While keeping your customers satisfied is a priority of any successful business, the loss of a lone customer or two isn’t necessarily the end of the world. If, however, you’ve noticed that you have a consistent problem retaining good customers—as well as retaining good vendors and good employees—over the long haul, the problem isn’t with them. It’s you.
What You’re Doing Wrong
Business relationships are similar to personal relationships. All parties need to feel that they’re benefiting, or they won’t want to continue investing their time and energy into that relationship.
Everyone’s had the experience of spending way too much money for something that ended up being a crappy value, and then feeling resentful that you were duped. How likely are you to visit that store a second time? Not very. And while customers who have a longer-term relationship with a business may be willing to write off one bad experience and give their old favorite a second chance, they’re not liable to come back around a third time if the quality still isn’t there.
The same goes for employees. An employee who feels like the effort they’re putting in far outweighs the benefits they see in return isn’t going to continue working at a perceived deficit for very long. This doesn’t have to mean the usual overworked/underpaid story, either; the top reasons that employees quit include concerns as varied as the lack of a defined career path, insufficient career development and training, and not feeling like their voice matters.
Whether vendor, customer or employee, all these folks have one thing in common: they’re not getting what they want, which means they’re not going to stick around.
How to Turn Things Around
The specifics of why a customer leaves a business may be very different from why an employee leaves, but there are several things you can do—whether as a business manager or as an employer—to correct a course that’s headed south fast:
- Provide a platform. Most people shy away from confrontation, and find it’s easier to drift off to a competitor or go find a new job than actually sit down together and list reasons why they’re unhappy. A good business manager will touch base regularly and proactively with staff and client alike to take everyone’s pulse. Not every client or employee will take advantage of this opportunity (again, because of that that whole non-confrontational thing), but it’s important to do your best to head potential deal breakers off at the pass.
- Listen better. A sudden departure that seems to come out of nowhere never really comes out of nowhere. There were probably clues there the whole time that you either missed or dismissed. Does your normally laid-back vendor seem kinda grouchy lately? Have your customer reviews taken a sharp downhill turn? Has a previously cheerful employee become less friendly? Don’t ignore those red flags. Instead, take the time to find out what’s going on, and ask if there’s anything you can do to make things better.
- Implement changes. They say the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. If you’ve noticed that you repeatedly hear the same feedback from disgruntled employees or customers, don’t keep sticking with the status quo and expect that negativity to magically disappear. Take active steps to address those issues. And make sure that those steps are visible enough—and prompt enough—that progress is unmistakable to those who most want to see it. There’s nothing that’ll cost you a professional relationship faster than having your vendor/customer/client/employee tell you what matters most to them, then doing absolutely nothing to ensure that those needs are being met.
Building Better Business Relationships
It’s true that you can’t please all the people all the time. But when it comes down to keeping those people happy who either A) provide a significant, recurring revenue stream for your business as vendors or customers or B) work behind the scenes to keep your business running smoothly, it’s definitely worth putting in the extra effort.
Provide great customer service — not just good. Check in regularly with top talent to make sure they’re not just content, but happy. Thank your favorite vendor not just for working with you for so long, but also for being awesome. When daily operations are rolling on track as usual, it’s easy to take all the moving parts for granted. But like any finely tuned piece of machinery, your business needs regular maintenance to keep working properly. When’s the last time you scheduled a proper tune-up?