Ever argued with a client about their frustrations? I can tell you from experience, this never ends well. I've done it, and I'm sure most of us MMs have. The problem is, most clients (and most everyone) really just want to feel good at the end of the day. Sure facts are important, but when someone is upset, facts just don't matter as much.From my experience, I can say with confidence that its better for a client to feel great at the end of a project, even if all the "facts" of the events during a project may not support those feelings. That doesn't mean we allow the process to be a wreck - but it does mean if we only do an excellent job 95% of the time, but fail to really finish the final 5% well, the part most people will remember is the final 5%.
Its not like taking a test where all questions are ranked equally - the last questions are actually worth more points.
Rather than talk specifics about client relationships I've run into rough waters when failing to adhere to this ideal, I'll give you a recent example I've seen in my person life. I pre-ordered Seth Godin's most recent book a couple of months back. When I pre-ordered it, I was invited to join his Triibes network and was feeling one step ahead of the pack. Then all my friends & co-workers got their copies of the book 2 weeks before I did, and to make matters worse, they got their copies free at a conference they attended. I was pretty frustrated. Why did I go to all that effort to pre-order if Seth was just going to give out a bunch of free copies at a conference? I had to pay for shipping and I made the additional effort. Then came a package at my door last week. Inside - a letter thanking me for pre-ordering and another copy of the book (this one free and unasked for) to give to a friend or collegue.
My frustrations...gone.
The moral - people remember how you finished more than how well you ran the race.
3 comments:
Very interesting, true and somewhat unsettling. You can work your butt off, perform well 95% of the time, then screw up on the last 5% and be viewed as having performed poorly. Does this mean that we should be on our game 100% of the time? But that is emotionally exhaustive. Or are there any strategies we can employ for that finishing line?
Thanks for comment Irina! Great questions. Here's what I think...
I wish we could be on our game 100% of the time, but since we can't, I think its more about how we deal with it when we're not. Ideally, I think we gotta keep a strong game going all along the way, but we all have a tendency to start really strong and then let things wane over time. So while the answer isn't to be perfect, it is to make sure we don't let the energy wane to the level where 1.) the client isn't excited anymore 2.) we loose our own momentum and then end on a bad note because we're "tired of the project and just want to bill for it" or 3.) we let the relationship get weak between us and our client, to the point where a small problem creates a big divide. I'll blog on this some more in the coming week. Thanks a ton! - Dustin
Make right in the end! I like the post because it is impossible to have 100% perfection in projects. Glitches happen, things get lost in the mail, important emails go to spam filters and printing presses don't always get it right. However, if you can make it right in the end, make your client feel that you were attentive and always working for them, in most cases you will still have a client. For the most part they know that perfection isn't real - but true honest effort is.
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