Customer beware, for the supplier is also judging you

At the end of most of the workshops and retreats my organisation run we distribute an evaluation sheet, through which clients assess our performance in helping them achieve their objectives.

The other day, after reading through a batch of such feedback forms, most flattering, a few less convenient, the thought again occurred to me that we suppliers also rate our customers.

Not through formal evaluations and feedback, but with equally significant consequences: some we can hardly wait to work with again, while we hesitate before committing to further engagements with others.

Most of us have customers of one kind or another, whether external or internal.

And we all have our favourites… as well as those we’d rather avoid at all costs, those we’d far prefer that someone else deals with.

Some haggle remorselessly over prices, proud of squeezing their suppliers dry.

Some rejoice in paying weeks or even months late.

But financial dealings are but part of the equation.

And some clients are so attractive in other ways that we are prepared to put up with their budget constraints and their lethargy in parting with money.

What most suppliers really value is being treated with respect.

We want to get the sense that we are not just lowly hired hands who must be treated harshly or else we’ll become complacent and lazy.

We like to be listened to when we offer our ideas and suggestions, and not brushed aside dismissively.

We also deeply resent becoming the automatic scapegoats for any problem or setback — not least those caused by our dear customers.

Over-blaming the supplier is an easy a temptation to succumb to… and the one that breeds the most resentment and demotivation in a supplier.

Am I being too thin-skinned? Isn’t the tough-guy approach to suppliers an inevitable fact of life we must all expect and accept?