During the last call session of 10X Business Owners Mastermind Group, we touched on a topic of great interest to entrepreneurs and that is how to build a good client relationship, which is true and above all, lasting.
So the purpose of this call is very simple. Get together as business owners, talking about business, real-world business issues, and challenges we face right now. On this occasion, the biggest or most common business challenge that I went through this week was the customer relationship (how to build a client relationship, what happens when it is not done correctly, and many other things).
Client relationship: Stories
To warm-up, I started by telling my personal story, a call I received a few days ago saying: Hey, someone has placed an order. And we are subsets. We suspect fraudulent activity. And so we’re calling you, it’s been a charge of $ 843 from New Jersey, and we just want to verify that this is you. I knew right away it was spam, it was a fraud, didn’t even press a button or take the call.
I knew immediately who it was. An employee who had been working with me for 20 years, to whom I had given my complete confidence, a serious mistake that many times we make without realizing it, and a lesson that we have had to learn in the rudest way.
On the other way, Alan Reeves, as an IT service provider, told us that (at least) his company provides third-party and higher levels of security on certain services than you normally find out of the box. This means that you can subscribe to the services themselves, or you can get them through his company. One of the things they do is provide an additional layer of security in addition to Office 365 being a great technology and security solution.
His story was pretty much the same as mine. Basically, a member of his client’s staff had created a rule within their email system to forward each work email to a personal email address, along with a couple of other rules, to prioritize email from some people. And, this person was preparing to go ahead and take whatever he could.
However, this person could not do much as the alarm system quickly made them realize. This is something that is hardly talked about but that is latent in every business, intellectual property.
Many times, we can see what happens to someone we know, a friend of a friend, but we never think that this situation could knock on our door one day, so to build a client relationship, we must first get to know our own employees.
As a consultant, these types of situations tend to happen very often, for example, I had the opportunity to interview each and every employee of one of the last companies I worked with, making sure that the right people were in the right seat. on the bus and that, you know, they would maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
There I met the right hand of the owner who was in charge of accounting and payroll. And I said, hey, what are you doing? Looking at her evaluation, she just didn’t touch on her skills programs, which made me wonder if she was the right fit for the position. She did not feel comfortable in her job, and so, basically, I designed a job for her since she was 12 years old in the company, soon after she resigned.
We then discovered that over the past seven years he had embezzled money from the capital, a gain of approximately $ 275,000, using the Office Depot card and the Staples card. This is another thing where, you know, by accident, we get an alert using a piece of technology.
Also, I want to alert you all, who knows how deep this can get, where employees are forwarding things to themselves because they are possibly going to start their own agency.
The Point
Now, the reason for all this is the following, as a company, the person who owns the client relationship, owns the customer. You cannot give free rein to your employees, that they are the ones who have a client relationship, as the owner of your business, you must take care of your clients yourself.
Your employees may have a lot of malice and want to take away what you have achieved with so much effort, however, if you are the one who manages your own client relationship, you can keep your clients. Nobody can take that away from you.
Protect your intellectual property, try to know who you hire for your services, and never let other people do your work. Your clients are your most valuable asset, and therefore, what you must take care of and protect the most.
Image Credit: Career Employer
