Do you know that eight-year-old Martha, who takes riding lessons on Wednesdays, hates cats and has been playing the piano since she was three? Do you know that forty-year-old Kenneth, whose horse you’ve been training, just had a son with his wife, Carol, and wishes he could ride in rodeos even though he maintains a steady job as an investment banker?
Each of your clients has a story, a life outside the barn, and you need to know about it. All horse business owners should make an effort to learn about their clients’ likes, dislikes and personal lives.
Why? Because this is how you learn to give your clients what they want—and, more importantly, what they need.
Getting Personal
I don’t expect you to find out about your clients’ messy divorces and tawdry affairs, and fights with relatives. You don’t want to become a gossip.
What I’m suggesting is that you get to know your clients beyond the superficial level. Just making a point to ask a client about her day can yield plenty of useful information about where she works, who she lives with and how she runs her life.
Then, later, you can ask whether she resolved that conflict with her boss or if her daughter decided between dance and gymnastics lessons. Clients will remember that you thought to follow up, that you cared enough to be interested.
Relationships Matter
It is important to develop professional relationships in your horse business, but this doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with your clients as well. You want to maintain enough space that you don’t feel uncomfortable asking if the board check’s in the mail, but you also don’t want to be an automaton.
It takes time and experience to recognize the fine line and to create flexible but appropriate boundaries.
However, if you put the effort in and get to know your horse business clients, they’ll be more likely to stick with you through the hard times as well as the easy. They’ll see you as a friend and confidante, someone they trust to care for their horses.
In some ways, relationships matter more in the horse business than in other industries because people are very protective of their animals. They see them as family members, and if they think you aren’t trustworthy, they’ll pack up the trailer before you realize your mistake.
How to Deepen Relationships
For some people, getting to know others and forging relationships is easy. For others, it takes a bit more work.
If you’re the quiet, reserved type, it might be hard for you to break out of your shell and engage clients in casual conversation. If this is the case, you have a handy tool at your disposal.
Talk about the horses.
I’ve yet to meet a single riding lesson student, horse owner or other equestrian who doesn’t want to talk shop. You might share anecdotes about horses you’ve owned in the past or offer a bit of unsolicited advice your client can use.
Open up with a conversation-starter about horses, then let the discourse evolve. Eventually, without any real effort on your part, you’ll be chattering away about the weather, the kids, the economy and numerous other non-horsey topics.
You might also like:
- How to Attract Long-Term Horse Business Clients
- Helping Your Clients Buy Horses
- How to Communicate with Clients
in Horse Training - How are You Training Your Horse Business Customers?
- Interviews for Horse Business Employees
About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.
