An Inside View: Client Communication

Why is it that so many clients complain about their service providers with the same main issue: poor communication? When providing a product or service it’s best to stand in the shoes of the client and understand what they see, hear and experience along the way. It’s one key differentiation Steve Jobs did with Apple product design; he focused on the whole integrated customer experience, from start to end. Poor customer service leads directly to customer dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction will emerge in lost accounts and the end of good references.

How do you maintain adequate client communications?

The Choice

Good customer service is a choice. It’s a habit of daily activities within an organization that views the experience from the side of the customer. It’s critical for professional and technical service providers like MSPs. The root cause of customer service challenges seems to always be the same:  poor communication, even more than actual service challenges. The cost of poor communication is high.

We’ve all seen companies where client growth (generating new clients) was excellent and steady but was undercut by poor service delivery, undermining the very expansion that was occurring. Those days and that service model is not sustainable and not suitable in the present customer-centric US business environment.

Keeping a client and selling into an existing account are far more cost-effective. That is, there’s a better ROI and lower cost-for-entry by taking on new valuable services to an existing client than trying to crack into the unknown. In IT, while the technology may be vastly complicated to service, the fundamental flaw, the cause of most IT service struggles, lies in the failure to engage and understand the people who are using the technology.

Customer Satisfaction, which is the meeting or exceeding of realistic expectations coupled with adequate communication throughout the service process, is a common challenge in IT.

In the IT service industry, customer service challenges are rampant despite every vendor claiming that it’s at the top of their list. In the end, those recognizing this need will thrive, while others will be commoditized and fail.

The fundamental missing piece is a failure to genuinely engage customers as strategic partners as part of a solution rather than viewing them as part of the problem.

Poor Service by the Numbers

In recent Gartner and Amex survey reports 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. In IT space that comes to light in poor project management, delayed procurement orders or while onboarding of new client.

The White House Office of Consumer Affairs reports that on average, loyal IT service customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase. It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. Selling into a new account also has an industry probability of 5-20%, whereas selling into existing clients is more at the 60-70% range.

When dealing with client’s directly, technicians are reputedly challenged with interpersonal skills evidenced by the fact that techs only ask for a client’s name 21% of the time.

Clients want to be heard and understood and asking an individual client their name is key. After all, they have names 100% of the time and enjoy being asked. The cost to a company or internal IT team for doing so: $0. The Value? Priceless.

Communication Breakdown

It's a matter of 'communication'. The lack of timely, adequate and proper communications results in a breakdown of trust and credibility. What this means:

• Timely communication: Pre-planning, ongoing status, and post feedback communique
• Adequate communication: proper parties, proper tone, temperament and usable information (not too techy and germane)
• Proper communication: phases identified, context explained, feedback obtained from the client/end-user

As seen in “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one (1) unresolved negative experience. News of bad customer service also reaches more than twice (2x) as many ears as praise for a good service experience.

Bad news sells. What’s the significance? Take the time to address unhappy clients (end-users for in-house IT teams) and do everything in your power to remedy the situation. It’s not only worth keeping their business, but also avoiding any negative word of mouth exposure.

Measuring Client Feedback-A KPI worth Understanding

Even when it becomes impossible to salvage an existing customer relation, anyone who has experienced this will know that they were signs along the road that could have alerted your team to customer dissatisfaction. This timing and measurement of a relationship are a KPI (Key performance indicator) like any other.

It can be measured in many ways: surveys, email, call. But by far the most effective, especially in the IT field, is regular in-person live discussions. The cadence of these meetings is key. Too much time between them when everything appears fine but in reality is not, is the beginning of the end.

The White House on Office Affairs found that for every single (1) complaint in feedback received, they found on average there 26 customers who were unsatisfied but remained silent.

The time-value of the services in doing so are far less expensive than the cost of burning through an existing client and seeking out new ones. After all, Amex reports 3 in 5 Americans (59%) would try a new IT service solely because of better customer experience. That means that organizations will consider outsourcing when their own internal IT teams continue to provide poor service, and existing vendors will lose their place in a client relationship for the same reason

Believe What Your Customers Believe

As Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last, recently stated in a presentation on business objectives, if you do not understand people, you do not understand business. He notes the obvious fact that 100% of all clients (end-users)…are people.

Trust needs to be built and this only happens when we address them credibly and show that we believe what they believe. That we care about not ourselves or our offerings, but that we are genuinely and honestly interested in what they are interested in.