Do you feel like a vendor or partner isn’t giving enough time to you?
It happens fairly often in the agency and business services world.
Some clients seem to get preferential treatment while others seem to get second class service.
Obviously you care about your business, but it’s a challenge to get your clients to care just as much.
You could try simply paying more. That’s one way to get more attention from a partner or vendor, but that’s not always possible.
Here are some other ways you can get preferential treatment.
1. Pay Immediately
This is a big one.
Do you like your customers to pay you right away or whenever they get around to it?
Your clients are the same as you. They love getting paid immediately.
The opportunity here is that your vendor might not get paid immediately from other clients. They might even have to continually chase down payments from other clients.
You can step in and pay right away, every time. Your vendor will love you for it and it’s a great way to get them to pay more attention to you.
2. Say “Thank You”
It seems simple and it really is, but for some reason we take it for granted.
We all like hearing “thank you” when we do something good for another person and that includes in business settings.
It’s easy to fall into the line of thinking that we pay money and the vendor does a good job for us and that’s enough. But it’s still important to be grateful. I know I need to improve in this area.
Each month I try to set reminders to thank the people I work with. It seems to make a difference and I think it makes people more likely to enjoy working with me.
3. Give Positive-Constructive Feedback
Some of us like to think that constructive feedback means negative feedback. We expect things to be done 100% correct and when something is done 98% the way we want we only mention the 2% that needs to change.
Hearing negative comments all the time can wear people down including your vendors. I guess this goes back to saying thank you a little bit.
Tell your vendors what they’re doing well. That will encourage them to continue doing the positive things. And that’s what you want, right?
It’s positive-constructive feedback.
4. Limit Favor Requests
Some clients ask for favor after favor. They sign a contract with a vendor and then they start asking for extras.
That will really wear the vendor down. They won’t mind it the first few times, but it usually becomes habit and then the vendor will resent the client because the situation seems unfair.
If you want to be the good client then limit your favor requests. You can still ask for things that are really important, but take a moment to really think about what you’re asking for and if you can get it some other way or if you should use of your limited favor requests.
5. Respect Non-Working Hours
This one has become more of an issue in the last 5-10 years with smartphones and constant access to our emails and correspondence. It’s easy to expect people to respond to emails and communication within hours or even minutes and at all times of the day.
Respect your vendor’s non-working hours. Don’t expect employees to get back to you while they’re not on the clock.
You can do so by not getting irritated if you don’t have back within hours (but do hear back within 1-2 business days).
You can also ask your contact at the vendor about their personal life and communicate the importance you see in a good work-life balance.
6. Avoid Jumping To Conclusions
If something goes wrong don’t jump to the conclusion that it was the vendor’s fault. Most things are as urgent as they seem in the moment.
If there is an issue look into it yourself. Calm down and then reach out to the vendor. Explain the situation and see what their thoughts are.
The more calm you are and the more reasonable you are the better. The vendor will be more likely to work with you and more likely to fix the issue because they’ll be able to focus on the issue instead of being distracted by your over-the-top reaction to the issue.
7. Send Referrals
Finally, you can always winning brownie points by sending referrals.
If you like what the vendor provides you probably already do this when the opportunity comes about. But you can take it a step further by adding a note on your calendar for every three months to try and send one or two referrals to the vendor.
That’s four referrals every year. You can bet if you’re sending that many clients to the vendor that they’ll love you.
Conclusion
Many businesses that have businesses for clients like to keep things equal. It’s a good way to do business. They don’t want to have to treat some clients better than others.
But that can get frustrating as a client if you feel that you’re not getting the attention you deserve. Or maybe your vendor does have favorites, but you’re just not one of them.
Use the tips above to get on the good side of your partners and vendors. It’s a good way to improve your business by creating better relationships with those that you work with.
