Beyond Schmoozing Clients
The old stereotypes of 3-martini lunches and WKRP’s sleazy salesman Herb Tarlek have given way to the science of customer relationship management (CRM). Perform a Google search and nearly 21 million results pop up to direct the businessperson to books, articles, workshops, presentations, consultants, and software packages. If you’re not sure how to manage your customer base, then be assured plenty of resources exist to help you.
Keep The Honeymoon Going
In business, there’s little so exciting as landing a new client. Signing that contract results in celebration, which can quickly turn sour if the company throws the new account upon unprepared employees. The following tips will help you integrate new clients into the staff workload.
Understanding Your Client’s Agenda
Congratulations! You just landed a new client. After celebrating the win, the real work begins and it usually begins with a kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting sets the tone for the relationship. Go in with an attitude that whatever the client wants, regardless of scope or reason, will be accommodated without evaluation and your staff will quickly come to resent both you and that client, who will definitely take advantage of the extra service for which they don’t pay. It’s a good deal on their part. Go in with an attitude that the client owes you a favor for accepting their business and the client will move to a more appreciative vendor or consultant.
Ask The Right Questions
Business growth and success depend on happy clients, which means knowing what your clients want–and don’t want. The knowledge often comes about through trial and error, which can get expensive and result in unhappy clients who then spread their dissatisfaction to their friends and colleagues and make growing your business even more difficult in the face of bad publicity. There’s got to be a better way.
Aligning Internal & External Customers
Any company with employees and customers must serve two customers: the internal audience of staff who provide the services and produce the products sold by the business and the external customers who purchase the products and/or services from the business. All too often, executive leadership focuses on external customers to the exclusion of internal customers, which then results in low employee morale and high employee turnover. A tightening labor market will not sustain the traditional attitude of “be grateful you have a job.”
The Heggen Group LLC understands how important client relationships are to a thriving business. Are your clients happy? Do you see evidence of their satisfaction in your own business? Jayne Heggen can help you to understand what your clients need and how to implement the processes for client satisfaction.
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