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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: 

  1. Show no genuine or personal interest
  2. Poor response
  3. Unavailability of people
  4. Difficult to do business
  5. Unfriendly people on the front line
  6. Poor or rude collection practices
  7. Over-promising
  8. Too eager to do more business
  9. Inadequate capability to handle the customer’s problem
  10. Poor professional image
  11. Dumb excuses about why you “can’t”
  12. Nickel-and-diming
  13. Poor product quality
  14. Poor service delivery
  15. 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!

 

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About The Author

Stephanie Craft, MBA

Stephanie Craft, MBA, has worked in the A/E/C industry for more than 30 years. Her marketing strengths lie in researching and opening new doors for technical firms by getting directly to decision-makers and influencers, and obtaining and using client feedback to help firms differentiate themselves and strengthen client loyalty through targeted strategic efforts. She also works with firm leadership to evaluate in-house marketing and business development efforts to optimize staff processes and procedures. Stephanie has been a featured speaker at many AEC professional society meetings and has been selected “Chapter President of the Year” twice by the national Society for Marketing Professional Services for her management expertise serving as President of the Utah and Sacramento Chapters.