Last week’s eTip covered the growing phenomenon of disappointed clients. As your marketing, promotion, and service promises improve, so client expectations grow. And, with them, the danger of reality falling short…
Here are some steps you can take to deal with this insidious danger to you and your firm:
- use a range of client surveys to elicit feedback
- ensure surveys don’t just ask clients to rate your services in absolute terms (fair, good, very good, excellent, etcetera) but that they ask about how the clients experience compared with their expectations
- interpret any rating less than “very good” as probable disappointment territory
- don’t rest with ratings of “met expectations” from a client - at least an occasional rating of “exceeded expectations” is necessary to indicate that you’re delighting (better still - thrilling !) a client once in a while
- adopt the positive habit of asking clients, face to face, questions like “are we meeting your expectations ?” and “what do you expect that I haven’t yet done for you ?” - then listen quietly and patiently for the answer, and gently probe for more information
- always show you care about meeting client expectations - make sure they know that their satisfaction matters to you.
Effectively identifying disappointment is the first step in reconnecting with these clients.
And, it’s the first step in saving you and your firm from an insidious danger.
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