In Day 4 of the "Big5" series, Shaun Whynacht explains why strong relationships are essential for business success and how to create them. He starts by asking viewers to recall a great personal relationship and identifies the key ingredients—understanding, rapport, and feeling valued. He then shares a personal car‑dealership story that contrasts a stellar, personalized experience with a later, inconsistent service encounter, illustrating how inconsistency erodes trust. From this anecdote he derives the core lesson: businesses must deliver a consistent client experience. He recommends using pilot‑style checklists and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for every product or service, turning them into digital or printable forms that staff can follow. He links consistency to client onboarding and automation, arguing that streamlined processes free up time (the most valued resource) and enable teams to operate smoothly. Finally, he assigns homework: map out step‑by‑step processes for each offering to guarantee a great relationship experience, laying the groundwork for future fan‑building and referrals.
Chapters
Here we are, day number 4 in our 5 key areas to building a successful business. Just to recap, like all the other 3 videos, they are number 1, brand, number 2, assets, number 3, your leads. Today is number 4, which is your relationship. Let's think about any relationship that you've been in that has been great. What is it? What are those key things that make it great for you? Is it because the person understands you? Is it because you get along with them? Is it because they're always thinking about you? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Those are all key things in a human relationship. So why don't we have that in a business? Well, some do. The ones that are successful, they have that. So how can we build that for you? How can you have those strong relationship points in your business. Let's break it down a bit. So I'm going to share a story with you. I was in the market for purchasing a vehicle. This was several years ago. And like anyone who's looking for a vehicle, you start to shop around. You know, do you want this, this brand of vehicle? Do you want this, that type of thing? Most likely, you know, you want either a car, SUV, or truck, right? So we don't have determine that. But which kind do you want? So you're, you're going online and you're starting to look at reviews, you're talking to people that you know that have that vehicle. That is key, right? We want that social proof, that social referrals, right? So a lot of times if you get a good one and they say, hey, this vehicle is amazing, this, this, this company is amazing, you need to go there, that's going to highly weight your decision of what you're going to do. But if you don't have that, you're then going to go around, you're going to start to test drive a couple of them. And it starts in building that relationship from the moment you reach out. And maybe you book that test drive or you walk through the door. How do they make you feel when you come through the door? How do they treat you? And in most cases in that sales process, they preach, they teach you pretty darn— or they, they teach you, they treat you pretty darn good. Why? Because they want something. They want you to buy from them. And this was the experience that I had. Now, there were a couple that, that, that experience wasn't as great, but, um, you know, this one that I went into, it was amazing, right? They, they offered me a coffee. The place was clean. It was nice. Uh, the test drive was there. Um, it was fantastic, right? And I ultimately ended up buying a vehicle from them, right? And that was a great— and when you were in there, you felt like you were a celebrity. You were the number one person in that dealership. You meant the world to them. So I came and got the vehicle on the day it was picked up because obviously you don't get it on the day of. And they said, hey, you know what, I'm going to come and introduce you to, you know, Sally, our service rep. She's the one that leads the service department, uh, and she will be able to help you, um, you know, with everything. Anyway, so I meet Sally and she goes over, yeah, you know, you call, you book and do all this kind of stuff for any of your oil changes and all those things. Well, That was great. I left the dealership. Well, it came time for an oil change and I thought, I'm going to go back. So I come in and basically I'm ignored, right? They're there. They don't come up to the front. They're chatting with each other. When I do talk to them, they were kind of abrasive and rude. And it just, it was a bad experience. And I'm like, okay, I'll give you a second chance. Let them do the service. I came back again after the, you know, whatever the amount, 20,000 kilometers, and it was the same type of experience. I'm like, what happened here, right? That alone broke the relationship with the company for me because there was not consistency. They did not make me feel amazing. Now, on the flip side of that, I have gone to other places that I did not buy a vehicle from to get service, and the service was amazing. For that reason, I would consider that dealership for purchasing another vehicle. Now, this can happen in any business. Now, the, the takeaway from this is you're not going to be perfect 100% of the time. You've got a brick-and-mortar business, you've got team members, People have off days. It's going to happen. But what you need to do is you need to own that. You need to understand that that is something that will happen. You need to address it, apologize for it, and move on. But how do we build consistency in our relationships? Well, think about a pilot in an airplane, right? A pilot, whether they're flying their first day or their, you know, their 20th year of flying, They all do the exact same thing. They pretend this is a checklist. They pull out this, this paper and it's got all the things that they need to do to take that plane off the ground. Same thing when they're going to land. There's a checklist. They go through these items. Why? Because they want a consistent experience. They don't want anything to be missed. Do you have a checklist for the different services and products and processes that you have. If you don't, it's a great exercise and it does two things for you. It provides a consistent experience for clients to come through. So when they are talking about you, when they say, hey, you know what, I had a great experience with XYZ company and this person, you need to go there. And then the person they referred goes there and they have a crappy experience because there wasn't a consistent process to follow, they're not going to be happy. They're also not going to be happy with their friend who referred them. And that makes you look bad. And that friend is also now mad at you because they said, hey, you know what, I referred this person and they didn't have a great experience. SOP, standard operating procedure. It can be as simple as a Google Doc with a bullet point checklist. Do it in a digital form. You can print it out, have your team check it off as they go through. But this is key in your relationship building. Do client onboarding, right? This is automation, right? My sign I showed you in the last video, automation saves time, time equals money. People want either two things. They want time or they want money. Most people value time more than money. So do you want to be up till midnight working on your business? Do you want to have to get up at 6 AM to prep things for your team so they can be operational by 8 or 9 AM? No, you don't. Who does? You need to process, process Build strategy, build operating procedures so that everything is consistent. It's going to help you, it's going to help your team, it's going to help build stronger relationships with your clients and those that they refer. And you want them to refer because that is number 5 in our 5 steps, which is building fans. Fans that are going to give you the those referrals. And that's the video that we're going to talk about tomorrow. So what's your homework in this video? Pull out a notepad, do it on your phone. I don't care where you do it. But think about all the different products and services that you offer. And can you build a step-by-step list of things that absolutely have to happen to deliver upon it and provide a great relationship? Do it. You deserve it. Your business deserves it. And your clients deserve it. We'll see you tomorrow when we talk about fans.
