6. CLIENT MAXIMISATION

THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT
By Robert Middleton

Someone had signed up for my Marketing Tele-Clinic in February but then said they were not ready for it and would join the one in May. I said fine, and then sent her a reminder last week. A few days letter I got an angry email that said she would not be in the May Tele-Clinic, that she didn't want me to sign her up for any other programs, that she would contact me when she was ready and that she was having the credit card company reverse the charges and not to interfere with the process.
I responded to her e-mail saying that this was OK with me but that I had just done what she had asked me to do--remind her of the upcoming class. I said I would have appreciated if she had just let me know she had decided not to attend in May and I would have been happy to refund her money by check. Immediate I got an e-mail note back saying just this: What happened to "the customer is always right?"

What happened is that the customer is NOT always right! In fact many times the customer is dead wrong. In most situations, of course, you want to bend over backwards to make things right for a client or customer. But when you do everything you say you will do, you don't deserve abuse. Herb Kelleher, president of Southwest Airlines says that they invite some customers to take their business elsewhere if they are are always complaining. Good for him!
And if you're a consultant or professional service provider, it would be suicide to always agree with clients. After all, they hired you to help fix things. If you can't strongly disagree with clients when your professional judgment says you must, ultimately you'll lose your credibility.

A recent client of mine was faced with a dilemma. She was doing training for a wine company that just didn't seem to get it. Despite having recently built new meeting rooms with modern equipment, the training sessions were held in their wine cellar, and although their bakery attached to the winery sold the finest pastries, they served the employees packaged cookies! They emphasized how important management training was, but none of the managers showed up for the sessions and when asked to pin down objectives for change they said they wanted a major culture change which was not subject to measurement. I encouraged my client to call them on these issues.

They didn't want to hear what she had to say. They wanted to be the customer who was always right. Not surprisingly, the company was also three months behind in their payments. I believe it was to her good fortune when they decided not to renew her contract. Too many trainers or consultants would "stick in there" as their self-respect and careers went down the tubes. My client had the courage to pursue greener pastures.

No, the client is not always right. Perhaps a version of the AA prayer is appropriate here:
God grant me the serenity to
Accept that there are some clients
I cannot change
Courage to confront
The ones I can help change; and
Wisdom to know the difference

This article is by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Robert's web site is a comprehensive resource on marketing for Independent Professionals. For free marketing resources and valuable marketing tools visit http://www.actionplan.com

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