You Can't Win a Fight with Your Client: & 49 Other Rules for Providing Great Service

By Tom Markert

In this follow-up to You Can't Win a Fight with Your Boss, Tom Markert returns to provide clever, timeless advice on how to offer exceptional service. The most important rule? You can't win a fight with your client!

As American companies large and small have shifted their focus from manufacturing to providing services, keeping clients satisfied has become critical to the survival of every business. Yet, very few people have mastered the art of managing clients successfully. In You Can't Win a Fight with Your Client, Tom Markert argues that the secret to great service lies in understanding and applying a few fundamentals. In fifty small doses, he provides practical advice on how to manage your relationships with your clients and ensure they receive the kind of service that will keep them coming back for more.

A perfect resource for anyone working with clients at any level, You Can't Win a Fight with Your Client is the no-nonsense, straightforward guide to keeping clients happy in today's hypercompetitive and demanding business environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061757884

Tom Markert

Tom Markert is CEO of Ipsos Loyalty Worldwide, a Market Research provider to many Fortune 500 companies and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of State Auto, a publicly traded property and casualty insurer based in Columbus, Ohio. He has held leadership positions at ACNielsen, Citicorp, and Procter & Gamble and has held positions on the board of directors of the Australian professional basketball team the Sydney Kings and the American Chamber of Commerce in New South Wales, Australia. He lives in Connecticut.

Book preview

RULE 1

Know Your Products

You can never be truly effective with a client if you do not have a solid understanding of your product portfolio and the full capabilities of your company. There is no shortcut or workaround on this one. Clients want their problems solved as fast and painlessly as possible. Your ability to supply a solution is critical. A superficial understanding of your products and their range of capabilities simply isn’t good enough. For example, when a client says, Here is where I need your help. Is this something that you do? You can’t answer, I’m not sure. I’ll get back to you. Why? Because the client will surely assume that even if you do offer a service that can help solve that particular problem, it must not be core to what you do or surely you would have known immediately. Credibility crusher!

Perhaps worse, not fully understanding your company’s range of capabilities can cost your company dearly both in terms of immediate and long-term sales. Imagine if your company had a product or capability you were unaware of and thus failed to bring it to your client’s attention. As a result, your client brought in a competitive supplier who did a great job on the project. You now have a problem or at least a worry you didn’t need to have.

If you are running a large account, take the initiative to ensure that you and everyone who works for you is fully trained on all your products and

Reviews for You Can't Win a Fight with Your Client

[sandydog1_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a basic, concise, common-sense listing about how to leave your emotions at home, and lead, perform, execute, behave - at work. It is much simpler and perhaps in a way better, than that extremely similar contemporary guide, The Rules of Work.