By Dean Weston

I’ve talked a lot about Progress Fire Co.’s new company values of late – agility, professionalism, gratitude, integrity, quality, collaboration, and reliability.

These values represent who we are and what we stand for. They are at the heart of every decision the company makes and help to drive all choices made in the pursuit of the company’s vision and mission. Today, I want to further explore the idea of “collaboration”.

Progress Fire Co. treats every client as a trusted partner, with collaboration and open communication essential to creating mutually beneficial relationships.

Really that’s what collaboration is – a joint commitment to working together for positive outcomes. It’s when a group of people come together to contribute their expertise for the benefit of a shared objective, project, or mission.

At the core of collaboration is a trusted relationship. Hard to collaborate with someone you don’t trust, right?

Relationships are the cornerstone of our business.

But it’s not just about relationships with our clients. Our commitment to collaboration is also fostered internally within our team, and externally with referral partners, industry stakeholders, and the broader community.

People thrive in environments which free them to communicate and work together. Internally and externally.

While collaboration is often considered an internal value, aka something you should practice within your own organisation, it’s just as important externally. Especially when it comes to creating and nurturing relationships with clients and working together for the greater good … which can only positively impact your bottom line.

So, what does it take to build collaborative relationships in business? Here are my tips.

1. Focus on the customer or client: Having a customer-orientated focus over a company-orientated focus is imperative. This will allow you to build a collaborative relationship with your customers, which increases customer loyalty. And as we know … brand loyal customers are gold.
2. Be clear: Building relationships and collaborating is all about taking other people’s needs into account – internally and externally. The more you are willing to listen to other people, the more easily you will be able to understand the problem or position, and work together towards a mutually beneficial outcome. Be clear and open.
3. Make sure you share the same goals: Seems obvious, but to build and foster mutually beneficial relationships that drive collaboration, it’s imperative that you’re on the same page when it comes to your goals and outcomes.
4. Focus on two-way communication: Do you really know what your clients or customers think about your business or service? The difference between communication and collaboration is that collaboration is always two-way. Communication can be one way and doesn’t always lead to stellar working relationships. As we all know, an ability to communicate openly and honestly is the foundation of any relationship.
5. Regularly touch base: Are you checking in regularly with your clients? Your people? Your partners? Constant communication is key to efficient collaboration. This can simply be done by sending out a quick email updating everyone on the project, or by using a collaborative tool that automatically allows the entire team to be notified of project progress. Post project check-ins are also crucial to ongoing collaboration.

Our commitment to building and nurturing relationships and to genuine collaboration has certainly been crucial to our success.

We are incredibly proud of our people, our client base (with so many local customers also committed to working collaboratively) and the reputation we have established in our industry.

If you’re looking to grow your business, a commitment to collaboration and building meaningful relationships is key.

---

Progress Fire Co is a leading Brisbane fire services company, proudly working with partners across South East Queensland. No matter what fire protection solution you require, our team are here to assist you.