Client Forgiveness: Improving Your Chances
Forgiveness can be a difficult thing to do when you are angry with someone who has wronged you. Especially if it is all his/her fault. If someone cuts you off in traffic, how often is your first reaction anger, or possibly to make some sort of rude gesture to the offender? It doesn’t really matter if it was intentional. I once had a woman get angry with me because I didn’t let her merge. I thought she could merge behind me and sped up to make room. However, she wanted to merge in front of me and sped up as well. Eventually she did merge behind me, but immediately passed me, pulled in front of me and slammed on her brakes. This was close to 20 years ago and yet, I still get angry when I think about it.
Building a personal relationship can help prevent some of these anger and forgiveness issues. When you have a good relationship with someone, you take the time to see his/her side of the issue. You give him/her the benefit of the doubt and consider his/her intent. You may still get angry, but if the relationship is important to you, you will eventually find a common ground, forgive and move forward. The more you like the person, the easier this becomes.
In the business world, personality connections can either make or break the relationship. For example, I have had the same hairdresser for over 7 years. She’s not the best hairdresser I ever had. Sometimes I walk out of the salon far from thrilled with the cut I received or the style she did. It is not uncommon for me to go home, wash my hair and restyle it to my preference. A couple years ago, my hairdresser went on maternity leave. During that time, I had another stylist at the salon cut and style my hair. I really liked the cut. It was one of the best cuts I’d had in recent history. But, when my hairdresser returned, so did I. Even though I didn’t get that great cut again.
Why would I continue to go to a hairdresser that didn’t wow me? Simple. I like her. I have a personal relationship with her that is more important than the service. Sure, there comes a point in a business relationship where the service is more important than the personal connection, but the greater the likeness, the greater the forgiveness. For the most part, I’m happy with the haircuts I get. They are good enough to keep me coming back and if I’m going to sit in that chair for an hour, I want to enjoy who I’m talking to.
In the business world, mistakes happen. No matter how diligent you are, you are going to mess up from time to time. If you work with those that you connect with, you have a greater chance of client forgiveness and moving past that mistake, keeping the relationship intact. In the alternative, if your client does not like you on a personal level, even the smallest of mistakes can be the reason s/he was looking for to end the business relationship.
This is why we at The Grant Company disagree with the philosophy to change who you are to relate to your clients. Instead, we recommend you work with those you connect with and refer those you don’t to someone else. In the end, you will be happier with your clients and your clients will be happier with you. You will place more business and be more readily forgiven when that rare mistake does occur.
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When was the last time you had a business relationship fall through because you did not like the person? Has there ever been a time when you accepted less than perfect service just because you liked the person? Have you ever been forgiven for a mistake that could have easily ended the relationship just because you had a good personal connection with your client?
Interesting, Debbie. I agree that I like to work with people I like and there are people I wouldn’t work with because their values or personality are so different that we wouldn’t reach common ground. It depends on the service but overall I am drawn to a certain personality and type of person.
Julie Walraven | Resume Services´s last blog ..Building Community Wherever You Go
Thanks for dropping by Julie. I agree that the service certainly matters. For example, a friend of mine recently said she won’t return to Subway, but for me, sadly, I don’t expect excellent service from Subway. I like their sandwiches and will go back even though I’ve walked out several times frustrated. A $5 sandwich is a $5 sandwich. However, I’d love to see a day again where we aren’t surprised by good service.
Hi Debbie,
You know, we had that happen recently. We were doing a job for a client and because it wasn’t communicated exactly what they wanted, I got a call that they needed us to come back out and “fix” something. I sensed the project was the wife’s “baby”, and told my husband when he went to meet them to make sure he talked to her. He did and then took the time to walk through the whole project with her asking what her “vision” was. We then redid the part she wasn’t happy with and continued on to complete the project to her specifications. She was thrilled. So thrilled she gave us more to do (over and above the original contract) and then proceeded to tell her neighbor about us (more work).
We’ve also had situations like Julie mentioned where the clients values and/or personalities didn’t match ours. In those cases, we’ve learned it’s best to just move on.
Barbara Swafford´s last blog ..Books or Blogs?
An established personal relationship is a treasure we must keep. Aside from the security of trust we earn it can make us a better person. Forgiveness on the other hand takes time, but practicing it always makes it a positive habit that we can benefit from.
Barbara,
Thanks for your comment. I think you made my point better than I did! It makes things much more pleasant when you get along with your client and vice versa. As I said, mistakes can happen, but if you have an good connection, you can not only work through those problems, but may even get more business on top of it. It’s sad how some people tend to forget this.
Walter,
I agree, forgiveness can be difficult, but if you can work through it, it can be very rewarding and you will be happier in the end.