Now that you are in the big game, it is time for some quiet reflection on your business, your client relationships and your client retention strategies. Have you any idea if your clients are happy at all? Did you bother calling them up and asking how their businesses are faring? How are they doing personally? No idea?

You either have no clients or you do. If you did have clients, you have them happy or dysphoric. If they are indeed happy, just make that call on a day important to them personally and professionally to say hello and wish them and pay attention to their demands, perform consistently and succeed. But then, if they are unhappy, you then have to stand up and listen pretty hard.

Any kind of business would have its set of frustrated clientele. Nevertheless, successful businesses are those that have learnt to say sorry gracefully, accepted their failure to please clients or even went out of their way sometimes to pamper their ever demanding clients.Unhappy clients are priceless. They teach you how NOT to do business. They tell you things your employees won’t tell you and they give you an opportunity to improve your services or improve business processes. If you have been lucky not to have faced this situation yet, you are both lucky and unlucky – lucky because you are either doing great and flawless in your business operations and unlucky in a way because you seem to be missing out on some valuable customer relationship management lessons.

Clients can be tough, demanding, unyielding, cranky and even abusive. You need to get a primer on change perhaps? Someone smart once said

Awareness precedes choice and choice precedes Change

In most situations, you are presented with choices to make. You need to be aware of the choices you have, you then make a choice and then the change comes about. With clients who make your day look and feel as cold as Pluto – it could mean quite a change.

As a quick pointer, just avoid clients who are abusive. You really do not want them. They make lousy business relationships and can ruin your business. Abuse should never be tolerated. period. However, for those important, well-meaning clients who pay on time, have exciting projects but are a little demanding, cranky, cantankerous or even stupid, you just need to keep a few things in mind

Listen. Reflect. Respond - It’s simple, isn’t it? probably, that’s why it is a Truth. You just have to learn to listen and more often than not, your problems would be solved. However, this simple truth is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do for us humans. If your client gets into a vicious vituperating mode, just calm down and listen. Once you do, you will know what your client is going through. For all you know, it may not even be YOU or your Business. It could be trouble at home, broken window-panes and rattling car engines. If it is about your business, reflect on what the client has just said, think about it and you won’t win any prizes for reacting to this as soon as possible – so take your time and then respond. You could even choose to respond some other time.

Ask for more lamenting - Stupid though it might sound, ask for more vituperation and rough talk from your unhappy clients. They are a good way to know all those mistakes you must be doing and no one in your organization would have dared told you about it. Well, they are worried about a host of other things and moreover they don’t want to risk your temper. Clients , however, don’t give 2 cents to how important you are and they tell you what they feel like on your face. That’s valuable! So open up your phone lines, put up a toll-free number, have people in place only to listen to criticism, complaints and to take feedback. Open up all kinds of channels to be able to communicate with clients.

Offer Solutions while responding - It’s Respond, Not react. If you did have to respond , why not do it constructively? Offer a solution on the spot for the client’s problem. Don’t make any excuses for not having done what was expected. If what was asked is difficult to implement, do it nevertheless – Marshall all your resources, maximum manpower, maximum time and effort. It doesn’t matter. Results do.If the client is asking for something ridiculous against company policy – Fire the client. Until, then, Fire your creative cylinders.

Make the client know the biggies - Have the clients informed about a few executives in your top management so as to make them feel that they are speaking to people who make some decisions. The big wigs are better when it comes to client complaint handling. The drones usually screw things up and not even feel sorry for it. Either they did not know it or they are too inexperienced to know anything.

Learn to say sorry – If you cannot solve the client’s problem, if there is nothing else you could do about it – Learn to say sorry and walk away with a smile. Do offer to help when required but then, make the exit gracefully. This holds for abusive clients and clients who might not match your prospect criteria.

Every business will have this horror story of clients moving away to competitors and you won’t even know about it. While some of them are better off with your competitors, most others need to be retained, pampered, cajoled and pleased. That, if for lack of anything else, can lead to your business success.

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