisions as they come up.
If you are thinking about a project, consider Clawson Architects. Our passion for creating the best design solutions possible based on your needs is matched equally by our passion for providing a welcoming, patient and supportive client relationship throughout the process. The C on our sign is for Compassion.
Our sign as well as our services will withstand the storm!