by Kirsten Hodgson
This is the first in a three-part series of posts looking at how lawyers, accountants, engineers and other professionals can protect and strengthen their existing client relationships by avoiding 8 common mistakes. This post deals with the first two.
Number 1. Lack of client interaction beyond the day-to-day
The only way you can possibly understand what’s important to your clients, how you’re performing for them, and what they’d like to see from you going forwards is to ask them. Yet many organisations either assume they know or are apprehensive about what their clients might say if asked.
One of the most valuable things you can do, in the current environment, is to conduct regular face to face relationship reviews with your clients and business partners. These should be conducted at least annually with your major clients and should then be supported by end-of-matter reviews and semi-regular catch-ups to discuss potential opportunities.
One of the most common complaints we hear from our clients’ customers is that they are either being over- or under-serviced. Either they are being bombarded with information, phone calls and personal visits or they’re not hearing from their advisers/suppliers enough. The problem is compounded by the fact that what one client sees as over-servicing, another will see as under-servicing.
The only way to ensure you provide your clients with the right level of service is to understand their expectations and how they like to be communicated with and then to tailor your approach to each client accordingly. For example, some clients will want to receive email updates, while others would rather you picked up the phone or posted these on Twitter or LinkedIn; some will want you to keep in contact between work, others won't unless you are contacting them about something that might impact them/their business. Even when you're doing work for clients they will have different expectations about what they want from you, how they expect you to communicate with them and the frequency. You need to know what these are, otherwise you're setting yourself up for a fall.
I'll post the next two mistakes professionals make next week.
What's your view?
What are the biggest mistakes you see professionals making with regard to their existing client relationships?
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