• 
• By Stephane LEE
• on Aug 18th, 2006

“Your client is a pain in the ass !”

“ Your client is a pain in the ass!» That is the typical phrase coming from a technician, a production manager or even from a managing director.  But more generally speaking, that is what you’ll hear from anyone dealing with the administrative side of the business and who does not like to think out of the box.  You know, outside…where you may encounter weird creatures, nervous, agitated and dark which come and grab at your ankles or even break your … as soon as you look …outside!

Poor salesman, stuck between a rock (the administration) and the hard place (demanding client). He has to deal with all kinds of frustrations:  not being able to say yes and satisfy his client, not being able to rely on his internal technical/administrative support to do so, not receiving support from internal hierarchy either, he has to fend for himself to defend his client’s interests.

All this lead him to steer a delicate course between the different actors in his company: such as buying drinks to the best engineers so they may take a look at his files, show off, seduce his supervisors by sucking up to them. But in doing so, he is shooting himself in the foot since all salesman maneuvers are well known to the initiated ones…

He spends more time seducing internal forces than prospecting for clients, wasting energy, has less appointments and of course less business leading to less commission…

On top of it, production staff has the nerves to tell him:  ‘Your customer is a pain in the ass!’ On the one hand because it is true and on the other hand because production knows what he is up to.

I can already hear some of you say:  ‘but we cannot allow such things to be said! Situations must be resolved!’ People saying that obviously missed the boat:  let’s face it, not everybody is the same…some want to be in sales, others want to be technicians while some others want to be president

Nobody is the same and that’s the way it is. I defy any manager to change human nature. People rarely change and if they do so, it is very slowly…simply because in order to change you have to undo what has taken so long to create.

‘Technicians’ or production staff in general, want to build things the right way so they last. They like order and efficiency, even if they lack these qualities personally.

That is why we hire them for production teams.  In business, production has one sole goal:  optimize resources whether material, financial or human. This particular goal being the alpha and omega of production managers.

Since the days of Henri Ford, we know this goal can be achieved by standardized mass production. No such luck for SSII’s (computer engineering and maintenance company) production manager or for an agency selling specific services!  He is bound to be in conflict with what the company sells…

Production staff could care less about where their monthly salary comes from. It is simply taken for granted. Who pays what he earns?  Even in a privately owned business, he does not really know, the Government may be?

Nobody even bothers telling him that numbers on his payroll come from a very specific origin:  customers.

Here comes the bad word:  customer. Even if we are a compulsive buyer, when working for a supplier, the customer remains a mystery. The salesman represents him, ever since the industrial revolution, and has to defend his interest within the internal organization

The salesman is at the customer’s service. He manages customer relations but is not alone in this mission. Many people outside the sales department interact with the said client: call centers, hotline technicians, webmasters, sales administrators or even hostesses. They all need the necessary personal qualities to interrelate and provide customer service. They all belong to a bigger picture, customer relation, which main goal is to serve the customer and make sure he is happy and remains so.

In a company there are only 3 professions despite what renowned business schools might think:
1.  Customer relation
2.  Production
3.  Innovation and commercialization
The third profession requires creative, innovative and intuitive people whose first goal will not be to satisfy the customer nor optimize resources but to create products, services and image.

I therefore strongly believe that ‘Your customer is a pain in the ass’ falls into place because:
• people are different
• they belong to departments which serve different purposes

Does it mean that there is nothing we can do to improve things and place the customer as a higher priority within businesses?  Does that mean the customer driven attitude is pure marketing fantasy?

Not quite.
There is a way to better the interaction between professions and to hear out the customer’s voice within internal structures. A way that would allow us all to share the same information, the same view of the clients expectations and the same understanding of that strange creature who feeds us all.
Did you guess?

1. On Aug 19th, 2006 at 12:53 by Jeremy Fain

Superbe analyse: c’est vrai que les commerciaux n’ont pas bonne presse auprès des services production (produire plus vite) et logistique (acheminer plus vite). Et vous rejoignez Drucker en quelques sortes, qui disait que l’entreprise se résumait à deux fonctions: le marketing et l’innovation.

2. On Aug 24th, 2006 at 19:25 by marketingrama.info

Il nous fait chier, ton client !...

