The next four minutes may be uncomfortable for you. Why? Because you'll need to change your shoes! That's right - I want you to walk in the shoes of a cafe owner for a day to learn a bit more about customer service.
Here's where the story starts...
My wife, Georgie, owns and runs a café and catering business. I make the odd cameo appearance, mainly to provide free entertainment. As you can imagine, owning and running this kind of business does have its moments - there's no such thing as a free latte!
Our eleven years in this business has taught us lots - particularly about people! I'd like to share what we've learnt about dealing with unhappy clients, so that you can adapt this to your world. Remember this can apply equally to internal as well as external clients.
Prevention
The saying "prevention is better than cure" is oh so relevant in the café game. Anticipation of some of the challenges you may face with a client is paramount to a successful relationship. For us, success is measured in our customers not only becoming "regulars", but also becoming "advocates" for the business and actively referring others to us.
Build the Relationship
To get the relationship off on the front foot we try, over time, to get to know our customers. Simple questions with each encounter can reveal a piece of their life jigsaw that we can draw upon later. People enjoy recognition, so the more we know about them and acknowledge this; the more comfortable they are with us. Imagine walking into your local café, being greeted by name, having your coffee already on order and your favourite table set aside. It feels good. It feels even better if you have a client, colleague or friend with you - it brings out the warm feeling of being a celebrity in your own patch!
A strong relationship with your client normally means they'll be more tolerant if things do go wrong. They'll also feel more comfortable in addressing their concerns directly with you, rather than walking away upset, or worse still, telling their friends about a negative experience. In our world the worst thing that can happen is that a client doesn't tell us about a problem and instead gives us a hammering on social media - not pretty!
Understand Expectations
Building the relationship also occurs through understanding expectations. We know that Olivia only likes her toast thinly sliced, her bacon cremated and her eggs poached hard enough to be used in a baseball game! Anything outside of this criteria and we'll know about it!
In your role, it's important to find out what success will look like for your client. If you're running a workshop, simply ask your client: "At the end of the session, what do we really need to have achieved?" This should align to the purpose and outcome of the session that you should have defined and agreed with the client.
Ability to Deliver
Think through what the client is asking of you in regard to the:
• time frame of the task
• level of complexity of the issue
• people you'll be dealing with.
Consider who else you can bring in to provide advice and direction or to assist you on the day. If there are challenging aspects that you're still unsure of, simply dial in to the next Inner Circle Hour of Power teleconference to get some answers.
Systems
Knowing your challenges means that you can also put systems in place to deal with them. At the café, Mother's Day looms large on the calendar. The place is packed, people want their breakfast instantly and the phone is ringing hot.
To manage this we have a table plan clearly laid out that shows who has booked, for what time and where they'll be sitting. We also have tables kept spare for "walk-ins" and any surprise bookings that may have slipped through without being recorded.
Some systems that you can have in place to meet the expectations of your client may include:
• audio or video recording of sessions to fully capture what occurred;
• preparing templates for participants to complete to help document proceedings;
• delegating the recording of information to a workshop scribe; and
• appointing a colleague or contractor to type up the workshop notes into a draft report for you to edit.
Management of Problems
If things do go wrong, always stick to the mantra of - "Stay calm, nothing works if you don't stay calm." If a client is unhappy and you're lucky, they'll tell you. If they don't tell you, build in some kind of debrief to establish what worked well and what they'd like to see fine-tuned in the future.
If problems are unearthed, work hard to find out the specifics of the problem. Sometimes it may just be due to a largely unrelated event that has put the client under extra stress. Ask questions like:
• "What specifically didn't you like?"
• "What was the main problem?"
• "What would you have liked to have seen/experienced?"
Then you can work on a shared solution to fix the specifics. Try and add a sweetener by offering to provide a follow-up consultation (for free of course) such as helping to put an action plan in place from the workshop.
The key message
Remember to always try to keep the relationship positive to lay foundations for future work.
Andrew Huffer delivers a range of professional development programs covering Event Design, Facilitation Skills, Marketing and Succession Planning. He also assists a range of clients in the design and delivery of community engagement team planning processes.
