Guidance for Firm Management and Principals
You and your valued team members have spent time and energy to gain a new client – congratulations! Now building and maintaining that relationship is paramount – how can you keep the momentum? Yes, all eyes are on you to mentor, motivate and lead by example. You will also need to ensure that you build a culture of client service so that every person in the firm understands the importance of providing continued value to your existing and potential clients.
According to our findings from having conducted hundreds of client interviews over the past 20 years, we have compiled 15 underlying reasons that clients might not hire you again. Take a look and think about whether any of these might be issues for your firm. Have you had feedback that indicates issues on the horizon? Hold a brainstorming session to rate your firm in terms of accessibility, responsiveness, follow-through, attention, and recovery.
15 Reasons Why Your Clients Might Not Hire You Again:
- Show no genuine or personal interest
- Poor response
- Unavailability of people
- Difficult to do business
- Unfriendly people on the front line
- Poor or rude collection practices
- Over-promising
- Too eager to do more business
- Inadequate capability to handle the customer’s problem
- Poor professional image
- Dumb excuses about why you “can’t”
- Nickel-and-diming
- Poor product quality
- Poor service delivery
- Poor training
Once you understand how your firm feels you rate, consider how you can make improvement. Here are four suggestions:
Implement on-going training: Create a training program addressing specific areas where improvement is needed.
Ask your clients by communicating regularly: Add Client Relations to every agenda. What have we accomplished, what worked and what didn’t, what are we doing next? Task technical staff and/or marketing leaders to perform client care interviews on a regular basis.
Empower your team: Give support! Your team needs to know you trust them and believe in them. Make sure you have the collateral material to support your message and strategy.
Celebrate your successes!
