Things you say that make you lose your clients

Doing business is not easy.

I used to be in manufacturing and retail. Today I am in consultancy. Every time I get to meet my former competitors the first thing they tell me is, “Francis, it’s a good thing you got out. You made the right decision.”

Business potential now is found in service, but it’s no walk in the park.

Service businesses can be tough. Clients put unreasonable demands on you, call you at the unreasonable hours, and never seem to see all the little things you do where you have gone out of your way to ensure the success of the project.

You hear a lot of talk about how one should delight the customers, dazzle them, and be intimate with them; and you find volumes of books that talk about customer service.

But let us be practical.

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Rather than talking about what we should do in order to win the customer over, why don’t we talk about things we should not say so as not to lose the client?

There are some statements that you can easily give to complicate your relationship with your clients, or to lose them altogether. If you’ve ever considered self-destructing in the world of client service, here are eight proven winners to get you started:

1. “Now let me explain this to you…It really isn’t that hard to understand.” This sounds so condescending, and if I were the client I surely would be insulted.

2. “I understand you’ve got a problem. I promise you I will work on it next week. It’s just that my boss gave me another assignment and I’ll be away for a while.”

3. Now if I were the client, what instantaneously makes me mad is when I hear somebody say, “It’s not my fault. Some engineer messed up in his job. So what do you want me to do about it?”

4. This next statement could make prepare you for a boxing match. “I’m sorry but I don’t work for you. I take my order from my boss. And when he tells me to do it then that’s the time when I will do it.”

5. What about this one, “I’m sorry sir but it’s not in the contract, and so the answer is No, and it’s the end of discussion. Read my lips. End of discussion.”

6. This next statement is so simple yet it gets to me, “I’m sorry sir, but I’m new on the job.”

7. I hate it when I hear the service provider saying, “I actually was aware of the miscalculations three weeks ago, but I didn’t tell you about it, because it didn’t seem important.” Talk about responsibility.

8. Would you be thrilled with anyone badmouthing his or her own company, the very same company that pays that person’s salary? You hear statements like, “My supervisor? He’s so dumb. He must be a relative of my boss or something. I can’t figure out how he ended up in charge.”

Be careful with words. Words are so powerful that they can lose a valued client or worse, destroy relationships.

That is why we are to be accountable for our words. Even the Bible says that. Just remember this: the moment our words leave our mouth, they are no longer ours. –Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star)

(Connect with me on facebook.com/franciskong2. You can also catch me on Business Matters, Monday to Friday at 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. over DZFE-FM 98.7 ‘The Master’s Touch,’ the classical music station.)