Managing client relationships is a crucial part of almost every business, and can be the most challenging. This article, although geared towards tech businesses, provides five key tips that can help virtually any business better manage its relationship with its clients.
Being a tech consultant, contractor or service provider is hard, even at the best of times. Although you and your team might be highly skilled to deliver the outputs promised, managing the client – their expectations, impromptu requests, requests that are out of scope, whilst trying to get paid on time – can be a challenge.
Further, although we might wish to have clients that never leave our business, that is very rarely the case. Below are five tips to help tech business owners better manage their client relationships, rom the outset, through to when the relationship might be drawing to a close.
1. Get to know and understand your clients and their business
This point, although important for every contract, it is even more crucial for longer term arrangements, or for those that might be a bit more fluid in nature. Whilst your role might be to provide advice, or goods or services, by having a better understanding of the client, it will help you not only provide a better service to the client, but also allow you to begin to understand its current situation, and accordingly how your business might be affected.
Some things it might be good to know include: whether client’s business is doing well; whether it has had to downsize or hire additional staff; whether a new operating plan or system has been implemented; or what might be the outlook for the business over the next year or two. It is important to emphasise that this type of information is not static, and so would require regular updating, as it should influence your ongoing relationship with the client.
2. Start planning the breakup before you get engaged
At the times when might have a big contract, or one that might provide steady income over the course of several months, many of us take it as an opportunity to sit on our laurels, and to get rather chummy with the client. As a result, we tend to end up unprepared when the inevitable breakup comes. So, besides struggling to meet our commitments, we are trying to recover several months of outstanding fees, which can result in feelings of being exploited by the client.
To better manage such a situation, a more proactive approach in managing client relationships is recommended. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the finer points of contracts are discussed and agreed, for example with respect to warranties/guarantees, and intellectual property ownership.
3. Implement practices that reduce the clients’ reliance on you
Although might seem to be a good idea to have the client call you every time they have a problem – especially if you can bill them accordingly – it can eventually become problematic. You and your team might not be able to keep up with the requests, which could result in the delivery of poor service, or the client might feel that the price is more than it is prepared to spend, relative to the perceived value of what it is getting.
One recommendation that could be considered is allow the client not to be completely and fully reliant on you. For example, individuals in the client’s organisation could be taught to handle simple configuration changes, or minor maintenance-related tasks that might be needed. As a result, the client might feel that a more equitable partnership has been achieved, whilst you and your team can better manage your workload, since you all are no longer getting mired in many trivial tasks.
4. Take steps to avoid a bad breakup
The worst breakups tend to be the ones that seemingly come out of the blue. However, were there warning signs that were ignored? In many situations, and consistent with the first point, ensuring more open lines of communication may allow you to get a heads-up on challenges that are imminent or are being experienced, and an opportunity to better manage any anticipated fallout.
However, it is also important to critically evaluate your team’s performance, and whether the client is happy with the service it is receiving. For example, have there been complaints? Have payments been withheld pending remedy of a particular issue? Is the client avoiding your calls? These situations, among others, could be signs – if left unattended that a breakup might be imminent.
If there is a sense that client might be unhappy, it might be best to discuss the matter with the client. There might be remediations that could be considered (if applicable and appropriate), or based on the client’s needs or circumstances the current arrangements cannot continue. Regardless of the final decision, the point is to try to be in know, in order to avoid surprises.
5. Exit gracefully when the time comes
When the end of the contract does come, and following from the previous, it is recommended that you try to end that arrangement amicably. For example, agree with the clients what might be the final deliverables, what is outstanding on both sides, and how all of those matters can be settled to both parties’ mutual benefit.
In summary, try not to burn any bridges. You never know when in the future there might be a lucrative opportunity to work again with the same organisation, or with former employees of that that organisation. Perceived bad or unprofessional behaviour on those earlier projects could come back and bite you in the butt when you least expect it.
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