Thursday, February 4, 2010

Repurcussions of not acting on what you heard

Most of the time I talk to clients about how to best manage and develop their relationships with their customers and stakeholders through listening and conversation, but generally the client knows their customer better than I ever will. They know better than I do as to what will resonate with them than I ever can when I first walk into a meeting with them. If they didn't, they would not be in business.
Today I was reminded of this when against better judgment I was pressured into allowing someone to push a product on one of my clients who had recently signed a contract with us for a similar product. The situation meant trying to tell the client to buy a product that cost more, would take several times longer to get the results that we had told them, correctly, we could deliver in a six week period.
It is not that the alternative product did not have benefits, it is not that we weren't listening to our client as to what they wanted, it was the fact that we were, for want of a better word, dumb enough to try and push something inappropriate to their immediate needs.
It was perhaps one of the most uncomfortable meetings I have had to attend with an eerie silence over it that left me knowing that something was not right and that there would repercussions. Sure enough, as the strategist on the job the client turned around and asked me to be removed from project. I do not blame them - here they were expecting a meeting to talk about timelines and instigation of a community and instead were being told that they did not have the right tool.

"hang on, are you telling us that you cannot achieve what we paid for?"

It has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. After developing a relationship for 6 months I let someone else pressure me into doing something that I knew was not what the client wanted or had paid for. Luckily I have excellent colleagues who are able to continue managing the relationship and have some hard work ahead to prove that we are capable of doing what we said we could and regaining trust.
As for me, I learnt the lesson of listening and then against better judgment, allowing someone else who did not know my customer to tell me what they needed and press it on them. One big mistake that I have certainly learnt from.

2 comments:

Praz said...

I like this comment a lot....

"s for me, I learnt the lesson of listening and then against better judgment, allowing someone else who did not know my customer to tell me what they needed and press it on them. One big mistake that I have certainly learnt from"...point noted :)!

Praz said...

Leave it to the experts I say...

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