3 Reasons Clients feel Abandoned doing Business with You

There are 3 reasons clients feel abandoned doing business with you.

Seriously, there’s nothing like the euphoria of winning a new client! Starting a new project! Creating a new design! What an adrenaline rush for both you and your client. And then, what happens next…. From that client’s perspective?

Are you consistently monitoring mission-critical client experience areas? Quality of post-sale client care and feeding is either a deal maker or breaker. Especially for small businesses. Why risk losing another client?  Let’s explore together, shall we?

Reason 1 – Lack of job functionality and competence

Do you proactively assign specific employees to serve specific clients? You know, a consistent client-facing point-person. One who manages project workflow, answers questions, provides status updates, handles expanded project scope?

If your answer to this question is “whomever is available to answer the client’s phone or email,” you are winging it. Without a specific, consistent internal contact, you are not fooling clients either. Assuming all employees have equal competence working with clients is incompetent, on your part.

Why assume when you can verify? How frequently do lack of job functionality and competence sabotage client retention? You won’t know until you stop assuming all is well. And check for yourself.

Reason 2 – Non-existent or incompletely documented internal processes

One of my small business clients took pride in creating one-on-one, employee-client relationships. However, each employee had a different idea about what that relationship looks like. Employees thought they handled clients very well indeed. However, sitting around the table comparing individual processes, loads of internal variability existed in client relationship management.

As a leader, why assume everything is running smoothly and consistently? Simply because employees do not report anything is amiss. That is, until clients let you know directly that they are upset. My client and his team spent a considerable time with me creating internal processes. Instead of perpetuating an anything-goes business model full of black process holes and large process gaps.

Reason 3 – Inconsistent or non-existent records-keeping system

Speaking about black holes and large gaps, where is information stored in your small business? Another small business client let each employee maintain and store client information. Once again, as the team compared their info storage systems, each employee had a different idea about what information is worth keeping. Records often lacked depth of details. Also, different employees handled the same client. As a result, clients were compromised due not only to lack of consistent records-keeping. But also lack of employee knowledge of client information.

When clients feel lost inside your business’s internal records-keeping system, they lose confidence and trust in your company. 

Combine ad hoc records keeping with incomplete or absent documented processes plus lack of job functional specificity. Voila! You have a recipe for client churn. Not client retention.

Ready to take action about client retention? Then contact me  and set up a complementary 15-minute discovery call as your first action item.

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My One Millimeter Mindset™  virtual and in-person keynotes, workshops, coaching and mastermind programs translate across strategic communication and collaboration disconnects between people and professional disciplines. Build trust. Retain employees and clients. Optimize strategic business and human capital value in your organizations. Get everyone to where they need to go. Together. One millimeter at a time.  My playbook of communication tools and methods, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.

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