Eating a Piece of Humble Pie: The process of repairing a client relationship

Your Client has Written You a Fuming Letter, now what?

My brother called me last night to inform me that one of our current clients had written a letter stating that they were unhappy with the company's approach and attempts to collect on a past due balance. Also the letter spelled out the amount of business we lost for future orders due to their decision to no longer use our services.

I haven't even started my first day and I am already having to jump in to try to save an account. The mistake our company made was not having a formal agreement as to the payment terms for invoices. Relying on phone conversations and handshakes is not adequate when doing business. Memories become very hazy when money is involved. Had we informed them in writing our terms and required review and approval, our client would have known that invoices are due within 10 days of being received. Now that the economy has taken a turn for the worse, clients are trying to stretch the amount of time they have to pay invoices. This leaves us at the mercy of the client, since we didn't have something in writing. Phone calls are made to collect, but the person you need to speak to is never available and does not return messages left. My brother made the choice to take further action, after the promises the client made for repayment were not met.

It is always difficult as a business to put pressure on a client for payment, when it may jeopardize any relationship. However, obligations and agreements must be kept, even verbal promises. If the client would have been more honest, explained their own situation and made realistic promises they could keep, then the situation would not have escalated to the breaking point.

The client has agreed to pay the remaining balance, but vows not to do business with us again. The fact is we made the mistake, so I'll be eating humble pie. My first reaction after reading a letter that charges us with "biting the hand that feeds us", made me very defensive and I wanted to give them a piece of my mind. We employees, who completed the work, and then our client did not fully pay us. My brother had to drag the client kicking and screaming to pay, so how are we to blame?

Again, we did not set up the terms with them, our communication was not clear when we began developing the relationship. It is our responsibility to assess our client's needs. If paying an invoice within 10 days is not agreeable to them, then we should have discussed that before we provided our services. This all could have been avoided, if the client had terms that needed to be adjusted beyond what we could deliver, then we could have made the decision not to do business. Sometimes a company's eagerness to close a deal and get some money in, blinds them to look into the details. This hurts us and it hurts the client.

Today, I wrote a letter in response.

Tips:

1. Be sure to read and reread a letter and make sure your head has cooled before putting anything into words (emails, faxes, letters).
2. Make sure you understand or acknowledge each of the points/arguments they make.
3. Address each point/argument, don't over explain just restate, so they know you got the point.
4. Calmly explain your perspective, don't remind them of the bad, state how you operate or wish to operate.
5. Find common ground, such as how you want your customers to feel about the service they receive or how your mission statements are similar.
6. Acknowledge things should have been handled differently, and how they should have been handled. Ask for their advise or that you want to discuss this further.
7. State what you see as the root cause. (In this case we did not have a signed agreement. The problem was not getting payment, but the root was us not going into this relationship fully aware of the needs of our client.)
8. Express your sincere attempt to repair the relationship, ask for their business back. (If there is hope, be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's this time.

Swallowing Your Humble Pie

Here is an excerpt of the closing paragraph of the letter I wrote. Sometimes swallowing a big bite of humble pie is the hardest part. The name censored to protect our client's privacy.

Mr. ######, I do want your business. I know that Fresh Start has a valuable product that can help you in your effort to meet your customers’ needs while minimizing the costs of labor. Fresh Start provides its workforce with a structured and disciplined residential program. In this program we provide transportation to and from the work site, and if an employee is not meeting our client’s expectations, they can be replaced the same day. Our employees are in a position where they need an opportunity to turn their life around, and clients like you who give them that opportunity provide a great service to them and the community. Our mission is to provide “a hand up and not a hand out”, and in the spirit of that philosophy I expect to earn my clients business, not just get their business. Please let me know if there is any further discussion we can have in order to repair our relationship, at best I would like you to know my sincerity over this matter. I do not want to walk away from this issue, without acknowledging what I have learned from you from your letter.

Explore This Further

For information on Relationship Marketing visit http://www.cd-vm.com/e-relationship-marketing.htm
This site does include tips on how to take current relationships with clients and make them lifetime fans, with a small section discussing how to repair damaged relationships.

I hope to focus more on making lifetime fans, then repairing relationship, but both are equally important.