Esoteric Client

Lesen Sie meine neueste Fallstudie (auf English) und schreiben Sie hier Ihren Kommentar dazu: würden Sie diesen Kunden weiter bedienen oder würden Sie ihn feuern?

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who is very difficult to deal with.

http://www.michel-partner.ch/index.htm
Should the manager continue to accommodate
his needs, or should he fire the client?
Post your comment here.
A selection of your comments will be published, along with commentaries by
academic experts, with the case later this year.

Comments

[Kommentiert von: Walter Kuhn]

I would let the customer go. Integrity (for the bank) is something very important. In the long term, the bank might loose other customers for whom integrity is imporant.
Also, from an internal point of view, it might be the better solution: if bankers see the committment to themselves from the top management, their own committment will stay stable; but otherwise, they might felt lost.

Of course, finance is a strong argument; and for the short term, loosing that customer may hurt. On the long term, ethics might (should) be more important.

Well, and however, look at the reality in some areas of financial industry and its gloabl crisis these days (not to say these years). Some act ethically, and some not.

[Kommentiert von: M. Birrer]

Hi there, I wouldn't let go this client. I took it back to me as head of the responsible employee as he is demanding. Any client has special needs - the greatest part of them have no ideas how to obtain their goals. This one is taking over responsibility for his own wealth. To the bank it should be possible to adapt to his routines. The man should be convinced to plan better which should be possible with his means. Just to refuse this client because of his open communicated orientation is coward. It's not the banks job to juge. Best regards and good luck!

[Kommentiert von: Mubera Bucaj]

The manager should let this client go. Often time we deplete and waste existing resources on clients who are unsuitable for the offer or service provided. Difficult clients frequently sever relationships with their money managers due to no fault or wrongdoing of the money manager. They leave because there is a clear disconnect between what the offer provides and what the client desires. One could argue that the apology requested in this case is irrelevant, as client will end up leaving on his own next time he feels his needs aren’t being met. Therefore, the manager should free up his employee to better service his existing clients and acquire new business that will be a better fit for the offer.

[Kommentiert von: Henry Hughes]

They have a saying here in Japan that goes something like the customer is like a god. I am not sure if my management style has been influenced by my living in Japan or that my personal philosophy regarding customer relations has been influenced by the literature and people I’m surrounding myself with, but I believe that the manager should continue to accommodate the needs of the client. Author Frey should take personal responsibility for this client. He should manage Roger Brugger’s account. In addition, he should apologize on behalf of Fredrick Allag. Nothing is as important as someone’s pride so I don’t feel it is necessary for Fredrick Allag to apologize in order to maintain this business relationship. If Author Frey possesses people savvy skills, he should be able to apologize on behalf of the organization and offer his specialized attention in personally managing Mr. Brugger’s account as a solution.
As a follow up, I would allow Mr. Allag to vent and then together discuss ways to try to avoid a similar situation happening again.
The bigger question becomes, at what point should a client be fired? When the cost (employee hours, extra material, etc.) of servicing the client consistently outweighs the revenue this client brings in, and there is little chance of good will being generated, it is time to terminate the relationship.

[Kommentiert von: lucas bruggeman]

Keep the client. Be grateful for the complaining customer, as that is still a customer.
Apologize over a personal visit by Arthur. Best would be to handover the client to someone else .. one of the elderly senior experienced people.

[Kommentiert von: Stacy Charles]

Apologize to the client and give the account to a senior relationship manager. It is really the job of Arthur to make sure his employees have the skills to manage the expectations of clients.

I've learned that all clients are demanding in their own unique way - that is the nature of the human being. Moreover, extremely wealthy people tend to be more eccentric than the average, which is why high net worth service providers make a ton of money on this demographic....Think of it as a built in premium for unexpected and sometimes unreasonable demands.

[Kommentiert von: Heinz Sommer]

Keep the client! Besides the management mistake to give a difficult client away - why not reading the book and understand what the customer wants? It's always easy to consider the customer as difficult while not making the home work! Going the extra mile would help to better understand and manage the customer - otherwise it might be better not to consider the bank as wealth management institution!