German Approach
The Germans prefer consulting over serving. To consult the customer is to work auf Augenhöhe, at eye-level. The German people instinctively reject any form of master-slave business relationship.
The German customer prefers a supplier, consultant, vendor who insists on a business relationship auf Augenhöhe. Germans don’t want to be served, they want to be consulted, by an expert, at eye-level. Examples
American Approach
Americans do not make a clear distinction between serving and consulting. They go hand-in-hand. They are two sides of the same coin. Consulting is a service to the customer.
Serving should include bringing into play subject matter expertise. However, an American consultant, supplier, vendor, seldom sees themselves at eye-level with the customer. The customer is always in charge. Examples
American View
Americans, on the other hand, also prefer consulting versus serving, and this for the same or similar reasons as their German colleagues. However, Americans are more willing than their German counterparts to serve the customer in ways which involve limited elements of consulting. From the American perspective there is nothing inherently demeaning or degrading in serving another person.
And serving a customer in the business context implicitly involves compensation. For an American, serving a customer only becomes degrading (meaning “not worth it”) when the compensation is not in an acceptable balance with the work performed.
From the American perspective, the German approach to serve versus consult will not lead to success. It comes across not as customer-oriented, but supplier-oriented. In other words, the customer has to orient himself to the supplier. It implies not a balance in the relationship, but an imbalance in favor of the supplier. The customer can easily gain the impression that he should be thankful to be served by the supplier.
For Americans this is a highly risky approach in the American business context, for customer-orientation is one of the very key success factors in the U.S. economy. The German approach to serve versus consult, therefore, can come across to American customers as simply arrogant and unresponsive to customer demands.
German View
Germans clearly prefer consulting over serving a customer. Consulting in the sense of imparting your expertise to one who is need of it. The relationship is more balanced in terms of power and respect. Consulting also involves problem solving and planning together with the customer. It is in a way a two-way street. Whereas serving is more of a one-way street.
The customer knows what he wants, chooses one who can deliver, then expects the deliverer (runner, messenger) to react as the customer wishes. Serving, therefore, is seen by Germans as a bit degrading, demeaning, a misuse of their skills. Serving is unworthy of the educated and skilled.
Germans can, therefore, find their American colleagues to be too eager to serve the customer in ways which are imbalanced. It can appear to them that Americans jump into action at the faintest sign of a request from the customer. From the German perspective, American customers are too, or unrealistically, demanding.
Germans believe that one can command more respect, and thus be more successful, by demonstrating more independence, and not instinctively giving the customer what he wants. In fact, the customer often does not know what is best for him.
To truly serve the client means then to maintain your independence and autonomy, in order to objectively advise the customer of how to solve his problems (a consulting approach). In the end, the German customer neither respects nor wants a servant, but an expert who is willing to place his expertise at the center of the business relationship.
Advice to Germans
Make unmistakably clear to your American clients that you are fully focused on serving their needs. Signal to them that you are listening and responding attentively to their situation and want to help them in any way possible.
Especially in the early stage of your collaboration avoid using the terms consult, consulting, advice or advising. Even if you are in fact doing those things, use vocabulary which say service and serving. Consult and consulting can be misinterpreted by an American customer as distanced, not fully engaged, not serving, merely advising, and not involved in the implementation of needed measures.
In your initial meetings with your American client it will be your natural tendancy to ask intelligent and analytical questions, perhaps many of them. And if it seems necessary, you will also ask critical and penetraing questions. If your American client is not familiar with your work, or working with Germans, he might be a bit surprised by your approach.
A highly analytical, dialogue based conversation, with questions going to the core of a business, implies a close business relationship. It could be that your collaboration has not yet reached that stage. Your American customer sees herself as managing the relationship, as deciding if and when you reach full collaboration.
Restrain your consulting oriented approach until you are sure that you have reached that stage. Work your way towards it carefully. Early in the business relationship focus on listening, understanding, and clarifying. Americans want to be sure that you have understood their situation, their needs and challenges, before they are willing to accept you as a consultant who serves their needs.
Advice to Americans
Germans respond positively to American customer-orientation. However, if that friendliness and responsiveness is not backed up by a solution to a German customer’s problem, they are viewed as providing little value. Give clear indications to your German customer – whether external or internal – that you are focussed fully on solving their specific problem. German customers expect a strong consulting element in your approach to serving them.
Early in the business relationship avoid the terms “serve” and “service”. Even if your actions are clearly customer- and service-oriented, use the words “consult” and “advise”. For German ears “serve” and “service” can come across as a substitute for real and proven knowledge and expertise. Seek some distance and detachment from the customer as a person. Depersonalize the business relationship in the sense of an outside consultant who applies his expertise to a specific problem.
As an American, your natural inclination is to avoid entering too early into a consulting dialogue with your customers. You will ask intelligent questions and listen attentively. You will hold penetrating and critical questions for a second or possibly third conversation. Your German customers, however, expect a consulting dialogue at the very outset of the business relationship.
Begin immediately a dialogue involving the most complex and critical issues. Ask the penetrating and sensitive questions. Avoiding these questions will give your German customer the impression that you either do not grasp the problem in its complexity, or are reluctant to address them. Neither of these explanations cast a positive light on you as a consulting oriented problem-solver.