Building Rapport - The Habit of Addressing Your Vulnerable Clients By First Name

Imagine having someone in front of you who's at one of their lowest points in their life. They’ve just been evicted, just had a partner leave their relationship, suffered a bucketload of emotional trauma, they have nowhere to go, no coins to rub together and they’ve come to you for help. Their walls have been built up sky high, they’re tense, frustrated and easily agitated & 'ready to fight' due to the situation they are in. It’s your job to break those walls down so you could help.

So what do you do?

For some people, it goes simply beyond a trendy skill etched onto their CV - ‘showing empathy’. So how do you do it?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Aretha sang about it & we all want it. ALL of us - no matter what circumstances surround us. It's a common human need - to be respected.

Here’s one tip I learnt early on my career in the public sector…

Whilst other colleagues would call their clients by their 1st name from the get-go, I would insist on addressing them by their title and surname as Mr ‘Johnson’ or Ms ‘Ahmed’,* unless or until they gave me permission to address them otherwise.

I wanted to make them feel as though they were visiting their accountant or their lawyer when they came to see me. When you change from ‘Simon’ to ‘Mr Davies’ or from ‘Chloe’ to ‘Miss Furrows’,* you have elevated them from a victim of their circumstances to a client of importance in seconds.

The effect was & always remained tangible. Through those initial few months in the role, I quickly noticed my clients would open up to me at a much faster rate along the duration of the case - dissolving down the initial tensions that thickly filled the interview room to the brim at that first appointment.

With this, I was able to navigate through my casework processes much easier due to the enhanced level of co-operation and teamwork both myself and my client had garnered from our very first meeting. Partially due to a simple change of addressing my clients from 1st name to title & surname, I made them feel respected. And their co-operation & their part in our teamwork was their gratitude and my reward.

When you realise it’s your job to change a perception, from ‘them-vs.-us’, to ‘we-will-resolve-this-together’, the client relationship vividly takes on a whole different light.

Next time, a new client comes into your office, try the above as something different and let us know your thoughts. If you already do this, please share how it makes a difference to your work.

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Nancy

Diamas Housing Solutions

*Not real clients.