How to Establish and Maintain Good Relationships as an Owner Operator

Whether it’s a relationship with a customer or with your employee, creating and maintaining positive relationships can make or break your motor carrier business. A common work saying is that people don’t often leave jobs – they leave bosses.

This is where brushing up on your human skills (otherwise known as soft skills) saves you money and improves your business.

How to Build and Maintain Relationships

Human skills help us work well with others, and when you are operating a business that depends on the productivity of other people, these skills are essential. Using soft skills with your employees and customers will encourage and foster an environment where relationships can thrive.

As this Haulin Assets Ep. 49 suggests, magic happens when employees trust you. And, job performance and satisfaction increase when a motor carrier company cares about the well-being of its employees. You’ll earn loyalty when people trust you and your business.

Here are the top ways to build and maintain those relationships:

• Build trust.

It’s true: building trust has financial rewards. When you lose trust, you can lose about 30% of your company’s value in the short term, according to researchers. Trust looks different to everyone. Here are some of the best ways to build trust:

• Do what you say you’re going to do and keep your word – the company’s reputation is at stake when you don’t.
• Be honest and upfront about pricing, shipping fiascos, or other business issues. The more open you are at the start, the better you can hear your customer’s issues or questions while you model transparency and present honest solutions.
• Show human skills in each step of your work. People would rather work for a boss who shows kindness and empathy while treating them fairly than someone who only cares about efficiency and getting the job done. You need both. While displaying human skills doesn’t factor into the nuts and bolts of a business plan, incorporating them will only strengthen your business.
• Create quality services or products. A customer who is satisfied with your product or service is more likely to hire you again and again.

• Be consistent.

Customers and employees will look to you as a reliable person. For example, do you consistently deliver on your promises? Do you consistently present yourself as a supportive boss? Do you deliver products without issue?

You can easily prove how consistent you are by being consistent over time. But remember, it only takes a few mess-ups in a row for people’s trust to diminish with you and your service. If you do mess up, apologize and make it right.

• Listen to your drivers and customers.

When you listen to people by asking follow-up questions, not interrupting them, and showing empathy, they feel heard. People who feel heard by their boss or client tend to experience higher satisfaction in their business relationships.

A part of helping someone feel seen and heard is making sure you’re a disarmed listener. For example, are your arms folded or is your body language guarded when your customer is asking why your rates are high? Do you avert your eyes and interrupt when an employee is angry about a policy change? Be careful about going on the defense. Instead, work to hear the person’s perspective.

• Create opportunities to give your drivers recognition.

Recognizing drivers for a job well done looks different from business to business. That’s because recognition does not look the same to everyone. While one driver wants verbal recognition in your company, another driver might shy away from the spotlight and prefer a thank you email.

You can get creative with how to recognize your workers. When a new employee starts, have them fill out a basic questionnaire with questions such as “I like to be recognized by ______” and “My favorite place to get a gift card from is _______”. That way you know how to recognize them in a way they feel the most seen. You could also establish an “Employee of the Month” program that comes with a restaurant gift card or a small plaque. Whatever you do, the effort shows your employees they matter. Plus, recognition programs can increase driver retention.

Finally, pay attention to your business culture and ask how you can improve it for your employees. This includes incorporating small perks or policies such as on-the-road contests, better holiday pay, free snacks for drivers, or getting new equipment when you need it.

• Recruit with soft skills in mind.

New research shows that ‘working well with others’ claims a higher place on the list of desirable attributes in an employee than in years past. And, it’s often easier to build a healthy relationship with someone who brings human skills to the table from the start.

Increase Your Leadership Capacity

As this Motor Carrier HQ blog post suggests, it’s important to create positive client relationships when you’re building a client base so you can become a repeat customer and charge more for your loads. One way to create a strong client base is to master something called the Trust Triangle.

Researchers from Harvard Business Review wrote an article that shows business leaders – that’s YOU – how they can increase their leadership capital and develop effective relationships. They found the three drivers of trust are empathy, authenticity, and logic. Basically, people will trust you when they think you’re being authentic, when you show you care about them, and when they trust your competency. In turn, this trust deepens working relationships.

However, it’s important to know which side of this ‘trust triangle’ is your strength and which side is your weakness – everybody has one. According to the research, you lose trust when one of the triangle sides shakes or breaks.

If your weakness is empathy, work on your patience and pay attention to your behavior when you’re in a group. If your weakness is competency, make sure you keep to data and facts, and be willing to learn from others. Your perception needs to rest on reality – not on the story you’re making up in your head. Finally, if you need to develop your authenticity, work on bringing your real self to your work relationships and focus on being honest about who you are.

Here’s a final tip: If you’re not sure which soft skills of yours need work, create a list of your top soft skills (such as listening, communicating, managing your time, and problem-solving) to highlight your strengths. Then, create another list of the soft skills you can realistically improve.