Plateau To Summit: Managing Business Expectations Your Clients, Customers and Employees

Hello Plateau To Summit Community!

This week we will be discussing managing expectations and being accountable for the promises you make.

This week’s topic is going to be more informal because managing expectations can be a little less concrete. One of the reasons I decided to tackle this topic is because of some experiences I have had with my clients.

It can be difficult sometimes knowing whether or not your clients are getting what they are expecting, if you don’t lay it all out at the very beginning. One of the things I like to do is have an engagement letter that specifically spells out what I will be doing for my clients. By making a point of sharing exactly what service you will provide upfront, it will eliminate any hurt feelings or confusion of expectations. The main point is communication!

#Communicate #Communicate #Communicate

If you and your client have an open line of communication and each person is very clear on what they expect from the relationship, you avoid A LOT of problems. I have had clients who have come in to use my service of preparing their income tax returns and I found out later they wanted more, even though they didn't ask for more. So now I make it a point of saying include in the preparation of that service. If they want anything additionally beyond that, it is a separate service that I can include within their asking. This helps me and my company eliminate problems of expectations.

For instance, if you get a letter from the IRS, I have a service that covers that and it says specifically if you want us to handle notice from the IRS and state agencies, this is a separate service from the compliance service that is offered, however it is a service that is available. By me letting my clients know that upfront, we send them to them in writing, its posted in my office, its discussed when they get an appointment, and when they sit in front of me. That cuts down on the disgruntled feelings of some of our clients.

The key part of managing expectations is definitely communication both ways. It's necessary to answer the questions of your clients and explain to them which service they will receive and what's included.

For example, if you were to go into Sears and purchase a new T.V, They let you know it only has a one year limited warranty and they let you know if you want that T.V covered, you have to purchase an additional warranty. That’s how Sears is managing the expectations of their customers.

This all goes along with the next subject, anticipating problems. There are always problems and letting your clients and customers know about the expectations that were previously set and discussed helps you properly manage the problems that occur with your clients or customers.

Knowing the Basis of others is always important. Sometimes I have a client that price shops. I already know their bias, they want the lowest price for the most work. Those clients will probably need more communication than other clients and will probably give me just a bit more problems than my other clients who are willing to pay for the services they are receiving. When they have a built up bias, I have to be careful and make sure they understand the expectations for the fee they are paying. That kind of client will be more than likely to come back with more issues.

Managing expectations has no specific way to go about it. It all depends on your industry. The most important part with managing expectations is all geared towards communication.

With that being said, I want to share with you a story that happened to me within the past few days.

I got into my office yesterday and I got a call from my bank saying that someone was trying to charge something to my debit card. I said, I’m not in Florida, no that’s not me… that’s a fraudulent charge. Then I found out, someone hacked my bank account. When I went into the bank and told them what was going on, the very first thing they did was manage my expectations. They told me, you have a difficult situation and it's going to take us time to get it cleared up and we’re going to do our best to collect the money back from the people that have taken it out of your account, because, since you caught it early, the bank is going to end up eating the costs, but it’s going to take a few days before we get that money back into your account.

So already, they told me the money wont be going back into the account today, so I’m not in there yelling I WANT MY MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT NOW! Right up front they told me it’s going to take a few days. Then I got another call from them saying there were more illegal transactions but we’ve got it covered, you just need to come into the bank today and close up all your accounts.

The bank told me all of the things I needed to do, before they would allow me access to online banking again. They managed my expectations.

Comment below if this happened to you before and how well the bank managed expectations for your problem.

Most people don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. As a business owner you deal with this on a regular basis. Not everyone is going to be happy with you. The way you keep disgruntled employees, customers and clients is to mitigate them and anticipate them so they happen less frequently.

Even as far as running your business. Your always going to set goals but your goals have to be both realistic and achievable. If they are both of those things, it makes a lot easier to manage the expectations of others. The key here is to NEVER make assumptions. Even though I may tell you to never say never, in this case, you can say never sometimes haha.

If you like the information I am sharing, or you find someone who would find this information valuable, please like, comment and share.

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Thank you for reading and remember to tune into next week's Facebook Live

Watch the recording of this topic below!