Several years ago, we hired a pet-sitting company to give our dogs a walk on occasional days when our work schedules meant too long a stretch for canine comfort. At first, things seemed to go well enough. But after a few weeks, the company failed to show up on several agreed-upon days and our poor dogs bore the brunt of the no-show.

Initially, I thought it was a scheduling snafu or a miscommunication. I tried to be more clear, and requested call-backs to confirm. It didn’t work. When I called one of the owners directly to address my concerns, her response hit me right between the eyes: “You’ve got no right to question us when you never even pay your bill on time!” she said angrily.

It took a bit of untangling to learn that the contract we’d signed required that we leave a check for the day’s walk. We’d missed that detail, and had been doing what we’d always done for our previous petsitter in another city: mailing payment the very next day. We thought we were being prompt. The new petsitter had written us off as delinquent clients. And our poor dogs got caught in the middle. When I asked why she hadn’t just raised this with us weeks before, she replied that they prefer not to confront “problem clients.”

Needless to say, this “problem client” ended the contract right then and there. I wonder how many other “problem clients” they’ve lost?

Like the ostrich with its head in the sand trying not to see what’s scaring it, avoidance is rarely an effective business strategy when problems crop up with clients. As in my story, avoidance can cause an issue to fester and escalate instead of getting resolved before it grows from molehill size. In one research study, conflict avoidance was found to be one of five career-stalling conflict behaviors that get in the way of business success and advancement. And failure to confront a problem for fear of damaging the relationship can actually have just that effect—a divide grows, one that eventually can become insurmountable. Said one woman I know:

“The longer I waited to confront the situation, the more my emotions and thoughts got away from me. My thoughts about what happened got jumbled and dramatic. My emotions got more complicated. So then I put off the conversation because I didn’t think I could address it clearly. It was paralyzing. Having the difficult conversation might have been hard, but not having it was far worse in the long run. All those missed opportunities just break my heart.”

Next time a problem crops up with a client, or you find yourself labeling a client as a “problem,” I invite you to be the Anti-Ostrich. It takes some courage to pick up the phone and say, “I want to make sure I’m serving you with excellence, and I’m noticing some challenges I’d like us to talk through together.” It’s far better for the business bottom line, and most clients will be grateful for your willingness to clear the air.

Read Tammy’s previous post

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Design Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.