Here's where the story starts...
My wife, Georgie, owns and runs a café and catering business. I make the odd cameo appearance, mainly to provide free entertainment. As you can imagine, owning and running this kind of business does have its moments - there's no such thing as a free latte!
Our eleven years in this business has taught us lots - particularly about people! I'd like to share what we've learnt about dealing with unhappy clients, so that you can adapt this to your world. Remember this can apply equally to internal as well as external clients.
Prevention
The saying "prevention is better than cure" is oh so relevant in the café game. Anticipation of some of the challenges you may face with a client is paramount to a successful relationship. For us, success is measured in our customers not only becoming "regulars", but also becoming "advocates" for the business and actively referring others to us.
Build the Relationship
To get the relationship off on the front foot we try, over time, to get to know our customers. Simple questions with each encounter can reveal a piece of their life jigsaw that we can draw upon later. People enjoy recognition, so the more we know about them and acknowledge this; the more comfortable they are with us. Imagine walking into your local café, being greeted by name, having your coffee already on order and your favourite table set aside. It feels good. It feels even better if you have a client, colleague or friend with you - it brings out the warm feeling of being a celebrity in your own patch!
A strong relationship with your client normally means they'll be more tolerant if things do go wrong. They'll also feel more comfortable in addressing their concerns directly with you, rather than walking away upset, or worse still, telling their friends about a negative experience. In our world the worst thing that can happen is that a client doesn't tell us about a problem and instead gives us a hammering on social media - not pretty!
Understand Expectations
Building the relationship also occurs through understanding expectations. We know that Olivia only likes her toast thinly sliced, her bacon cremated and her eggs poached hard enough to be used in a baseball game! Anything outside of this criteria and we'll know about it!
In your role, it's important to find out what success will look like for your client. If you're running a workshop, simply ask your client: "At the end of the session, what do we really need to have achieved?" This should align to the purpose and outcome of the session that you should have defined and agreed with the client.
Ability to Deliver
Think through what the client is asking of you in regard to the:
• time frame of the task
• level of complexity of the issue
• people you'll be dealing with.
Consider who else you can bring in to provide advice and direction or to assist you on the day. If there are challenging aspects that you're still unsure of, simply dial in to the next Inner Circle Hour of Power teleconference to get some answers.
Systems
Knowing your challenges means that you can also put systems in place to deal with them. At the café, Mother's Day looms large on the calendar. The place is packed, people want their breakfast instantly and the phone is ringing hot.
To manage this we have a table plan clearly laid out that shows who has booked, for what time and where they'll be sitting. We also have tables kept spare for "walk-ins" and any surprise bookings that may have slipped through without being recorded.
Some systems that you can have in place to meet the expectations of your client may include:
• audio or video recording of sessions to fully capture what occurred;
• preparing templates for participants to complete to help document proceedings;
• delegating the recording of information to a workshop scribe; and
• appointing a colleague or contractor to type up the workshop notes into a draft report for you to edit.
Management of Problems
If things do go wrong, always stick to the mantra of - "Stay calm, nothing works if you don't stay calm." If a client is unhappy and you're lucky, they'll tell you. If they don't tell you, build in some kind of debrief to establish what worked well and what they'd like to see fine-tuned in the future.
If problems are unearthed, work hard to find out the specifics of the problem. Sometimes it may just be due to a largely unrelated event that has put the client under extra stress. Ask questions like:
• "What specifically didn't you like?"
• "What was the main problem?"
• "What would you have liked to have seen/experienced?"
Then you can work on a shared solution to fix the specifics. Try and add a sweetener by offering to provide a follow-up consultation (for free of course) such as helping to put an action plan in place from the workshop.
The key message
Remember to always try to keep the relationship positive to lay foundations for future work.
Andrew Huffer delivers a range of professional development programs covering Event Design, Facilitation Skills, Marketing and Succession Planning. He also assists a range of clients in the design and delivery of community engagement team planning processes.
