Like a philanthropist whose gracious nature, good luck and great fortune inspire generosity, I too have become a giver.  I’ve not accumulated wealth in the traditional or practical sense.  Although I mostly pay my mortgage on time.

My bankroll is experience, manifested as opinion, disguised as counsel and distributed here free of charge.  Many, many clients have paid for such insights; and I love them for it, because no one likes the sound of their own voice more than I.

But sometimes you have to give back.  It just feels good.

So I’m about to reveal a secret client service formula that has been tested daily at my firm for almost 20 years.  It’s mad science coming from a liberal arts major, who runs a public relations and marketing communications firm, and still has an adding machine on his desk.  That. I. Use.

Client service.  Ready?  Pay attention, here it comes:

Them + (you x value) = success²

Read it again slowly.  It’s slightly more complicated than the theory of relativity, but much easier to explain:  What’s important to you is not important to them.  Them is them.  However, what’s important to them needs to be understood and advanced by you.  When you bring value to them, they are successful and you are successful.

It’s like a client service haiku only it’s longer and has too many syllables.

There’s been much hullaballoo about Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennials and how their sense of entitlement makes for bad employees, how young guns crave praise and reject criticism, plug themselves into iPods at their desks, leave dirty dishes in the office sink and tweet on company time.

Who’s whining now?

What makes a service employee good or bad has nothing to do with any of that.  Rather, what makes that employee great is mastering the client service formula above.  What’s true for PR firms and advertising agencies also holds true for your department, their department, the dry cleaner and the grocery store.  It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with professional maturity.  It’s the ability to see more than just your part of the formula, more than just you.

When your team and team members evolve to the extent that they can identify with their client’s vision, values and objectives apart from-and above-their own, then they have arrived. 

Them + (you x value) = success²

Imagine being on the receiving end of your own work, not to mention your own e-mail.  Become, at that critical moment of delivery, your own customer and be where they are.  Is it good enough or better yet, is it great?  Don’t focus on what’s probably right, but rather on what might be wrong.  Can you spot any flaws?  They will.  Are you about to make their day easier or harder?

Now react to that client insight before you leave for the day and before you hit “send.”  Think about them.  Remember they can always become someone else’s customer tomorrow, and you’ll wonder where it all went wrong.  It happens the moment your over-confidence, convention and comfort set in.

Memo to all staff:  The money we use to pay you comes from them.

Now think about you.  The only reason you’re in the formula at all is to increase value for them.  Your good looks, affluent parents, college degree, 15 years of experience, clever portfolio of samples, impressive resume or past accomplishments don’t add up to anything unless you bring measurable worth, early and often, to your client.  Phone it in, stretch less, do only what’s expected; and every day ask yourself nothing about how to elevate your own work product.  Never bother with the big picture.  See where it gets you.  

Alternatively, bring more thinking than what was expected.  Bring something better, something extra that hits their goal harder, drives it higher.  Surprise and delight them.  There’s immense personal and professional satisfaction in doing so.  Take another look at the formula.  Notice that what stands between you and success is value.

Them + (you x value) = success²

Sweet success, exponential and shared.  It’s the only kind there is.  They’re happy, you’re not … frustration.  You’re happy, they’re not … failure.  And fired.

Interactions with internal and external clients and customers make up the larger part of my day.  If you leave your house, then yours too, I’ll bet.

In client service and in life, customers want and need your products and services.  And you certainly don’t prosper without them.  Unless you’re a self-sustaining professional organism, you will never achieve gains without understanding and embracing your relative place in the client service formula.

As Bob Dylan so wisely wrote, everbody’s gotta serve somebody.  If you accept, commit to and deliver on this equation, you’ll be successful throughout your career.  Subscribe to its simplicity and its power, and you’ll win at the office and at the deli counter too.

Because sometimes you’re them.