Where Have All the Clients Gone?

Where Have All the Clients Gone? ©
by Peter Sanderson-Dykes

This time, I’ll be sharing a few insights from the world of coaching on the theme of giving your client the satisfaction they expect… and deserve.

As you have probably noticed, there are regular news stories about companies complaining about losing customers. Many reasons are given; sometimes Asian countries are accused of stealing market share because they can offer products at lower prices while in other instances, clients simply want to try out a new supplier in order to compare like with like or see what new options are available.

Either way, one element which is fundamental in a client deciding to go elsewhere is the following: the client feels they are not being respected. This could be because they feel their expectations are not being met or their questions have not been answered. And a client can quickly become an ex-client! And if that were not enough, a dissatisfied ex-client can easily inform other people of their decision and, if the incident is not handled well, it can easily become a crisis. As I’m updating this article, one of the big news stories concerns the incident when United Airlines dragged passenger Dr. David Dao off a plane, leaving him with a broken nose and some teeth knocked out…and leaving the company with a huge PR disaster. Perhaps United had forgotten that with mobile phones and internet, news travels very quickly…and bad news even faster!

Not a good example of how to respect a customer

I’m sure you have been dissatisfied for one reason or another. Perhaps you were not happy at the way somebody spoke to you on the phone or in a shop; maybe you felt your email should have been replied to sooner.

One of my clients told me he once went to the Salon de l’Automobile, intending to buy a new car there. Apparently, they have special deals during the trade fair so you can not only see and learn about the new models but buy one at a good price too. He was so disappointed in the way he was treated at the stand that he bought a different make of car!

Another client told me she changed bank after being told her account was “small”, so she would not be allocated a specialist advisor. Her new bank is happy to have a new customer, regardless of her account, and to give her specialist advice. Indeed, it is hardly surprising that one French bank uses the “are you a satisfied customer?” approach in order to attract new ones!

And I’m pretty sure that you have had experiences which made you legitimately dissatisfied too.

But now let’s switch things round… and put yourself in the role of supplier, rather than client.

Why not think back over the past two to three years, for example, and look at any of your clients who have been lost. Try to get to the root of the “what went wrong?” problem; was it only about the price, or was there something else on top of that? Was the client really a serial complainer, impossible to satisfy, or did you and your company get something wrong?

People don’t like to admit mistakes, and in spite of the stereotype Englishman who apologises for everything – the weather, the late arrival of trains for example – the general attitude is: if the client is dissatisfied, that’s their problem!

One of the things I do with my clients is to look at examples of where things went wrong and use a three-step technique to try and see what we can learn.

The first phase is generally a brainstorming exercise, and we often use the Ishikawa method to break down their thoughts into categories, and that allows us to see if, for example, the problem is due to a faulty product, too high a price or, quite simply, an expressed request that was not satisfied. Asking the question “WHY” four, five or even seven times if necessary, generally allows us to work out the root cause of the incident.

Phase Two is quite an elaborate question – if you could go back, knowing what you know now, and fix something, what would you do? Of course, this is completely hypothetical since we can’t go back in time; yet it does allow us to see things with a wider vision and sometimes notice little warning signs that we might have not been aware of before.

The third and crucial phase is what can we do with our current clients to avoid making these mistakes again. This might involve a more regular contact with people – after all, assuming that no news is good news does not mean that the client is satisfied. A quick phone call checking up on things can be appreciated. Indeed, if you’re eating in a restaurant, it is quite common that a waiter or manager will walk by and, with a smile, verify that everything is to your liking. And you feel important when that happens, so why not apply that to your own clients too?

In other situations, a client could be happy to join your brainstorming sessions and give some ideas as to what their company is looking for. Many people like to ask “What new products or services do you have?” Perhaps you could turn the question round and say “What would you like?” Of course, there are parameters to respect (price, delivery and so on) but it could be an interesting step towards turning the ordinary client into a long-term partner.

The people I coach enjoy this sort of approach. It allows them to look at incidents with a different perspective and see either risks or opportunities they had not noticed before. It also encourages them to go beyond the trite “the customer is king” approach and realize that achieving the successful long-term partnership is a good target to aim for.

After all, given that it can take a lot of time and energy to find clients who can be lost immediately, why not spend a little more time working out how to keep your clients satisfied!

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