How to Manage Clients Expectations

Managing expectations of your clients is one of the essential things you must do in business. This ensures that both you and the client are happy with the results. The expectations of your client will directly line up with their overall satisfaction. If they seem dissatisfied in any way, you will need to consider the root cause of this. Your goal is to raise your performance where it meets the need of your clients. Just know that there are times even when superstar companies are unable to meet the needs and expectations of their clients.

What are the Client’s Expectations?

This is an important question to ask yourself. If a client has hired you to provide consultant work, how would you help them to grow their business? How much growth would they expect? What period of time are they looking at. With this information you can begin to work on managing expectations of the client. In some cases, you might not have verbal cues for managing expectations of your client. Instead, they might have external items that will play a role in this. You might find them in things like”

• Articulation of what is expected
• Client organization standards and culture
• Industry standards and quality benchmarks
• Your personal reputation, and that of your consulting firm

In order for you to succeed, you need to take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of your client. You need to think about what they would need from you and begin managing expectations for them based on this. You’ll want to do things that utilize:

• Active listening
• Communication
• Empathy
• Feedback
• Follow-through
• Honesty
• Professionalism
• Rapport
• Respect

Should something go wrong and you have a dissatisfied client, you will need to take a step back. Look at the situation in the same manner that they would. What would you have done differently in this instance? Sometimes, it is as simple as realizing there were problems with your actions in order to effectively determine the next solution for salvaging things. You might even find that this new view on your services helps you to deliver better and more exceptional services to your customer base in the future.

Remember that when you are managing expectations, that you are human. That means don’t take a technical approach to things, and instead incorporate some heart and humanity into the situation. You need to treat these clients like you have a connection and understand that there is something beyond the technical side of things when you are conducting business.

When You Need to Set Limits

This doesn’t mean you should allow them to walk all over you. When you are managing expectations, make sure your client know what is realistic and what is not. It is okay to tell them something is beyond reasonable and exceeds a limit of what you are able to do. Boundaries help you to build rapport with your customers and the relationship becomes healthier because they do realize that you are still vested in their best interests.

When you are working with the client, think about what direction things should go in. Is research needed for them to advance? How long will it take to get data together? How will you help them to work through certain problems? Are there steps you can take to avoid problems? What is a reasonable timetable for things? The more you plan this out and think about it, the more likely it is that you can earn the trust of your client.

But: Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver

This cannot be stressed enough when you are managing expectations. Never, ever promise something you cannot do in a time that isn’t realistic. This just results in you losing their trust and a minor disappointment based on honesty, is better than the feeling of betrayal when you cannot meet their expectations of the client.

Prevention

Remember, the goal here is to make certain you are both on the same page when you are dealing with expectations. It is important to check and double check everything in the process. You cannot afford to have any kind of miscommunication in the process. It is better to never make assumptions, then to simply assume everything will be alright. After all, a client is more likely to be apologetic and more cooperative when they know you are leading them in the right direction from the start.

Gregg Swanson is a sales performance consultant and business coach and has authored several books and numerous articles on peak performance. Gregg specializes helping sales professionals develop mental strength for optimum sales performance.  You can pick-up your complementary report, “The Most Critical Step in Sales” by going HERE.