By Ben Tyler, Owner and Head Coach

When I think of a business or service, I usually think of what I need and how they’re going to provide that service or item, what the cost vs value of the item is, if I can get it somewhere else for a better price (if it’s an object), or if it’s a service, who provides the best service. These decisions really don’t go too much farther than these short thoughts.

When it comes to larger purchases, (vehicles, homes, larger devices, medical procedures, doctors, dentists etc) I will research more to make sure I’m getting the quality I need. For some things, such as doctors or dentists, I’ll look even further into reviews, talk with people who are under their care, and make sure I understand their background, philosophy and competencies.

From talking with other people, this is a fairly normal approach to most items. Each of us dig into certain things a bit more (for us, food, doctor’s approach to wellness and holistic ideas vs prescription heavy etc), but overall, we can make good decisions with this sort of research and due diligence.

However, we all have those experiences that leave us smiling, thankful, and amazed at the product or service we received. Focusing on the service aspect, when I meet with a doctor for my son who doesn’t seem rushed, takes his time to answer carefully and accurately, as well as enjoys interacting with my family (and you can tell it’s not faked), my satisfaction with his or her service is massively increased. Not only am I happier with the service he or she provided, my relationship and trust (more importantly) is far better than i if I were rushed through the office, prescribed something or given hasty advice, especially after waiting 45 minutes in their office to get those 2 minutes with them.

It’s not hard to tell if someone genuinely cares about you and the service they provide. There is also a difference between those who genuinely care about the service they provide and not about you. Our “gut feeling” has an uncanny way of telling us quite a bit about a person and their motives. We all know those people that you can tell, without a shadow of a doubt, truly, genuinely care about you, your wellbeing and how they can help you.

In the world today, we encounter these individuals and organizations full of these individuals less and less often. The world is full of marketing that, honestly, can trick you into thinking a company cares, so they can get the end goal of taking your money. Once you give them money, their care drops significantly, and in some cases, completely. If it’s a recurring service, they follow up just enough to keep you paying, but outside of that, there is no true care or connection with you and your needs.

We’ve all had these experiences. They might even be a good experience, if the service is amazing, but they will not reach the level of satisfaction or quality of a service provided by people who truly care about you.

At 925, genuine care is one of our core values. Working with people on a 1-on-1 basis to help them reach their health and fitness goals is as close to as personal as it gets, outside of a medical provider. In some cases, we tend to get the blessing of knowing far more about people’s overall lives than their doctors do! We see our role as guides to the best fitness, physically and mentally, our clients can reach.

Because of this, our team needs to care on a much deeper level than just about people paying us. To truly make a lifelong impact, we need to genuinely care about the wellbeing of the individual and their families, and build a level of trust where we can provide that help and encouragement. Without trust, we can try to help, but most won’t take our advice, or listen to us when we are really trying to help them with something difficult.

As we have built our team, we worked hard, over the better part of a decade, to find people who we know truly care about helping the people they work with. Because of this, their decisions are not wrapped around money. In fact, we’ve made plenty of decisions that bring in less money to 925, but were the best decision for the person we were working with. This is key. If your decisions when working with clients are focused on what’s the most monetarily beneficial to you, your clients will not get what’s best for them.

You’ll run into these people later on in life and be encouraged because the work you did helping them really made a change. This will also mean so much more because they mattered whether they were paying for your service or not - they don’t magically become less important just because they aren’t using your service.

When you focus on what your clients need first, outside of external monetary pressure or focus, you’ll open up the x-factor of being able to truly reach people and help them make genuine, lifelong change.

Take a minute and think back on those people you’ve met who have this genuine care x-factor. How did they make you feel? What do you think of when you think of them now? Take this feeling and reflect on how you can do the same for others in the service you provide, at work, or even more so with your family. You can make a world of difference for someone through the simple act of truly caring for them.