The Common Traps Which Can Derail Great Client Relationships
Don't get sucked into hot potato situations and blame games. Always address concerns with vigour.
Welcome to my consultancy newsletter. If you want to build a thriving consultancy practice in your niche, I want to help. Please subscribe to my newsletter and check out my other articles.
It’s obviously important to have great relationships with your clients. But there are some common reasons why relationships can falter. Here are three which tend to arise often
Hot Potato Situations
A client emails you about something difficult.
You reply with a short email about the problem.
They reply with a short email in response back to you.
And so on and so forth. These are hot potato situations.
Hot potato situations occur when people exchange information about the problem without resolving the problem.
No one wants to take responsibility for resolving the problem.
This slows projects down and frequently leads to the ‘blame game’ (see below).
Hot Potato Situations Are Opportunities To Prove Yourself
I like this advice from President Obama recently.
Hot potato problems create moments when you can prove yourself as someone who gets things done. It’s an opportunity to grasp the reigns of the project and prove the kind of person you are.
It’s time to say:
I’ve reviewed the issue and I think there are [x] causes we can resolve. These are [a], [b], and [c]. The first can be resolved by […], the second issue I think can be resolved by [..], and the third can be resolved by […].
I can take the first steps by [list of actions]. But would you be ok with completing [action] by [date]?
I think we can resolve this by [date] assuming no unforeseen delays.
Again, just get stuff done. Whenever you can take the issue off the client’s plate, do so. Figure out the causes of the issue, review potential solutions to the issue, and then put together a recommendation to resolve it.
Naturally, if this suggestion leads to scope creep, then address that directly. If it’s out of scope, simply add a line such as:
We can resolve this if you want. But it’s outside the scope of our contract and we haven’t budgeted for it. So we would need to discuss either an extension of the project or decide if there are other projects we can drop to make room for this.
Alternatively, we can share how we feel it should be resolved and you can tackle it yourself. Let me know which approach works for you.
Either approach works. What matters most though is you avoid ‘hot potato’ situations with clients. Take care of the problem.
The Blame Game
A related situation is the blame game.
A common situation goes like this…
You email a client for information or to set up a call.
The client doesn’t respond (within a reasonable time frame).
The project is stalled while you’re waiting on that information.
This results in a deadline or milestone being missed.
When your contact tries to find out why the project didn’t achieve its goals, you highlight you were waiting for information from someone at the organisation.
It’s clearly not your fault, it’s theirs!
Blaming the organisation you’re working with for not hitting your deadline is a surefire way to ensure the client will never work with you again.
Similar to ‘hot potato’ situations, you’ve got to take the lead in these situations. You should exhaust every possible opportunity to get what you need to make the project work.
Waiting on the client to respond is a terrible approach to consulting.
In these situations, you usually need a process which includes:
Kindly follow up 2 to 3 times (with clear deadlines of when you need the information by).
Asking your contact to see if they can help you get the information (again mentioning the deadlines)
Having a backup plan of what to do if you don’t get that information by a certain date (and making that clear to your contact).
You can replace the information with anything you need from a client. What is most important is you have a process whereby it’s never a surprise if a project is stalled or some aspect of it isn’t completed as needed.
Ignoring Concerns
Whenever a client mentions a ‘concern’ (or, if they’re British, ‘slight concern’), they’re being polite.
What they mean is they’re incredibly worried about something and you need to dedicate the time to truly listen to and understand their concerns so you can fully resolve them.
Concerns sound bad, but they’re great opportunities to strengthen the relationship with a client.
It’s a little like dating. You don’t really know someone until you have a disagreement. How you resolve the disagreement will determine whether a person feels safe and comfortable to raise issues in the future.
You want clients to feel comfortable and happy to raise concerns. You want them to push through the overly polite barrier. When they do raise concerns, you have to respond as positively as possible.
Thanks for raising this. It really helps to have that feedback. I’m going to dive deeper into [the issue] and highlight how we’re going to resolve it. I’ll get back to you within the next day or two. Let me know if that works for you.
And if you have any other concerns, let me know. It would be great to raise them now so we have plenty of time to resolve them.
These are delicate moments in the client relationship. Whenever you encounter any concern (even unspoken concerns), you need to bring the issue to the forefront and fully resolve it.
If the client feels you have ignored or minimised their concern in any way you’re not going to have a happy end to the consulting project. My recommendation is to exhaust any concerns.
I want to take a moment to check if you have any concerns - no matter how minor - that we can try and resolve here.
A simple sentence like that gives the client the opportunity to raise any concerns and for you to resolve them.
Sometimes the client might not say something directly but you can read the tone and body language. So you might go with something like.
I just want to check that you don’t have any concerns. I might be wrong, but I’m sensing there might be some unspoken concerns we can address”
Aside, if you want to avoid concerns altogether then frequently clarify the next steps, what the deliverable(s) looks like and anything in particular they do or don’t want to see in it. Just because you agreed on something once doesn’t mean it’s etched in the client’s memory forever.
Even if it sounds repetitive, it’s good always to check you’re aligned on what the outcome will be and the journey to get there.
Make it a process to constantly clarify the outcomes, solicit concerns, and proactively notice if there is anything wrong you can address.