This has been a topic of discussion here at Select Metrix several times. So how do you refer to the companies with whom you do business? Kendra Lee, guest author for Jonathan Farrington has this to say.
From my perspective a client is a person whose business you have a vested interest in, and for whom you perform as a partner within their business. Not everything you provide is billable. And not every opportunity you are awarded was shopped with the competition for the best price.
In contrast, customers are people who you help meet a need. They have a problem. You address the problem. You may invest long hours in determining the right solution. They may invest a great deal in purchasing the solution, but they don’t recognize the value of your recommendations. You don’t take time to present new ideas, perform quarterly review meetings, or call them spontaneously.
An interesting thought. Whether you agree or not, I think we would all agree that having more clients according to the description above would make our businesses more profitable. So how do we get to this point where we are viewed as partners?
I think Kendra is right on the money with her thoughts on the subject – we need to start treating them as our partners. We can do that by forging new ideas, identifying strategic business objectives, holding review meetings and taking responsibility for our errors are just a few. Realistically, I don’t think that everyone we do business with will see us as a partner which is is ok. However, we need to do our part to make sure that we don’t give them an easy reason to do so.