Communicate Effectively with Clients by Operational Excellence Consulting

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved.
Effective Client
Communication

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved. 2
Contents
Introduction to Effective Client Communication
Stakeholder Management
Guidelines for Working with Clients
1
2
3
NOTE: This is a PARTIAL PREVIEW. To
download the complete presentation, please visit:
http://www.oeconsulting.com.sg

Introduction
1

Introduction to Effective Client
Communication
• Employees are accustomed to working with their internal
clients as a normal course of business.
• However, working with external clients brings the need
for potential new skills.
• The service environment requires that your professionals
are able to adapt to unique client situations and help
drive change based on the agreed strategic direction.

Introduction to Effective Client
Communication
• As a service provider, you must be prepared to deploy
qualified subject matter experts across geographies in
accordance with client agreements.
• You must be prepared to interact with your clients in a
professional manner, forming successful business
relationships.
• This presentation is focused on the “soft skills” needed
to establish, develop and maintain the long term
successful business relationships with your external
clients.

“We must open the
doors to opportunity.
But we must also equip
our people to walk
through those doors.”
Lyndon B. Johnson

Stakeholder Management
2

Stakeholder Management – What is it?
Continual, effective personal interactions are
the key to success
• Recognizes that businesses are run by human beings
• Confirms that people prefer to work with others whom
they respect
• Uses personal interactions to calibrate client satisfaction
via:
 Formal meetings
 Published reports or data summaries
 Informal business or social interactions

Stakeholder Management – Why is it
important?
Effective Stakeholder Management provides
significant benefits to both parties
• It establishes and builds on personal relationships:
 Escalations of people who know and respect each other are less
likely
• It provides early warning of potential issues
 Active listening is essential
• It promotes proactive account management
 A useful way to anticipate changes

Stakeholder Management – Who are they?
The client stakeholder includes more people
than you might think
• Executive organization charts are a start, but consider
this:
 The list also includes client personnel...
 ...whose personal performance is affected by the service provider’s
performance
 ...whose opinion on the service provider’s performance carries weight
with others
 ...who may resent the presence of your organization as a service
provider

Stakeholder Management – Important Skills
Good client facing skills are essential to
demonstrating professionalism
• Show you care for the client’s company as much as (or
more than) they do:
 Do your homework, get to know your client’s company
• Be very responsive at all times:
 Don’t assume they know you are working on an issue – tell them!

Stakeholder Management – Final
Observations
Find the right balance between assertiveness
and sensitivity in your behavior
• Don’t just collect opinions, create them!
 You can guide some stakeholders to your conclusion
• Become an expert in reading body language:
 Sometimes the words just aren’t that important
• Be responsive, but drive your agenda when you can:
 You don’t have to be the victim

Setting and Meeting Expectations
CONFIRM
DEFINE
COMMIT
EXECUTE
Building and
maintaining trust
with our clients
and each other
Understand the
complete request
and expected
outcomes
Execute as per
commitment
Make a
commitment that
is both realistic
and achievable
Verify the
execution fulfills
the complete
request and
expected outcomes

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
• Define
 Time
 When do you want this?
 Is this a priority?
 Specifications
 What do you want it to do?
 What is it you are looking to improve?
 Cost
 How much resources are available?

• Commit
 Confirm client’s decision and performance criteria and show how
your organization’s options will perform
 Select and present the best option
 Develop initial benefits and business case
 Identify resources and investment
 Identify risks and potential issues

“Do what you do so well
that they will want to
see it again and bring
their friends.”
Walt Disney

Guidelines for Working
with Clients
3

Behavior
You are a Service Provider and Will be Held to
a Higher Standard
• Don’t agree to things that are outside the scope when
put on the spot, take them back as open items to discuss
with your team
• Do not mention another client by name – use industry
descriptions – client will want to know that you are
treating their information (names, data, etc.) with the
same respect

Presentations / Emails
Let Your Professionalism Shine
• Make sure the numbers in a presentation are consistent
• Save and spell check your work
• Fix the document properties
• Use search and replace to quickly sanitize a document
 If you are using a template and/or re-using a document, be sure
to search for other client names and remove accordingly
• Proof read

“Quality in a service or
product is not what you
put into it. It is what
the client or customer
gets out of it.”
Peter Drucker

About
Operational Excellence
Consulting

About Operational Excellence
Consulting
• Operational Excellence Consulting is a management
training and consulting firm that assists organizations in
improving business performance and effectiveness.
• The firm’s mission is to create business value for
organizations through innovative operational excellence
management training and consulting solutions.
• OEC takes a unique “beyond the tools” approach to enable
clients develop internal capabilities and cultural
transformation to achieve sustainable world-class excellence
and competitive advantage. For more information, please visit
www.oeconsulting.com.sg

END OF PREVIEW
To download this presentation,
please visit:
www.oeconsulting.com.sg

Communicate Effectively with Clients by Operational Excellence Consulting

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