We face battles within our practices everyday between time spent on service or production. Going the extra mile is key to a great practice, but certain clients are just too needy. While you would hate to fire the client, the person is distracting you from the rest of your practice.
Dealing repeatedly with a few ornery clients and their misplaced documents along with waiting for their unreturned phone calls, having to re-explain low renewal cap and participation rates…they’re rarely pleased and it can seem never-ending.
Great customer service is obviously paramount, but when does client service turn to monopolization of your resources? Some clients can become so demanding that I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked my staff to come sit at their home to wait on the cable guy and pick up their dry cleaning on the way there.
A DIY solution
I’ve found by explaining why we won’t get to an ornery client’s problem until next Thursday and then politely offering the client a do-it-yourself solution works really well. Often, the client request isn’t actually urgent, but this empowerment tactic allows the client to decide if they want to invest their own time to get their answer. Be prepared with the number of their contract, carrier phone number and the name of the person they should ask for before they call. Communicate how much quicker they can get answers by going direct.
Think ahead about all the excuses your client will use to guilt or goad you into being their menial task go-to person. Practice your responses ahead of time to deflect and divert them directly to the carrier. Train your staff on polite responses to those often difficult clients. The client will likely insist on speaking to you, their agent or rep. Still, use your staff as the first line of diversion.