Sally runs a small consulting firm in Northern N.J. She provides HR services to small businesses. Sally knows that professional behavior matters. When she started her company and began marketing professional services, she made a point of following-through with clients consistently. But as her business grew and client demand increased, Sally had a hard time keeping up. She had built her reputation on referrals, but recently noticed that the number of referrals had dropped dramatically.
Jonathan is a long time client of Sally’s. He runs a small design firm, and has referred more than a dozen of his friends, relatives and clients to Sally over the years. A couple of months ago, Jonathan’s had an employee crisis and needed to reach Sally. He left messages on her office and cell numbers, but he didn’t hear back. Jonathan values professional behavior and expects it from all of his vendors. Thinking there must be something wrong, he tried a couple more times to no avail. Finally, he decided to call another consultant, Jerry, who he met at a networking event the week before. Jerry responded quickly and got the job done. When a colleague needed an HR referral last week, he naturally gave out Jerry’s, not Sally’s number.
Margaret, a business attorney, has sent Sally a number of referrals over the years. But the past few times she gave out Sally’s number, clients reported that they couldn’t reach her. Margaret picked up the phone, left a voicemail, and was frustrated to find that her call wasn’t returned either. Like Jonathan, Margaret believed that follow-thru was critical, and was concerned to find that Sally’s was slipping.
When marketing professional services and maintaining business relationships, response time counts. It doesn’t matter how busy you are. It doesn’t matter that you mean well. Lack of response makes clients, prospects and referral partners feel as though you don’t value their business, and that drives them away.
If Sally’s situation sounds familiar, here are a couple of things you can do to improve your referability, salvage your reputation and your relationships:
1. Apologize. Don’t be an ostrich, take your head out of the sand and say you’re sorry.
2. Re-think your time and response strategy. If you simply don’t have the time to respond, develop a new strategy to deal with calls and emails that’s foolproof.
3. Don’t promise more than you can deliver. It’s better to be honest, say you can’t do something, or quote a longer delivery or response date if necessary.
Is response time impacting your referability?
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Susan Martin, marketing professional services.
