Are You Really Hearing Your Clients?

Are You Really Hearing Your Clients?

I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to sometimes spending a little too much time talking to rather than listening to a client. I sometimes get caught up in the moment, the excitement about a new project and want to share with the client all my great ideas. And sometimes I may talk a little more than I should when trying to convince a client I'm the right professional for the job because I'm eager to work on the client's event.

But not hearing a client isn't just about occasionally talking a little too much. It's more about really hearing what your client is saying and not just simply listening. I'm sure that when I sit across from a client it may appear to them that I'm listening to every word they say when in fact I may have checked out and my brain is busy elsewhere. While the client is telling me about how important the event is to their new business or the bride is telling me how important the seating arrangement for the reception is I may be off thinking about something else entirely. I might be thinking about how I can make the wedding or the event the way I envision it. Or I might be thinking about how I can make the event so great that the client will absolutely love what I've done and bring me tons of new clients or I may be thinking about how much money I can make on the project or it could be a million other things.

I'm not saying I don't care about the client or their event when I'm not listening its just that sometimes I lose my focus. And this occasional lack of attentiveness becomes evident later when I'm sorting through the notes I've taken from a meeting and feel that I'm missing something important that the client wanted me to know. For example in my notes i might have written down that the client wants blue tablecloths for the wedding reception but because I wasn't really hearing the client I won't remember the shade of blue she described or why its so important for her to have that exact color.

When you're really hearing your client you pick up on things that they may have mentioned in passing but did not emphasize as important but are in fact extremely important to them. A client doesn't always tell you everything thats going on in their head and if you're not really listening you may not hear what they're really saying and miss something important.

For example a particular business client may care more about the time line for their event being strictly adhered to than if the table arrangements for the event are just right. It may be extremely important to the client that every part of the event starts and finishes on schedule.

The client may be direct with you about how extremely important the event timeline is to her. If she's being direct with you she may say, "Everything has to follow my exact timeline. This is the most important thing about this event." But then again she may try to communicate to you the importance of the timeline in a less direct way. She may instead simply mention to you how she wants to impress her boss and how her boss really admires exactness and punctuality or she may mention how managing this event with no delays is her way of getting the boss to notice her scheduling abilities.

So on the day of the event if I as the planner spend too much time making sure the table arrangement is just perfect which then delays the first speaker the result could be an unhappy client. I'll be left wondering why the client isn't pleased. I'll think to myself but I got the seating just right and it only delayed the event by five minutes. But, if I had really been hearing my client I would have realized that nothing was more important to her than the event schedule and I would have made sure every aspect of the event happened at the scheduled time whether I had the table arrangement exactly right or not. I would have worked to make sure the opening speaker began on time, the lunch was served at exactly the scheduled time and the closing speaker began his/her speech at the designated time etc.

When you're really hearing a client you know the important questions to ask to clarify what the client's priorities are for the event. For example a client may be talking with you about the birthday party for his dad. The client spends time talking to you the planner about the video he's working on for his dad's birthday and how he wants to show it at the party and how happy it will make his dad when he sees it. Now if you're really hearing the client you'll get just how important this video is to the client and that the video screening is vital for the clients positive evaluation about the success of the event.

Now that you've established how important this video is to the client because you've been really hearing him you'll also know the right questions to ask the client for example... Is the video completed? Or do you need an expert to help you edit it?
Do you need me to find someone with the right equipment and expertise so you can sit back and enjoy the video with your family?
What time do you want to show the video? etc.

Of course I'm simplifying all these examples but what I'm attempting to do is to make the point that you as a planner or vendor need to read between the lines when talking with your client. You need to do more than just simply listen. If you don't really hear your client you can lose them and not because you're not a great planner or a dedicated vendor but because you like me forgot to focus on really hearing what the client is saying or maybe not saying to you. Unless you really listen you may miss out on what is most important to the client and what will make the event a success to them.

Often times we as planners or vendors look back on an event and wonder why the client wasn't totally happy with our work. It seems to us that we did what the client asked of us. We feel that all the details that the client specified were taken care of. So we think where did we go wrong? It might have been that somewhere along the line we missed something important that the client was trying to tell us. We might have been listening to the client but we weren't really hearing them.

article also posted on www.goarticles.com