That unreasonable customer
I was talking to a client the other day, and they told me about a hugely unreasonable customer. "Nothing I do satisfies them. We bend over backwards for this customer and frankly spend way more resources on them than we should. They don't appreciate that we do so many things for them that no-one else would do."
I probed... do you want this customer? Are you delivering 100% on your deliverables? What could you do better? How are you interfacing/communicating with your customer?
Sometimes we let frustration create a version of the truth that we need to challenge. Customers don't wake up in the morning with the objective about complaining. There is a reason. Sometimes it is a concrete event that triggers the dissatisfaction; other times it is a perception created over time, over a series of experiences.
As hard as it is, and often it is very hard, we need to step back and assess why our customer is dissatisfied and our first filter must be "i can control this" as opposed to worrying about their unreasonableness. (not controllable). Are they really being unreasonable or did we miss on expectations, even if its a little bit over time? What did we sell and how did we deliver against that? Can we improve?
Sometimes customer expectations change, or external factors play a role. That is where relationships come in. Your ability to sit down with your customers, early in the process to discuss and level-set is key. As with anything else, talking through issues early and agreeing on actions early makes all the difference. And if those kinds of discussions aren't happening, then maybe it is because personalities are clashing, and the relationship is suffering. As tough as it is, sometimes we have to change out the people we have assigned to a customer, not because they are bad, but because they haven't been able to click with our customer.
The bottom line is this. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Ask yourself if you really are firing on all cylinders for your customer. Its easy , when frustration hits, to circle the wagons, protect your franchise and see the customer as the unreasonable one. Most often, there are controllable that you can address through concrete assessment, actions, dialogue and relationship building.
After all, they are the customer!
I probed... do you want this customer? Are you delivering 100% on your deliverables? What could you do better? How are you interfacing/communicating with your customer?
Sometimes we let frustration create a version of the truth that we need to challenge. Customers don't wake up in the morning with the objective about complaining. There is a reason. Sometimes it is a concrete event that triggers the dissatisfaction; other times it is a perception created over time, over a series of experiences.
As hard as it is, and often it is very hard, we need to step back and assess why our customer is dissatisfied and our first filter must be "i can control this" as opposed to worrying about their unreasonableness. (not controllable). Are they really being unreasonable or did we miss on expectations, even if its a little bit over time? What did we sell and how did we deliver against that? Can we improve?
Sometimes customer expectations change, or external factors play a role. That is where relationships come in. Your ability to sit down with your customers, early in the process to discuss and level-set is key. As with anything else, talking through issues early and agreeing on actions early makes all the difference. And if those kinds of discussions aren't happening, then maybe it is because personalities are clashing, and the relationship is suffering. As tough as it is, sometimes we have to change out the people we have assigned to a customer, not because they are bad, but because they haven't been able to click with our customer.
The bottom line is this. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Ask yourself if you really are firing on all cylinders for your customer. Its easy , when frustration hits, to circle the wagons, protect your franchise and see the customer as the unreasonable one. Most often, there are controllable that you can address through concrete assessment, actions, dialogue and relationship building.
After all, they are the customer!
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