How to combat reactive client culture

Are you over-delivering or over-serving? How high do you jump?

In an agency, service is what we do. We pride ourselves in delivering extraordinary.?

When your work is time-bound and pressurised, with hard-deadlines, sometimes you need to react to demands quickly in order to deliver beyond expectations. And we all want to go ‘above and beyond’ for a client, so that they will keep coming back.?

But when customer service becomes ‘reactive’ and over-servicing becomes the norm, the balance tips. You cease to be exceptional and end up exhausted.

Over-serving clients is damaging your business, your team, your reputation with your clients and even the reputation of your industry.

And it definitely damages your bottom line - if you are going over-and-above what is necessary, you won’t be charging all that extra time. How much time are you writing off in pursuit of client-pleasing?

When does delivering extraordinary for your client turn into over servicing? And what's the impact this is having on your business?

Picture The Scene

The team are mid-way through a project, your client has signed off on a list of deliverables and you are head-down into action.

Checking your emails over breakfast one morning (c’mon, we all do it) you see an email to the team from the client to the team. There is a nagging sense of dread, and before you’ve even been able to digest the contents, the team WhatsApp/Slack channel starts pinging with tired, and anxious voices. ‘He wants what now?’ ‘But we’ve already put the order in’, ‘we won’t be able to deliver, we are already at capacity’ ‘I’ll bet they won’t expect to pay more for all this’. Can you hear the frustration and resentment in the team? You’ll be patching them up as well as managing the client expectations today, that’s for sure.?

Sound familiar? Can you feel the tightness in your chest?

And if this is not a one-off, have you even created the culture that allows for this reactive behaviour from clients and your team?

As parents we are told to be aware of our actions and our words because our children are picking up on everything from a young age. This is also true of the people we employ and even the clients we attract.?

A client once admitted that not only did she strive for over-serving herself, she even recruited on that basis.?

If we recruit based on over delivery are we simply recruiting fellow people pleasers??

And if so, what impact is that having on our team, on their mental health, and on the resilience of the business? Workplace stress is a key factor in 1 in 3 short term absences from work and nearly half of long term absences*, and absences due to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression cost employers an average of ￡4,541 per employee every year.

It is time to get over your over-servicing?

How to tell when there’s a problem

• The profit margin on projects shrinks as you go through the project, as you write additional time off
• You are adding elements into the scope without raising additional invoices / PCO
• Team morale is low
• Staff turnover rates are high or there’s an increase in stress/sick leave
• You start to write longer emails to clients to justify any increases, or delays
• Clients become frustrated at the lack of action, and deadlines are being missed

7 Steps to combat over-serving

Understand Your Client

1. Having a deep understanding of your client, brand and their place in their own market will help you to understand the importance of this piece of work to the business as a whole. What is their return on investment that they need as a business/brand? What do they want to happen as a result of this work - increased market share, increase in share price, a fresh rebrand to make more impact on their target client? Keeping your eye on this prize will enable you to create better ROI without over-complication.?

Understand Your Client

1. No, that’s not a typo. Once you understand the client brand, it’s time to go deeper. Who is your client contact, and what do they need from you? How important is this piece of business to them? Is it make-or-break for them? Would a successful campaign secure the promotion they have been after, or is it BAU. Knowing whether your key contact needs you to be hands on, or light-touch from the outset of the project will allow you steer your interactions, and serve them better. Better doesn’t always mean more!

Set Clear Expectations And Lines Of Communication

1. Knowing exactly what your client needs will allow you to decide who is best placed to maintain the client relationship.
2. Using a profiling system like the 5Voices to understand your own natural voice, those of your team members and even your clients will make sure that you are matching the right team members to the task, improving communication, reducing friction and actually over-delivering, not over-serving.
3. Having one central point of contact will allow the rest of the team to get on with delivery, and help to ensure there’s no miscommunication.?
4. Setting time expectations, and boundaries will also create a healthier working environment within the team, and a healthier relationship between you.

Define Deliverables

1. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how rarely a defined Scope of Work forms part of the client contract.?
2. - Define what you are delivering, why and the time scales involved
3. - Keep a project tracker that everyone has access to, and everyone understands.
4. - Weekly check in from the account manager to your key client - keep the relationship healthy, and the unexpected changes to a minimum.?

Manage Change

1. When things change (they will, and that’s totally OK), redefine the boundaries:

“Yes! We’d love to do that. Our priorities to reach XX goal are A, B and C. What would you like to postpone or remove to do this?’

The client may need a reminder of the bigger goal at stake (see 1, 2 and 3 above!), or may decide that the new ‘thing’ isn’t a priority. Open the conversation up to see why the parameters have changed and challenge where appropriate - your client is paying for your advice and expertise, remember. If the change is still important, it will be easier to put forward the PCO/additional project fee, covering your client contact’s a*se in the process. Over-deliver, don’t over-serve

6. Track Time.

Yes, I know. Snore. But how will you know if you are heading over (and be able to course correct) if you aren’t on top of your costs? (time, is money, after all). Make sure everyone tracks time, and keep a weekly check on the numbers.

7. Be The Example

Show your team how to make and hold those boundaries.?

1. Don’t make ‘overreacting’ the norm.?
2. Don’t send emails late at night. If you chose to work evenings, set the email scheduler to send at 9am, so your team/client don’t need to decide whether it’s urgent/react to it.?
3. When a change occurs, communicate it with the team - what is the change, why has it happened (understanding goes a long way towards rebuilding morale) and reset expectations

Is your workplace culture causing you sleepless nights??

Want to learn more about how to improve communication with your clients and team? Contact me here for a free consultation.?