Il nous fait chier, ton client ! . Cest une rflexion typique dun ingnieur, ou dun responsable de production, ou dun directeur gnral. Plus gnralement, de quelquun qui est tourn vers le fonctionnement interne de la boite, et qui naime pas regarder lextr…

3. On Aug 27th, 2006 at 22:45 by Jean François

J’ai été chef de projet, chargé d’affaire en webagency. C’est completement ça. Très bonne analyse. Pour votre nouvelle aplli, je suis impatient. Tenez nous au courant.
Très bon blog au fait.

4. On Aug 29th, 2006 at 8:14 by Stéphane LEE

Jeremy, Jean-François,

Content de voir que l’article vous a plu, merci pour vos commentaires.

Quant à Drucker, je ne crois pas qu’on puisse généraliser ce qu’il dit. Certaines entreprises excellent dans le Marketing/innovation, et elles ont tendance à sous-traiter toute la Relation Client et la Production, certes.

On verra dans les années qui viennent une radicalisation de ce mouvement, qui conduit à déstructurer l’entreprise intégrée telle que nous la connaissons (qui je le rappelle est issue de la Révolution Industrielle et centrée sur la Production). Certaines se spécialiserons dans la Production, d’autres dans la Relation Client, d’autres dans le Marketing/Innovation...Attention àcelles qui ne sauront pas choisir leur “Core Business” !!!

Des nouvelles de Feedback2.0 à la rentrée, c’est à dire très bientôt.

5. On Sep 06th, 2006 at 9:54 by Christelle

Je pense que l’avenir sera dans le marketing relationnel, c’est à dire un marketing qui écoute le client plutôt que de lui parler sans chercher à le connaître.
Le ‘consumer empowerment’ prend de l’ampleur mais il est à manié avec précautions si l’on en croit le courant de pensée selon lequel le consommateur ne sait pas ce qu’il veut.
L’écoute du consommateur est par ailleurs bien difficile : en effet, qui sont ceux qui cherchent réellement à se faire entendre mais qui se sont découragé en raison d’une mauvaise gestion du service consommateurs/réclamations? Il y a des silences qui parlent bien plus que des réclamations ...
l’avenir sera aux chefs de produits marketing qui utiliseront les sondages et enquêtes dans le but non pas de confirmer leurs projets et idées mais avec l’objectif d’écouter réellement le client.

6. On Sep 08th, 2006 at 8:18 by Stéphane LEE

Oui, Christelle, et j’espère bien que Feedback2.0 pourra servir à cet objectif : écouter le client.

“Le consommateur ne sait pas ce qu’il veut” : encore un vieux cliché inventé par des gens qui croient savoir ce que nous voulons...Heureusement que ces demi-dieux s’occupent de nous

7. On Sep 27th, 2006 at 14:07 by Jean-Pierre

Tout à fait d’accord sur les hommes et les clients (Cf. notre blog).
Il faut maintenant développer l’intérêt financier, soit la capacité à valoriser des actifs encore “immatériels” pour l’entreprise : Comment calculer la valeur du portefeuille client comme on valorise une marque ?
Peut-être un sujet à lancer pour mieux développer les actions de relation client ?

8. On Oct 10th, 2006 at 15:29 by

Les méchants sont à la prod !!

je suis formateur (à la prod donc) dans une boite de formation dont les produits sont orientés vente, marketing....

les commerciaux vendent tout et n’importe quoi à n’importe qui sans même savoir ce que nous sommes capables de faire ni les idées de produits que nous avons…

mais c’est vrai seul les commerciaux connaissent les clients, alors que nous passons ensuite plusieurs heures avec eux.

9. On Oct 11th, 2006 at 16:18 by Stéphane LEE

Frank,

Je sens un pointe d’amertume dans votre commentaire.

En relisant l’article, vous verrez que je ne prends pas position, ni ne cherche à opposer tel ou tel fonction de l’entreprise.

Tout le monde est utile, et pour mieux travailler ensemble, il faut communiquer…

10. On Oct 11th, 2006 at 16:21 by Stéphane LEE

Jean-Pierre,

Il me semble que les opérateurs télécom et les FAI savent très bien valoriser la valeur d’un portefeuille client, avec la notion d’ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).

Ne parlons pas des start-up Internet, qui valorise directement leur audience.

Peut-être des exemples à suivre....
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11. On May 13th, 2008 at 22:25 by Mike Muscle

Stephane,

I will print this article and show my boss