Tweet

Establishing and Maintaining Good Customer Relations

Written by: Scott Hunter

Article Overview: All structures are built upon a foundation. Truly successful engineers build their practices upon a foundation of strong customer relationships. As with every other purchase decision, individuals prefer to do business with people they like, with people who seem genuinely interested in them and with people who really care about their concerns. The business of starting and nurturing a relationship starts with the initial interview and continues throughout the firm's representation. It is critical to the long term success of the engineer/customer relationship that the engineer ongoingly stay in communication with the customer and keep them informed about the progress of their matter.

Establishing and Maintaining Good Customer Relations

Total Quality Management, customer satisfaction index, zero defects, customer service - all are buzzwords of management in the 1990s. Yet what is all this about anyway? After all, engineers and firms successfully made it through the '80s without all the commotion about quality and service. Why all the fuss now? Is this just another fad, some passing fancy that will come and go like Hula-Hoops, disco dancing or designer jeans? Hardly. While the jargon may change over the balance of the decade, a fundamental change is taking place in customer service, and the engineers who realize this and change with it will be the engineers who will be successful in the 21st century and beyond.

All structures are built upon a foundation. A high-rise is built upon a foundation of concrete and steel. The taller the building, the deeper and stronger the foundation required to support it. Similarly, an engineering practice is built upon a foundation, specifically upon the foundation of relationships with people. Like the high-rise, the greater the intended accomplishment and productivity of the firm, the deeper and stronger these bedrock relationships must be. In fact, the limits of accomplishment, productivity and satisfaction within the firm are all a function of the nature and quality of the relationships the members of the firm have developed with the firm's customers.

Jimmy Johnson, the only coach in football history to win both the National Collegiate Championship and the Super Bowl, understood the critical importance of personal relationships when he grabbed the reins of the Dallas Cowboys' franchise. In just three years, he took the league's worst team to the pinnacle of professional success. In the locker room following the team's stunning Super Bowl victory, Johnson poignantly told his team that, more than anything else about the day, they would remember the love they had for each other. The team's success was built upon a foundation of strong relationships, deep appreciation for one another and, yes, even love.

Likewise, truly successful engineers have always built their practices upon a foundation of strong customer relationships. However, during the '80s, when a seller's market existed for engineers, many were able to build successful practices without this fundamental component. The tide has turned though, and purchasers of engineering services can now afford to be much more selective in their choice of engineers.

As with every other purchase decision, individuals prefer to do business with people they like, with people who seem genuinely interested in them and with people who really care about their concerns. Today, it is more important than ever that engineers recognize and appreciate that they must build rich, quality relationships with their customers and must orient their firms around assuring outstanding customer service.

This process starts with the initial interview. The worst mistake an engineer can make is to get right down to business when first meeting a prospective customer. The most critical result to be produced during the first meeting is to begin to build a strong relationship of trust. The engineer should thank the individual for coming to the firm and to out of his or her way to be warm and friendly. The engineer should never sit behind a desk. Instead, the engineer and potential customers should meet in a comfortable neutral area and spend 10 to 15 minutes just getting to know one another. Business shouldn't be discussed until the engineer is satisfied that he or she is comfortable with the prospective customer and, more importantly, that the customer is comfortable with the engineer and the firm.

As the particular case is discussed, the interviewer must be sensitive to the developing relationship with the potential customer. If during the initial conversation the engineer doesn't feel that he or she will enjoy working with this individual, if a sense of mutual admiration, respect and trust is absent, the engineer should refer the customer to a colleague. This may sound crazy, but should the customer retain this engineer, everyone will regret it later.

Consider your experience. Every really disgruntled customer, every customer you later regretted having worked with, you suspected from the very beginning. Don't do it to yourself or the firm. Life is too short. Only when both parties are satisfied that they enjoy working together and that the firm is appropriate to handle the matter should an offer of representation be extended.

Finally, throughout your firm's representation, don't forget to work on what built the relationship in the first place. Maintain frequent communication with the customer and continue to check on how he or she is doing. This is the essence of service. Rather than assuming you're doing a good job taking care of the customer, ask the customer if you are. Find out if he or she is getting what was expected.

It's my experience that most engineers specifically don't ask the customer if everything is satisfactory because they don't want to find out that it isn't. This is a mistake. If the customer is indeed dissatisfied, it's far better that you know about it so you can at least have a chance to do something about it. If you don't ask, on the other hand, the customer will eventually let you know anyway, either by leaving, not paying their bill or complaining about you to others. None of these alternatives are very desirable. Periodically, ask the customer if anything additional can be done for him or her. No customer satisfaction survey can take the place of personal contact, old-fashioned courtesy and genuine concern.

No matter what you've heard, customers don't hire firms or even engineers, they hire people. Though important, quality work and a result favorable to the customer are no guarantee of continued customer loyalty, repeat business or the referral of friends and family. What makes customers come back and sent their friends to you is that they like you, and only you can see to that.

SUMMARY

As with every other purchase decision, individuals prefer to do business with people they like, with people who seem genuinely interested in them and with people who really care about their concerns. Today, it is more important than ever that engineers recognize and appreciate that they must build rich, quality relationships with their customers and must orient their firms around assuring outstanding customer service.

Related Articles
  “The Top Ten Public Relations Errors That Are Hazardous To The Health Of Your Media Relations”
  I Dont Want PR I Just Want To Be Successful
  Home Business Expert: Establishing A Connection
  Deadly Sin #5: Sales: The least time-effective process in all of business
  What’s Hot and What’s Not in Public Relations

Article Tags: bowl victory, buzzwords, commotion, concrete and steel, critical importance, customer satisfaction index, dallas cowboys, designer jeans, disco dancing, football history, fundamental change, hula hoops, index zero, jimmy johnson, national collegiate championship, passing fancy, personal relationships, professional success, stunning super bowl, zero defects



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
What are your success criteria? - Out of curiousity, what has to be present for you to know that your business is a success? The top three things for me are: 1. Maintaining a 6 figure income year in and year out. 2. Creating and promoting my own products. 3. Income not solely dependent upon my personal effort. How about yours?
Re: Paypal process $315 million in payments per day. - I agree with you David, their Customer relations suck. This mean other payment systems like 2CO and WORLDPAY should work on their customers relations to take more slice of the market.
Re: What are your success criteria? - [quote="DwayneGarrett":1igrdgib]Out of curiousity, what has to be present for you to know that your business is a success? The top three things for me are: 1. Maintaining a 6 figure income year in and year out. 2. Creating and promoting my own products. 3. Income not solely dependent upon my personal effort. How about yours?[/quote:1igrdgib] I would have to say mine were: 1. Monthly Residual Income that exceeds all expenses by 110% 2. Free time to create and promote my own products (relies on #1) 3. 5% of all revenues generated by my team going to feed starving kids Now that is "feel good work".
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.