Customer Relations Is Not Just A "Sales" FunctionConsulting is a service business and engineers, administrators and technicians are the heart of it. Sadly, too many of us see customer relations as a “sales” function. While the sales department can be very effective at generating leads and performing a lot of the up-front work that initiates a customer relationship, long term success depends highly on the implementers themselves.
Repeat Technology Services Business
Much of the repeat business that I get from clients comes not from “sales” beating them down with phone calls and emails, but by clients approaching me directly to satisfy newfound needs.
I’m proud to say that I have clients who refuse to deal with our sales department for any function other than signing contracts. These customers are no longer looking to be “sold” solutions; they come to me specifically to “buy” them.
If you are content with perpetual strings of one-off projects you can stop reading here. My focus is maintaining long standing relationships that produce reliable revenue streams.
Don’t Be A Drone
Too many consultants show up, drop in a solution and leave, making no effort to establish a relationship with their client. Get to know the client and their business. Showing an interest in the client’s work can not only help you develop a rapport, you may learn something as well. Being able to show up at a site, ask about the client’s family AND being able to address their kids by name will help establish you as more than just the “computer guy”. The “computer guy” is generally about as memorable as the “phone guy” or the “cable guy”.
Be Flexible
Very few consultants are so good that they can get away with a “my way or the highway” attitude. There are a few out there and if you think you are one of them you probably stopped reading by now.
As a solution provider, your first effort should bring to your customer the best fix for their problem. Whether that fix is hardware, software, policy or procedure, there are almost always client considerations you weren’t made aware of during design. Budget usually lands at the top of that list.
Rarely is there a single solution to a problem. Be able to provide options to your client. If they balk at your first solution, have alternative approaches ready to discuss and explain to them the tradeoffs involved. A client will always respect your efforts to work with them and meet all their needs, as opposed to just providing a canned solution.
Know When To Be Inflexible
When client constraints force a loss of proposed functionality be fully prepared to explain, or even argue, how the compromise will degrade or even nullify the effectiveness of your proposal. Implementing a poor solution because “the customer told you to” is a bad idea and will generally come back to haunt you.
If you have the flexibility, you may decide to decline a project because of too many forced compromises. Believe it or not, turning down work on principle will sometimes jostle the customer into accepting the original proposal, because they now see that you are looking out for their interests, not just billable hours. Once in a while, “my way or the highway” works.
If You Don't Know An Answer, Admit It
Too often when confronted with a client challenge consultants try to “fake” their way through an effort. While you may be able to get a way with this once (or even a couple of times), eventually it will catch up with you. I’ve found that most customers respond surprisingly well to “I do not know, but I will find out.”
Any time you try to bluff your way through a scenario, you run the risk of being discovered. Once you break a client’s trust, it’s virtually impossible to regain it.
Keep Your Attitude In Check
Frustrations exist in every facet of business. Due to the need for customer interaction, consulting can be particularly stressful. There are ways to express dissatisfaction or frustration without blowing your top. When faced with a stressful situation, measure your words and your disposition carefully. Delivery is often more significant than the message. Carefully worded, you’d be surprised just what you can tell a client to go do with themselves, and get away with it.
Conclusion
There’s no holy grail here, just a few nuggets of advice that I’ve come to realize in my own years as a consultant. I’m not giving any guarantees of success. If I could, I’d write a book and retire on royalties. What I can guarantee is long term survival in this industry hinges on established customers. Keeping these customers returning to you requires the same care and feeding as any other relationship.
