Articles 

ACCOUNTABILITY
Part 1: The Customer
Part 2: Management
Part 3: Sales

PART 1     -     THE CUSTOMER

Customer Snapshots

It’s the good news, and sometimes it’s the bad news. We all have customers. Let’s take a look at some ‘customer snapshots’, client descriptions that all of us in business can relate to.

The Average Customer – happy with service, time consuming as all customers are, busy and sometimes a little tough to reach for decisions.

The Inexperienced Customer – never used your services before, always did it in-house or not at all, excessively fearful of risk, anxious about budget. Handle with kid gloves!

The Just-Get-It-Done-And-Bill-Me Customer - Doesn’t care about your end…just wants you to leave them alone and do the job.

The Customer From Hell – control freak, nitpicker, demands to be informed of every bit and byte of minutia, incessantly has comments and changes, frequently gets demanding and unpleasant.

You’re Losing Profits!

What do those snapshots all have in common? Most customers are costing you a lot more service time than need be…a lot more. We all complain about our customers occasionally, but when it’s a recurring theme, it’s costing you money…and maybe even other customers, because of the extra time they take up. In my professional experience, people also seem to be passively resigned with their complaints. Problem! You shouldn’t be resigned, you should find a solution by making you, and them accountable. Accountability then, is Part 1 of a critical multilateral series.

If you don’t fix this problem, your profits get whittled away with extra steps that should have taken a half the time…and now it’s three days later. Deadlines get pushed, people get cranky, and everyone is shaking their head over that so-and-so, who’s really the cause of all this. In this series there are a lot of so-and-so’s! For this discussion, we’re talking specifically about your customer.

Set Standards That Benefit Your Client

All of us think in terms of winning clients, servicing clients, everything for the client, the client is always right, don’t bother the client, on and on. You get my point. How about CLIENT ACCOUNTABILITY? Yup, this means setting up rules, standards and expectations. This is a two-way street. Why? It first and foremost benefits the client, by reaching the quickest and most efficient way to cover completion steps.

Here are a couple of examples. If you apply to a bank for a loan, you are held accountable for complete, truthful and accurate information just to get their business. No exceptions. Do we question that? Never. Another example is a business that must interact with multiple internal contacts for most of its customers. In the course of internal communications within the client organizations, lots of different demands and requirements come up 'off the record', because the thread of communication gets broken. Extra work gets created, which spawns other little ‘side tasks’...still off the record for the servicing organization. Sometimes it takes days or even a week for the service firm to find out that they are ultimately responsible for all these ‘new tasks’. Is this a problem? You bet it is!

Let’s Do the Math

When you are paying salaries to support people who are on the phone with a client, chasing details, trying to catch up with all the extra steps and tasks they didn’t know about, which oh by the way, they were not even really contracted for, three days out of every five, times 50 work weeks in the year…this adds ($$$) up!!!!

Scope Creep

Ever heard of scope creep? It’s what bleeds your profits, when you have not set parameters around your contracted services. Customer demands seep in around the cracks and through the floor boards. There go your profits and your deadlines. Who is accountable here? Well ultimately it’s YOU. Your clients most often act according to how you have ‘trained them to act’. That’s right; you can train your clients. When they expect you to expect certain things from them as a condition of the best possible service, they will fall in line pretty quickly in most cases. The result? At least a third less chasing, cajoling, begging and talking to voicemail. Costs less too!

Client Accountability Tactics
Keep this list and add to it!

Before a deal is contracted, remind the customer early and often that their participation will ensure success. Illustrate by offering examples.

The Contract – avoid scope creep! Think of common problems where customers stretch profit margins. Put those limits into the contract. If they need more, attach your price! Set it up on a sliding scale. Savvy clients will respect you. This is business, folks.

Communication – Find out ahead of time how to reach people! Ask how to communicate particularly about deadlines or emergencies. If a deadline is at stake, call. State the deadline and the issue! Duplicate with email. Do they even read email? NOTE…the whole universe doesn’t necessarily sit staring at email all day long; in fact, some people may be out for a week at a time!

Email - Make sure you are crisp and clear in the subject line. Mention a deadline or need for a reply right there! They are more apt to read it and take it seriously.

Deadlines – Let your client know that you can only meet your deadlines, if they meet theirs. This is only fair. Emphasize the consequences. Don’t wait for a crisis to have to explain this.

Internal Rollout of Your Service – If you will deliver service at the client site, remind the client to introduce your new service to their employees internally, setting expectations on their end for cooperation, communication, possible disruptions during delivery, and also encouraging full participation when you need it, to deliver excellence!

Have periodic customer status meetings – review snags and problems, keep ‘training them’ to expect efficient progress on both sides. Stick to your guns, and emphasize how it benefits them!

An ‘Always Rule’ – In meetings, email, phone exchange…whatever…confirm each party’s ‘action items’.

The next time you hear yourself mumbling about a client, STOP right there. Make yourself accountable for a solution, by writing into your ‘Service Provider Manifesto’, train your client to HELP YOU TO HELP THEM!

© Kristin Linder

Contact Information

theLINDERgroup

Radnor, PA

info@thelindergroup.com, www.thelindergroup.com

610.825.8939

Part 2 - Management

Part 3 - Sales

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