I hope you had a great break over the summer period. Mine was very busy what with one thing and another, and included a house move part-way through.
Something which was way more fun and (marginally!) less expensive was seeing Taylor Swift return to Wembley in August. In honour of Taylor, and for a bit of light-hearted fun at the start of a new ‘term’, I thought I’d bring you some top client listening tips, riffing on well-known Taylor Swift song titles:
Don’t get hung up on numbers
Client listening isn’t a numbers game, you don’t need 22 responses to elicit valuable and actionable insight from your clients. Of course, if you want to examine recurring themes, you need to know what a certain number of clients are thinking. But if, say, you’re running a strategic listening exercise with those with whom you have long lived relationships and one of them raises an issue, you shouldn’t wait for others to voice a similar concern before dealing with it. You need to be ready to deal with issues promptly when they arise. So, make sure this approach is part of your process, all the better to avoid any bad blood.
I know my client all too well
One of the recurring issues with client listening is coming up against resistance from relationship holders who don’t see the value in independent listening, especially if they see their clients as ‘satisfied’ clients. What the client listening exercise does though, is give clients a blank space, outside of their day-to-day interactions, in which they can reflect on the wider aspects of the relationship. It’s often cited as a valuable activity by clients themselves and demonstrates how you’re not taking them for granted and giving them the opportunity to say “you’re great but I wish you would…”
Don’t shake it off
Unlike Taylor, I advise you to take the comments you get from your listening interviews, on board. As much as we all like to think our client relationships are one long love story, those constructive inputs, however delicate they may be, are a fantastic opportunity to learn, improve and develop stronger relationships. You’ll get so much more value from your listening exercise if you choose clients who’ll give a balanced view of your service. And finding out and addressing issues rather than letting them fester means your client is less likely to say “we are never getting back together”.
Choose clients wisely
It shouldn’t take a mastermind to work out that you should choose clients who have something meaningful to say, rather than sweet nothing. I have on occasion conducted interviews with individuals who don’t have a great deal to share as it’s their colleague who deals with my client on a day-to-day basis. Inviting the wrong person is a waste of their time and your budget so, resist the temptation to ask the most senior contact in a client organisation if, in fact, it’s one of their team who has the most interaction with you.
Although most of Taylor Swift’s music is based on her personal relationships, the bonds we form in our professional lives, and especially those we develop with our clients, are vital to our personal, professional and business growth. It’s important to give clients the opportunity to speak now rather than for you to find them on the other side of the door!
And finally, a non-Taylor-related note to sign off this month’s Happy Client:
You may have seen that I’m working with ‘The Law Firm Marketing Club’ on this year’s ‘What clients want’ research which looks at law firm client expectations.
So , if you’ve ever been a client of a law firm in a business or personal capacity, and can spare five minutes to complete this survey, we’d be very grateful.
Until October!