Focus on customers
When the Enron scandal unfolded, in the snap of a finger, it and
accounting and consulting firm Arthur Andersen ceased to exist, and
those weren’t the only two companies affected.
“Even though we had nothing going on in the hopper at the time, it
was very common for people to say, ‘Hey, is there anything at Ernst &
Young we should be worried about?’” Misheff says. “There’s significant complexity when an indictment of that nature takes place.”
With that kind of anxiety in the industry, Misheff and his team wanted to be proactive in setting up meetings with clients to reassure them
and answer questions. Proactivity is one way companies can be customer-focused, whether it’s reassuring clients who are nervous about
industry scandals or taking the latest innovations to them for discussion.
“By being proactive, you bring solutions and ideas to clients to
enhance their business,” Misheff says. “Plus, I think it’s our responsibility … to understand the subject matter and know our client well
enough to say, ‘There’s something new coming down the pipeline that
you should be aware of.’”
In order to really know your clients, you have to be proactive in getting out to meet with them.
“If we sat back waiting for our phone to ring, it would be a problem,”
Misheff says. “If I’m walking around the halls and auditors are at
their workstation, that worries me. They should be at their clients.
I’d rather [not] see people at the offices because that means
they’re out at their clients, they’re being proactive, and they’re
engaged.”
When people are engaged in the business, that means they’re
communicating with clients, and, for Misheff, that doesn’t happen
using today’s fine and fancy technologies.
“You have to understand a client’s business as well as their concerns or problems, and that doesn’t happen by phone or e-mail,”
Misheff says. “I’m not a big advocate of everything done by e-mail. It’s
still a people business, and you should do it face to face.”
That face-to-face communication is another attribute of client-centric companies, but it has to extend beyond the boardroom, as
well.
“You need to know them outside the business environment,
whether it’s a friendly dinner or a social or golf or going to the theater, but you need to know them beyond sitting across the desk,”
he says.
For example, Misheff serves on several boards across the city,
and he knows that when he goes to United Way cabinet meetings,
that he can touch base with some of his clients and ask how
they’re doing outside of the typical business-client relationship,
and this helps strengthen their professional relationship.
In your efforts to focus on clients, you also have to be mindful
that you’re not setting false expectations, which is a form of lying
and weakens your integrity.
“Don’t oversell them,” Misheff says. “Tell them what you can
really deliver and go ahead and deliver it. It’s that whole thing
about being candid and trustful in everything you do, and then
you deliver on it.”
Part of that is knowing what your customers expect as quality
service as opposed to what you think quality service is, as that can
differ from company to company. For many, timeliness, accuracy
and a fair price are important, but you can’t be certain, so ask.
“You always have to make sure you understand — we can’t
always define quality service,” Misheff says. “Before you begin the
project, our clients are very good at defining what they would
define as quality service and what they want, so meeting the
client’s expectation is more important than anything else.”
As your relationships with clients progress, their expectations
may change, so be sure to bring it up periodically to make sure
you’re still delivering the quality they expect.
Be as good as your handshake
As you build client relationships, it’s also important that people
not only trust you as a businessperson but also simply as a person
in life.
“I was raised in a family where my dad gave you his handshake,
and that’s all you needed,” Misheff says. “I hope I operate that
way, and that’s the way people think of me. In today’s world,
everybody has engagement letters and all the technicalities that
you have to have, but I still believe that my handshake is as good
as I am.”
This was evident when Misheff recently met with someone he had
known for a long time but was a potential new client. At the end of the
meeting, the client told him that his handshake was all he needed
because he trusted that Misheff was good to his word.
Part of building this type of trust is being a strong communicator.
“You have to be an open communicator in dealing with the good or
the bad,” Misheff says. “Communication is very critical to success.”
Address your client’s problems quickly and efficiently, even if you
were the one who screwed up.
“If there is a problem, you put it on the table,” Misheff says. “Don’t
cover it. Don’t ignore it. Let’s deal with it and see how we fix it. I like
to keep an open-door philosophy. If there is an issue, we can’t fix it if
we don’t know about it, so let’s put it out there and do everything we
can to fix it in a mutually agreeable way.”
While Misheff does all of these things to put the customer
first, he can’t carry the torch by himself. Customer trust and
success depends on the entire organization embracing this
approach.
“It begins at the top and works its way through me,” Misheff says.
“To say I can assure all 1,200, I’d be kidding myself, but you lead by
example. The people in these offices know that if I tell them I’m going
to get something done, and I give them my word, it’s good. Our clients
know that. You lead by example every day of the week.”
When your clients trust you because you’re honest and provide
excellent service, it affects your business and, ultimately, your people.
“By providing high-quality service to your clients, there will always
be additional growth opportunities — whether it’s a new company
you pick up as a client or expanded services with an existing client, it
goes back to that relationship of trust. You become a trusted business
adviser, and a lot of good things happen as a result of that, which
allows our younger people to get involved in new and fresh things.”
HOW TO REACH: Ernst & Young LLP, (216) 861-5000 or www.ey.com