Unreasonable Customer Expectations
Familiar?
The simple fact is, that some customers can be awkward with unreasonable expectations. We hear from our clients all the time that they sit on job instructions and quotes, and then out of the blue panic to get the job started and completed, with no consideration for your business! Ironically, when it comes to payment, they seem to lose that demanding energy, to pay on time!
Demands on service & maintenance businesses can create huge internal stress, as well as impacting on performance and communication. Businesses can often spend a huge amount of time talking to themselves, trying to rearrange jobs even letting other people down to meet the thoughtless demands. This often creates too much distraction and reduced focus from the day-to-day work!
Important Clients
No matter how important a client may be to your business, by them creating avoidable demands, your company will become mentally exhausted (heads down, client seen as the enemy) not to mention the financial impact of you working round the clock to make it happen!
Maybe they will change?
Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, the unreasonable customer, moreover the nature of the customer, is unlikely to change no matter how much you try to make them understand the impact of how they work, has on your business.
So, what’s the answer?
We believe the answer lies in becoming as flexible and organised as possible. Service & Maintenance companies are unlikely to drop a customer because of their poor work distribution. So, becoming more streamlined in your own business is really important. A job management system can increase employee productivity. Which could mean your staff becomes more agile, able to do more of what makes your company successful, meeting the demands placed on the business without increasing your payroll.
It’s what you do that matters!
Improving efficiency by automating routine activities normally completed by people, will free up time. Paperless job sheets, more work completed in a day creates headroom and companywide visibility, who’s doing what, how long, and the next job on their list, all at a glance. Where possible reduce the risk of errors by reducing human involvement from routine manual tasks.
In addition, you can provide clients with up‐to‐date information on how their work is being managed. Getting it right the first time is priceless, it has so many positive benefits on your business, plus it will really help manage your unreasonable customer.
Clients will always march to the beat of their own drum, but by being more streamlined yourself, responding to them is easier, and most importantly it’s likely to be more profitable.