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The Customer Is King!
Some professional advisers still need to learn that customer is king. Robert Craven outlines the needs of the typical growing business.
I run a consulting company that employs between seven and ten employees depending on the time of year and state of the economy.
My professional advisers – accountant, lawyer, architect, financial adviser - are very important to me. Many run their own businesses, just like me. But for whatever reason, they often don't think of themselves as being a small business. And that can cause problems for people like me.
So what is it that I want my advisers to be able to do? First and foremost, I want my adviser to understand me. I am not a number, I am not a series of digits; no, I am a person and I have very specific issues.
Show an interest in me
From where I stand, I am totally unique. No-one else has the same specific problems that I have and no-one else has the same worries and concerns. When I am going to talk about money and my business I want the other person to have a real interest in me and my aspirations.
My concerns are about business development, cashflow and how to continually motivate my staff.
Second, I want my adviser to understand the needs of a small business. If I am going to share the intricacies of business and finance with a relative stranger, then I want them to really understand (or at least be able to empathise with) just how brilliantly skilful I must been to grow my business despite all the odds!
Business is not simply about money. Advisers often seem to think that it is - an easy mistake to make if you are self-employed. Business is about people; employing and motivating people, getting people to buy from you and finding people to buy from. Business is about sales and marketing and about delivering your service or product.
And running a small business, in particular, is about passion and dreams, thrills and disappointments. It's a way of life - you don't work to live, you live to work.
I don't expect an adviser to understand everything about small businesses, but a decent rudimentary understanding is not unreasonable. Most businesses are fairly simple - understand how a business works, not in theory but in reality, that is what I want my adviser to be able to do.
Third, I want my adviser to understand my business. I have specific problems – problems that are specific to my industry, to my market and to the way that I run my business.
The adviser should know this and be able to assist with specific industry-related support – at a minimum, a knowledge of benchmark ratios would help - a bit of research would do no harm! But really I want them to add value – tell me what the situation means and what options I have. I want a partner in my business!
Swift action
Fourth, I want swift action. The systems used by most competing advisers appear to be relatively similar, so I will accept whatever calculations or recommendations are made.
What I cannot accept is intolerable delays that sometimes seem to occur. I want swift actions or at a minimum I want the answers to be there when promised… or to be offered a date when work will be completed would be nice. A little courtesy is all that I ask.
Fifth, I want to know what I am paying for and I want to know how much I am going to pay.
If an accountant or lawyer charges by the hour, then they are incentivised to work slowly.
Other professional service firms (architects, dentists, doctors) work to a price, so what’s the problem? Surely fixed price agreements would incentivise them to work more efficiently!
All I want is an adviser that understands me, understands my business, gives me decisions when promised and explains how they charge. Not much to ask, surely!
About the author
Robert Craven is a keynote speaker and author of the best-selling business books 'Kick-Start Your Business' and 'Customer Is King'. As MD of The Directors’ Centre, he works with ambitious owner-managers to break through constraints on business growth.
For further information, contact Robert Craven on 01225 851044. (rc@directorscentre.com) www.directorscentre.com
©2007 Robert Craven, Better Business
publication details
Published in Better Business, October 2007
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