Difficult conversation with the client

Any company may come across the inability to fulfill promises made to its partners, for example, on the delivery time of the ordered goods. This can occur either through the fault of the company itself (due to an oversight or error of the employee who placed the order, unclear instructions from the manager, poorly configured business processes, etc.), or due to some objective circumstances beyond its control. Failure in the production of a partner, a delay caused by a transportation company, or a consequence of trade sanctions between states - there can be many reasons.

And in this case, the first people to get "hit" are the employees who are supposed to communicate with partners more than others - the sales managers or the customer service.

A few years ago, I ran a small trade business as a hired manager. Our company was selling bijouterie and accessories for women. Some fashion jewelry we made in our own workshop, some of the goods were coming from abroad. ?And as any business from time to time we met some difficulties - delays in production or delivery of import goods. This was not a problem for our small clients. The partner simply could choose the goods which were in stock. What was more difficult is when it concerned some special orders, such as a large batch of goods for a TV-shop or corporate gifts for a well-known cosmetics company.

So, “shit happens”. And according to my experience nine out of ten employees, if they must give bad news to the partners, try to shift the responsibility to someone else or delay communication until later. They sincerely believe that keeping problems a secret protects the client from unnecessary anxiety. To take away people's fear of giving clients bad news, we emphasized several rules.

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Tell the truth on time

The first thing we teach our employees is: "Don't hide difficulties from customers. This will eliminate the need to justify to the partner in the future: to explain why we delivered the information so late. Moreover, if a disgruntled client calls on his or her own initiative, unexpectedly, the salesperson will certainly not be ready to the talk.

The earlier the client learns of the situation, the more time he will have to act. For example, in the case of corporate gifts, the employee and the cosmetics company found a solution. They agreed on a later delivery date for the stock, with the order divided into multiple shipments. Initially, the client was going to prepare the gifts for shipment to several regions himself.

Don't take negativity personally

Before the difficult conversation the employee should convince himself that the situation is the way it is. It is not his personal fault or the fault of the company (of course, it might be the fault of the company – but the staff definitely mustn’t take the guilty on themselves). This is what I told people: "If it's not your fault, then report the facts. Don't blame yourself personally for the consequences of the situation."

The client will be dissatisfied, and he has that right. The sales manager must acknowledge this and accept it in the conversation. But internally the employee should not take the negativity out on himself. Of course, this is true only if there is really no his fault, and the failure was not due to our sloppiness or negligence.

Be in touch with the client

The salesperson must literally be in touch. Answering the mail, phone calls, messages in messengers. If the client does not yet have the manager's cell phone number, I think it is right to let him know.

The manager should be ready at any time to report the status, to tell what is currently taking place. And warn when to expect the next update. The goal is to show that the employee is keeping things on track.

To do this, first and foremost, the manager himself must be aware of the actual situation. If the issue of delivery of late goods is, for example, in the responsibility of the logistician, arrange with him to report all changes online. Has the product been handed over by the manufacturer to the shipping company? Are the goods arriving at the custom office today, or are customs documents already being checked? This is important information. Even if it does not give the partner a complete understanding of when the goods will arrive at our warehouse (and, accordingly, we can deliver them to the customer), the appearance of the news shows the "movement". It shows that we are dealing with the issue.

And I would strongly recommend to act "proactively" - to call or email the client yourself when you find out something new, without waiting for reminder or another disgruntled phone call.

Save the face in all circumstances

Sometimes clients are overly emotional. They raise their voice, accuse the manager or our entire company of negligence, say things like "You always drag me down," sometimes even using jargon. The client manager should not give in to the urge to get into an argument. It is the high time to be laid-back. If possible, do not argue with the client (as the saying goes, "If you argue with a stubborn man, there are two stubborn men"), and do not adjust to the client if he switched to jargon. The best option in this situation is to ask the client to pause to clarify all the details and setbacks. And, of course, then return to the partner with some comments

But what to do if the client does not calm down, talks in high tones, and gets personal? There is an old trick - hang up, call back in a few minutes and apologize for the quality of the line. As a rule, during this time the client cools down, the degree of conversation decreases, and you can discuss the situation in working mode.

Not only apologize. Offer options for resolving the problem

No matter how sincere the employee's sympathy, it is not enough. The client needs to be offered solutions. Depending on the extent of the problem, this may require the involvement of other colleagues or management.

For an important customer, we tried to do more than he or she expected. For example, we offered extra packaging or delivery at our own expense to a regional warehouse. And for a small client, it's also worth doing something extra that you didn’t agree on. Such an investment is sure to pay off through positive "word of mouth".

Since we had our own manufacturing facility, we guaranteed our retail customers the option of repairing jewelry if the pieces are not damaged by the client. Once a customer had a broken necklace because of careless handling. We picked up the beads, repaired them in our workshop and delivered the jewelry along with a small chocolate bar. The client was not just pleased, but happy. And a few days later, my colleagues reported that this client had written the pleasant review about our company and… had sent the homemade eclairs to our office.

Refer to internal regulations

In our daily work we regularly encounter small unpleasant moments. For example, when it is necessary to remind the client about an overdue payment or refuse in returning of a product.

In these situations, inner company’s documents can help an employee. In particular, rules for returning goods, which are placed in the personal client's cabinet. Or an automatic e-mail reminder of the need to pay the bill.

And if the salesperson must communicate with the client about such “awkward” matters, he may use an universal explanation: "It's my responsibility, that is what the company management requires of me”.

Make a public statement if the problem is huge

In some cases, if the problem is more than local and affects many partners, an official release on behalf of the company may be helpful. In mentioned company, there were no such large-scale situations, but we were potentially prepared for them.

As an example, that is exactly what one big Internet-hosting company did when their service failed. It issued an official statement about the reasons for the problems and the actions it was taking. For some people such frankness seemed excessive. However, it is a decent solution, which is much better than silence.

Another business was faced with the fact that it could not take on new clients due to the workload - there were complaints about the current projects even from the existing clients. The company’s manager wrote about this on his social media page and offered a list of his competitors. In my opinion, this is a strong move; such openness only strengthens faith in your company.

And what are you tips and hints about situations when you must disclose the hard truth to you clients?