Last week I spoke of how much easier it is when we operate out of our core purpose (To find out what our employees and clients need so we can provide what they want) life is much easier. Our clients grow faster and we get more referrals. But what happens when our client does not love us?
Last week a manager one of our large clients wanted to give our staffer a raise. They did not have the budget to give him the raise he asked for and asked us to reduce our markup to accommodate. This would put us in a loss position. What is more this client has negotiated very low markups with the understanding that they have long term assignments where we can regain our profit.
When we declined the client was livid and threatened to have our staffer work through another service in violation of our contract. It hit me – This client either does not know what we do, does not value what we do or both. I was livid.
Then I realized that I was not being responsible for what was occurring. If our client does not think we are any better than the next service then we have fallen short in managing the client’s perception: the care we take in recruiting, selecting and managing our employees. If the work we do to ensure that we are making exceptional matches is transparent of course our clients would view us as superfluous.
Having close contact with our client is the only antidote.
It is our responsibility to educate our client about what we bring to the table. Our calls to clients are critical. Checking in on performance must lead to creating relationship. Our calls follow up on resumes need to result in a deeper understanding of what they are looking for and more precise results. It is our job to know what concerns our clients have and make those concerns our own by proactively looking for solutions to what keeps our clients awake at night.
What else can we do on our regular client calls to remind each and every firm we work with of the care we take in recruiting, selecting and managing our employees? Please give some thought to this in your quest to "create a hunger to learn and exceed", lets begin to share innovative ways we let our clients know what sets us a part...that is a quality of a great team. I look forward to reading your ideas. A special prize to the first two people who post comments.
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1 comment:
You're right.
Already I've been conjuring ways to employ our mission at all times and in all forms of communication with our clients and our prospects.
In a down economy and a competitive market, we must find ways to stand a cut above the rest. Those who succeed in both situations are those that are doing something different - and doing it exceptionally well.
We're on a mission to find jobs for our employees that they love. Whether it lasts one day or 12 years, we want them to find real value in every job they do through us.
In closing, I think that love is a three-way street. When our employees are happy, our clients are happy, and we are happy. And we're not just happy - we're doing our job. And fulfilling our mission.
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