82,468
edits
Client communication: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
===Is it ''really'' that important?=== | ===Is it ''really'' that important?=== | ||
The [[professional managerial class]]’s structural self-obsession is such that it sees its own role as a sacred calling of utmost importance to the future safety and good order of the political economy itself. | The [[professional managerial class]]’s structural self-obsession is such that it sees its own role as a sacred calling of utmost importance to the future safety and good order of the political economy itself. Its trouble is not so much ''seeing the wood for the trees'', as ''understanding there is a wood at all''. | ||
Through this prism, one is well insulated from the realities beyond the tree’s crown. | “All there is ''this'' tree. ''My'' tree. The one with many thin branches, supporting many fat birds, like ''me''.” | ||
Through this prism, one is well insulated from the realities beyond the tree’s crown. If you are lucky, the reality will be studied indifference. | |||
So first, ask: ''do we ''really'' need to communicate this to clients?'' Will [[Chicken-licken|the sky fall in on our heads]] if we do not? | So first, ask: ''do we ''really'' need to communicate this to clients?'' Will [[Chicken-licken|the sky fall in on our heads]] if we do not? | ||
===Is [[bulk email]] the right way to do it?=== | ===Is [[bulk email]] the right way to do it?=== | ||
Assume we do. | Assume we do, and it will. | ||
''Then'' ask: okay, that being the case, do | ''Then'' ask: okay, that being the case, do we really want to do that by ''[[spam]]''? | ||
If you are | Now here the size and public orientation of your business makes a difference. If you are a [[retail bank]], mailing six million people about a change to their current account terms, then ''absolutely'' you want to do this by spam. The more spam-like, the better. Your main objective is to say, “[[look, I tried]]”.<ref>Cynics might say this is really means “no bulk communication to retail clients is ever that important.” There is an element of truth to that.</ref> Your best-case scenario is that your customers ''receive'' your message, but don’t ''notice'' it. | ||
== | If you are an [[investment bank]], your clients will pay you revenue in the hundreds of thousands or millions each year. If it is important enough to tell a million dollar client, it is worth doing in person. Have your sales people [[Talk, don’t email|call]]. This is called [[relationship management]]. | ||
=== Tone and presentation matters. === | |||
Whether you are a [[law firm]] composing [[Client alert|client bulletins]] and [[Law firm seminar|seminars]], a [[client outreach]] team creating mail-shots to meet financial services regulations or — ''speak it softly'': preparing [[Contract|customer contracts]]; you know, ''actual legal [[verbiage]]''<ref>While true, considering contracts as a form of client communication to be dressed up and somehow made presentable is regarded as, if not a type of mental illness, then a bridge too far, by most in the [[legal community]].</ref> — there is a lot to be said for getting your tone and presentation right. | |||
However much there ''is'' to be ''said'', the state of contemporary professional services literature suggests not much of it is habitually ''listened to'', so those who do listen have a chance to set their communications above all the others. | However much there ''is'' to be ''said'', the state of contemporary professional services literature suggests not much of it is habitually ''listened to'', so those who do listen have a chance to set their communications above all the others. | ||
| Line 26: | Line 30: | ||
Starting proposition: | Starting proposition: | ||
{{Quote|'' | {{Quote|''Client communications are spam.''}} | ||
This tends to surprise those professional class. But customers do not want spam arriving unbidden in their inboxes, much less problems they didn’t even know they had. If you are writing to all of your customers at once, your news is either ''outright bad'' — “we’ve screwed something up” — or [[tedious|''tedious'']] — “regulations have changed and there is some stuff you need to know, say or do” — or ''annoying'' — “there is something we forgot to tell you, or we need to correct what we’ve already told you”. | This tends to surprise those professional class. But customers do not want spam arriving unbidden in their inboxes, much less problems they didn’t even know they had. If you are writing to all of your customers at once, your news is either ''outright bad'' — “we’ve screwed something up” — or [[tedious|''tedious'']] — “regulations have changed and there is some stuff you need to know, say or do” — or ''annoying'' — “there is something we forgot to tell you, or we need to correct what we’ve already told you”. | ||
| Line 32: | Line 36: | ||
If your customers care ''at all'' about your communiqué, they will care less about it than ''you'' do. Perhaps they ''should'' care, but they ''won’t''. | If your customers care ''at all'' about your communiqué, they will care less about it than ''you'' do. Perhaps they ''should'' care, but they ''won’t''. | ||
== Rules of the road == | |||
With this in mind, the [[Jolly Contrarian|JC]] offers you some rules for optimising client communications. | With this in mind, the [[Jolly Contrarian|JC]] offers you some rules for optimising client communications. | ||
==Rule 1: be brief== | ===Rule 1: be brief.=== | ||
It ought to go without saying, but the modern professional seems unable to grasp the idea: ''keep it short''. Do not use two words when one will do. Do not use one word when ''none'' will do. Writing to customers is like flying on the cheapest budget airline in the world, your words are your luggage. | It ought to go without saying, but the modern professional seems unable to grasp the idea: ''keep it short''. Do not use two words when one will do. Do not use one word when ''none'' will do. Writing to customers is like flying on the cheapest budget airline in the world, your words are your luggage. | ||
====Sub-rule: get to the point==== | ====Sub-rule: get to the point==== | ||
Presume that if a customer starts reading at all, she will stop reading | Your message should be a ''mullet'': business up front; party at the back. Presume that if a customer starts reading at all, she will stop reading your prose far more quickly than you would. If your client must do something, state it ''clearly'' and ''early'' in the communication. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
