Create Wealth With Your Customer Relationships

In business relationships, to create wealth you must sell products or services.  Customers, clients or patients provide these wealth building opportunities.  They need your product or service and you need their patronage.

Sometimes, the client and service provider relationship can break down and a customer can end up taking advantage of your business .

Open Forum recently published an article highlighting some bad customer red flags.

Some things to look for are:

• Clients who continue to ask for more without paying for additional services. While every customer and service provider relationship looks uniquely different, establishing what services are included in each transaction can help you when the time comes to say “no” or discuss further payment.

• Clients who (routinely) pay late but who expect on time service. Not only can a service be compromised when you’re asked to deliver high quality work at the 11th hour, but the stress for you and your staff may not be worth the business.

• Clients who second-guess your service. No one would deny that an open business to client relationship is valuable.  Understanding what the client wants and delivering is what good business is built on.

When the customer questions your ability to make informed decisions though, it may be time to have an open conversation reviewing what services you provide and what makes you an expert.

There are times when a frank discussion can clear up a misunderstanding, as every relationship takes effort.  But if it’s costing you more to keep a customer, whether in profit or mental health, it may be time to find more profitable clients.