How To Communicate With A Client After You’ve Dropped The Ball

When Things Go Wrong on How To Communicate With A Client

Our fight-or-flight instincts kick in. You get ready to escape, sometimes, by any means necessary. Have you seen these escape tactics before? How To Communicate With A Client

• You can save face by placing the blame elsewhere, such as shifting responsibility to external factors or other individuals involved in the situation.
• You provide superficial solutions to buy yourself some extra time, which may temporarily alleviate the pressure but ultimately fails to address the underlying issues at hand.
• You might think that ignoring it will make it disappear, but that’s not the case.

You’re the point, and because of that, you don’t get to hide. You don’t get to wait for somebody else to figure it out—you fix it. You don’t have to do everything, but you must set the strategy and standard, which includes clearly communicating your expectations and goals to your team. And that begins with communication.

It’s Time For A Series Of Difficult Conversations

To be effective as you communicate with your disgruntled client, pay attention to 4 core steps:

1.) Accept the Mistake on How To Communicate With A Client

Investigate the situation — immediately. Please clarify all the details of what transpired, and then proceed to organise accordingly. You want to know what your company promised.

• what was promised by your company
• what was expected by your client and
• what they actually received

Don’t just guess at it; talk to every team member involved—as quickly as possible. Besides, you can only make the best decision once you understand the situation. If you’re working alone, you can easily gather the necessary details.

However, before you respond, consider your client’s perspective. You understand the experience of being a customer. But when you provide a service or product, you must understand and respect their concerns. This simple choice will improve your communication; it will help you respond with their interests in mind, not just to save face, ultimately leading to better customer satisfaction and stronger relationships.

2.) Automate the Communication on How To Communicate With A Client

Keep the conversation flowing. This is not the time to hide. In fact, the decision to communicate consistently is the difference between creating a loyal customer or an upset, vocal ex-shopper. When you discover the mistake, be proactive:

• Call to apologise and offer a remedy to alleviate the situation.
• Let your client know how long it will take.
• Give honest time frames and then keep your word. If you promise to follow up next week, follow up next week.
• Keep them updated until the issue is fixed, even if it’s hard.

After a service provider fails to meet their client’s expectations, the most common complaint I receive is, “They won’t return my call.” Your client wants to hear from you. They want a realistic time frame for when the issue will be resolved. They want a concession for the mistake. They want to be heard. And yes, they may want their money back.

The sooner you address the issue by either solving the problem or offering a concession they can accept, the sooner you can move on. We acknowledge that people run businesses, and occasionally, they err. When your company makes the mistake, don’t hide—communicate. Do you automatically dump every company that makes a mistake? If you don’t, why not? How To Communicate With A Client

For most, the answer lies in how the company deals with them after the fact.

3.) Advise The Team On How To Communicate With A Client

Your team needs to know how to handle that client’s phone call. Everybody can’t and shouldn’t know everything, but you can tell the receptionist to always forward Mr X’s phone call to the following people.

Remember, you don’t want to leave that client hanging any more. So don’t force them to re-explain their story over and over again. You inform your team on the situation and how to move. Having an informed team helps prevent exacerbating the situation.

4.) Attack the Situation, Not The Person on How To Communicate With A Client

It’s natural to want to protect yourself, but since you made the mistake, then you cannot honour your flight response by running away. Stand and deal directly.  You also have to address the fight response; instead of attacking the client — passive aggressively — attack the situation.

Take this position: How To Communicate With A Client

I will get to the bottom of this and see what we can do to fix it as quickly as possible.”

Then start working to keep your word. Even if you still lose the client’s business, you have found a leak and fixed it so that you don’t lose others. With the right kind of communication, you can salvage most business relationships. But it takes consistency and sincere concern to turn it around, as well as proactive engagement and follow-up to rebuild trust and demonstrate commitment to the client’s needs. How To Communicate With A Client