Quick guide to resolving troubled partner relations

Last week, Kuza Biashara had two SME clinics, the main agenda being how business people can manage their online clients and company websites. Many questions were asked by the SMEs in regards to customer satisfaction. It occurred to me that among the challenges that SMEs have, managing customer relationships when the relationship gets shaky is a top contender. At times business people tend to ignore their clients calls or even pretend not to be in business after an inter business hitch. Here is a simple structure that will guide you when making major business especially when things don’t work well with your business allies.You need to first understand who is to blame. It could be you or your partner, or even both. Either way, dialogue is the best solution.

The representative for the other firm is answerable to a superior, if they are on the spot over the issue, they may resort to trying to shift the blame to you rather than solving the issue. Employees will always try their best to steer clear of blame. This is where you need to come in with a rational perspective and attempt to sort out the issue for the wellbeing of your business.

You need to focus on the business relationship in terms of savings and the value of the relationship. You can decide to take the blame for such cases where the business relationship depends on the complainant and then fix the issue at hand before it gets to the superiors. However, if the choice you make is most likely to affect your relationship with other business partners, then you need make a decisive choice but without being compromised.

This calls for a well thought financial impact analysis on your business. In cases where aggression may ensue, leading to termination of business relationships, you need to think about the possible loss of revenue then compare it with the temporal negative impact that it may have on your business and weigh the two. If the direct negative impact is smaller compared to the impending ones, then you can alter the relationship and vice versa.

You need to understand that businesses are built on existing relationships therefore if the other party seems relaxed on the issue, you need to know that they don’t value the relationship. It is important to note that if the relationship were indeed two-way, the other party would put in as much effort as you do.

Once you have established these aspects in your business relationships as well as the benefits, on value and revenue, you can now plan your actions. Many business fail in this process due to poor judgement and hasty reactions.

Key point

A good entrepreneur needs to take time to focus on consistent communication and internal business research before taking the leap when making major business decisions. Determine the value in a business relationship and then figure out if the relationship in jeopardy is worth fixing.