Tips For Maintaining Client RelationshipsLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Tips For Maintaining Client Relationships article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
long as the bylines are included. Original URL (The Web version of the article) --------------------------------------------- http://www.defendingthenet.com/NewsLetters/TipsForMaintaini ngClientRelationships.htm Title ----- Tips For Maintaining Client Relationships Customer Relations Is Not Just A 'Sales' Function ------------------------------------------------------ Consulting is a service business and engineers, administrators and technicians are the heart of it. Sadly, too many of us see customer relations as a “sales” function. While the sales department can be very effective at generating leads and performing a lot of the up-front work that initiates a customer relationship, long term success depends highly on the implementers themselves. Repeat Technology Services Business -------------------------- Much of the repeat business that I get from clients comes not from “sales” beating them down with phone calls and emails, but by clients approaching me directly to satisfy newfound needs. I’m proud to say that I have clients who refuse to deal with our sales department for any function other than signing contracts. These customers are no longer looking to be “sold” solutions; they come to me specifically to “buy” them. If you are content with perpetual strings of one-off projects you can stop reading here. My focus is maintaining long standing relationships that produce reliable revenue streams. Don’t Be A Drone ----------------------------------- Too many consultants show up, drop in a solution and leave, making no effort to establish a relationship with their client. Get to know the client and their business. Showing an interest in the client’s work can not only help you develop a rapport, you may learn something as well. Being able to show up at a site, ask about the client’s family AND being able to address their kids by name will help establish you as more than just the “computer guy”. The “computer guy” is generally about as memorable as the “phone guy” or the “cable guy”. Be Flexible ---------------------------------------------- Very few consultants are so good that they can get away with a “my way or the highway” attitude. There are a few out there and if you think you are one of them you probably stopped reading by now. As a solution provider, your first effort should bring to your customer the best fix for their problem. Whether that fix is hardware, software, policy or procedure, there are almost always client considerations you weren’t made aware of during design. Budget usually lands at the top of that list. Rarely is there a single solution to a problem. Be able to provide options to your client. If they balk at your first solution, have alternative approaches ready to discuss and explain to them the tradeoffs involved. A client will always respect your efforts to work with them and meet all their needs, as opposed to just providing a canned solution. Know When To Be Inflexible --------------------------- When client constraints force a loss of proposed functionality be fully prepared to explain, or even argue, how the compromise will degrade or even nullify the effectiveness of your proposal. Implementing a poor solution because “the customer told you to” is a bad idea and will generally come back to haunt you. If you have the flexibility, you may decide to decline a project because of too many forced compromises. Believe it or not, turning down work on principle will sometimes jostle the customer into accepting the original proposal, because they now see that you are looking out for their interests, not just billable hours. Once in a while, “my way or the highway” works. If You Don't Know An Answer, Admit It ------------------------------------- Too often when confronted with a client challenge consultants try to “fake” their way through an effort. While you may be able to get a way with this once (or even a couple of times), eventually it will catch up with you. I’ve found that most customers respond surprisingly well to “I do not know, but I will find out.” Any time you try to bluff your way through a scenario, you run the risk of being discovered. Once you break a client’s trust, it’s virtually impossible to regain it. Keep Your Attitude In Check --------------------------- Frustrations exist in every facet of business. Due to the need for customer interaction, consulting can be particularly stressful. There are ways to express dissatisfaction or frustration without blowing your top. When faced with a stressful situation, measure your words and your disposition carefully. Delivery is often more significant than the message. Carefully worded, you’d be surprised just what you can tell a client to go do with themselves, and get away with it. Conclusion ---------- There’s no holy grail here, just a few nuggets of advice that I’ve come to realize in my own years as a consultant. I’m not giving any guarantees of success. If I could, I’d write a book and retire on royalties. What I can guarantee is long term survival in this industry hinges on established customers. Keeping these customers returning to you requires the same care and feeding as any other relationship.
|
More Articles:1. Focus on Outcomes to Keep Your Business On-Course By Dan Strakal Did you know that an airplane in flight is off course nearly 98% of the time? No flight is completed in a straight line from Point A to Point B. Gravity, side winds, updrafts, and downdrafts are continually moving the plane off course. And yet, the majority of flights arrive at their planned destinations safely and on time. How do airline pilots make this happen? They continually keep the outcome or result in mind, say departing from Los Angeles and arriving in Honolulu. Pilots constantl… 2. Hiring Tip -- Picking The Best Candidates By Guy Harris I often hear leaders from all types of organizations ask questions about hiring the right person. Their questions usually sound like these:• What if their resume looks great but they have a bad attitude?• What if they put on a good act and then don’t work hard?• How can I tell how they will perform after I hire them?A great way to answer these questions starts with a well-defined interview process. I have heard the procedure called many things. I first learned it as the Behavioral Event inte… 3. Temporary Employees and Operational Problems; Your Use of Temps Might Reveal Warning Signs By Jeff Simon A recent Washington Post article, described the life of temporary employees working at an automobile plant in Kentucky. Working at a fraction of what permanent employees make at the plant, some employees had been working as temps for extended periods, as long as three or four years, when early indications had been they would be permanent within six to 12 months.At four years, making two thirds of their permanent fellow workers and without benefits, the plant had essentially treated these emplo… 4. The Roles Of Facility Management By Leon Chaddock Facility management is the management of a facility. But, the definition of this is much more complex than just a person or group of people that run a building. The fact is there are many areas to that management that need to be addresses so that the facility management is working well. If you are a company that is struggling with these aspects of management, knowing that there are firms that can come in and help you can be quite beneficial.Realizing the many key roles in facility managemen… |
||||