| Line 63: | Line 68: | ||
Your job is to to make your customer’s life easier, not harder. You are meant to internalise the ugliness of your regulatory environment, not to lay it on your client. It is not your client’s problem. It most likely meant to be for your client’s benefit. So: speak only in terms of consequences, and action. Where this points back to regulation, summarise. Extract. Contextualise. Put this in a format the customer can understand and relate to. ''Think'' like a professional writer, because you ''are'' a goddamn professional writer. | Your job is to to make your customer’s life easier, not harder. You are meant to internalise the ugliness of your regulatory environment, not to lay it on your client. It is not your client’s problem. It most likely meant to be for your client’s benefit. So: speak only in terms of consequences, and action. Where this points back to regulation, summarise. Extract. Contextualise. Put this in a format the customer can understand and relate to. ''Think'' like a professional writer, because you ''are'' a goddamn professional writer. | ||
==Rule 2: be clear== | ===Rule 2: be clear.=== | ||
Sub-rule: Write plainly. | |||
This is harder than it looks, because we are trained to sound clever as a first priority. Overcome this urge. Avoid passives. | |||
====Sub-rule: State consequences==== | ====Sub-rule: State consequences==== | ||
Be clear what will happen if the customer doesn’t reply. Don’t be judgmental; just matter of fact. | Be clear what will happen if the customer doesn’t reply. Don’t be judgmental; just matter of fact. | ||
| Line 74: | Line 83: | ||
| style="width: 50%" | If you do not, you must file your WHT reclaim directly with the German tax authority. | | style="width: 50%" | If you do not, you must file your WHT reclaim directly with the German tax authority. | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Rule 3: be [[Persuasion|persuasive]]== | ===Rule 3: be [[Persuasion|persuasive]].=== | ||
To the extent following rules 1 and 2 don’t get you there, remember you are writing with the idea of not just discharging some regulatory obligation to your customer — that’s a second order objective — but to make your customer think well of you. Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it. | To the extent following rules 1 and 2 don’t get you there, remember you are writing with the idea of not just discharging some regulatory obligation to your customer — that’s a second order objective — but to make your customer think well of you. Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it. | ||
| Line 84: | Line 93: | ||
Yes, it is a mass mailshot to every customer in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore to ''use a freaking mail merge''.<ref>You thought I was going to say “use [[neural network]]<nowiki/>s to guess customer names” didn’t you?</ref> What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salespeople aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your customer to be justified in calling them “dear” — or don’t, accept your customers to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it. | Yes, it is a mass mailshot to every customer in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore to ''use a freaking mail merge''.<ref>You thought I was going to say “use [[neural network]]<nowiki/>s to guess customer names” didn’t you?</ref> What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salespeople aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your customer to be justified in calling them “dear” — or don’t, accept your customers to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it. | ||
''Don’t say | ''Don’t say “[[please be advised]]”''. ''Ever''. Just don’t do it. These are your valuable customers, not truculent secondary school children plotting to burn down the staff room. | ||
“Charm” is not for everyone: it can go across badly. If you aren’t comfortable with it, don’t do it. | |||
==== Sub-rule: be emphatic==== | ==== Sub-rule: be emphatic==== | ||
Say what you mean with strong, active, assertive nouns and verbs. Don’t use [[Wieselspiele|weasel words]]. Avoid “seems to”, “appears to be”, “slightly”, “almost”, “practically”, “virtually”. Write with energy. Take personal responsibility for what you say. Avoid passives. Identify yourself. Where you can, write as “me”; failing that “we” and never “the company”. Do not refer to yourself, or your company, in the third person. ''Own'' what you say. | |||
====Sub-rule: avoid disclaimers==== | ====Sub-rule: avoid disclaimers==== | ||
Think first “what will my customer think of ''me'' if I say that”, rather than “what if I get it wrong and my customer sues me?” You are a professional. You are good at what you do. Trust yourself not to get it wrong. Disclaimers are like [[airbags]]. [[You only need airbags if you don’t steer straight]]. Concentrate on defensive driving, not crash mats. If you ''have'' to have a disclaimer — and I know, you ''will'' have to have one — keep it brief, to the point and put it at the end. If the first thing your customer reads is “[[Please be advised]] we take no responsibility for this, we are only doing this because someone said we have to, so on your own head be it”, your customer is going to think, “gee, what a douche”. Generally, that’s not how you want your customer to be thinking now, is it? | Think first “what will my customer think of ''me'' if I say that”, rather than “what if I get it wrong and my customer sues me?” You are a professional. You are good at what you do. Trust yourself not to get it wrong. Disclaimers are like [[airbags]]. [[You only need airbags if you don’t steer straight]]. Concentrate on defensive driving, not crash mats. If you ''have'' to have a disclaimer — and I know, you ''will'' have to have one — keep it brief, to the point and put it at the end. If the first thing your customer reads is “[[Please be advised]] we take no responsibility for this, we are only doing this because someone said we have to, so on your own head be it”, your customer is going to think, “gee, what a douche”. Generally, that’s not how you want your customer to be thinking now, is it? | ||