Once you’ve done the heavy lifting to gain a client you don’t want to senselessly blow it.  The way you handle a dissatisfied customer can have an enormous impact on your financial future.  Your initial reaction may be to think that it’s just one sale one client, but think about the lifetime value of that client to your business think about the lifetime referral value of one client and think about the lifetime bad word of mouth marketing value of one unhappy past client.

If you take the time to start putting numbers to the value of one client you’ll begin to realize that a dissatisfied client is a really big deal.  But if you can work through the source of the clients dissatisfaction you have the opportunity to convert a satisfied client into a loyal client, and retain all that value.  So it just makes sense to make sure you properly handle a dissatisfied client.

When a client isn’t happy here’s how you want to respond:

1. Acknowledge the clients concerns and empathize with their feelings
2. Clearly communicate your commitment to them and to resolving their concerns
3. Continue to ask questions until both you and the client clearly understand exactly what they’re dissatisfied with and what they perceive as the source of their dissatisfaction
4. Find out what it would take to resolve their concern and come to a mutual agreement
5. Do whatever you agreed to do immediately

Never recite policy or get in a word battle with a client.  That’s just counterproductive and escalates the clients anger.  You don’t have to agree with their thoughts and feelings, but you do have to respect and honor them.

Even if you personally are the source of their dissatisfaction reinforce your commitment to make things right with them.  Don’t make excuses for yourself or argue your position.  This isn’t about you it’s about them.  Keep the focus on the client.

Never try to fix a problem you don’t understand.  When you do that you can make things even worse because the client is thinking here you go again not listening to me.  You need to know exactly how, when, and where things went wrong in your relationship with this client.

When you ask what they want you to do to resolve the issue for them you will often be surprised to learn what they want is far less than what you think they want.  Most people are pretty forgiving when you respect their concerns and make a conscious effort to do the right thing.  And most importantly it’s about them being heard and their needs being met. Put your ego and feelings aside because if one client is airing these feelings you probably have a whole lot more thinking them but just not telling you.

In most cases unhappy clients just go away without telling you why.  That’s exactly what you don’t want because you can’t learn how to grow your business that way, and it’s very costly to you.  And even though unhappy clients seem to silently go away to you, rest assured they’re telling others about how rotten you and your services are.

Honor your commitment.  Whatever you agree upon between the two of you must be acted on immediately.  Don’t ever make the mistake of promising to make an issue go away and then have the client find out later that you didn’t do what you said you would.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 3:09 pm and is filed under coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.