How to Delight Customers Without Being a Doormat

Clients will reward you for providing amazing service, but they can also ask for too much. Here’s how to strike the right balance.

BY KEVIN J. RYAN, FREELANCE WRITER @WHERESKR

From left: Samantha Hill, Jamie Munoz, and Marlon Gray. Photography by Nathan Bajar

Going above and beyond for your clients is a big part of being a successful entrepreneur, but it can also create unrealistic expectations. If you’re always overdelivering, it’s just a matter of time before you start being taken advantage of, whether your customers realize it or not. So how do you know when it makes sense to provide exceptional service? And does every customer deserve the white-glove treatment at one point or another?

To answer these questions, we gathered three founders of fast-growing service businesses: Marlon Gray, founder of mental health services company Empower U; Samantha Hill, founder of architectural firm Design With Skill; and Jamie Munoz, founder of fractional leadership company Catalyst Integrators. We started by asking: What does exceptional service look like at your company?

MUNOZ: We provide community, coaching, and internal support for COOs through professional integrators. When I think about white-glove experience, I think about other places I’ve been where I’ve had this amazing experience that makes me want to go back and tell all my friends about it. Inevitably, that’s what creates repeat customers and raving fans. It’s how you’re cared for. We love sending our clients gifts, for example. But you also have to make sure that it doesn’t tip to the other side, where you’re being taken advantage of. You teach your clients how to treat you and how to interact with you. By showing up in a way that shows care to our clients, they will see us not just as a vendor or somebody they’re dealing with transactionally.

GRAY: We are a behavioral health provider that works with children and adults with developmental disabilities. Because we’re state and federal contractors, a lot of our prices are dictated. Since we can’t compete on cost, we try to understand everyone’s pain points in our ecosystem, and then try to address them in a way that causes clients to stay engaged and give more referrals. We give them dashboards, let them track their journeys, and collect and optimize data specifically for them. We have to look at each stakeholder and what white-glove treatment actually means for them. Paying attention to those specific things is what helps us grow.

HILL: We’re an architecture and real estate development firm that specializes in multifamily and mixed-use projects, with a focus on affordable housing. Architecture development projects last a long time—you have a relationship with your client for years, and there’s usually weekly communication. There are lots of architects out there, so we have to make sure we are giving some kind of white-glove service that differentiates us. Sometimes, there are things we’re not necessarily contracted to do for a client, but because we have an expertise in it or we know we can help them in some way, we’re happy to go above and beyond for them. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing now as we scale: How do you continually provide that white-glove service, and do all clients really require it—or, in some cases, deserve it? It has to be a symbiotic relationship. Yes, you’re giving the best service that you can, but in return, how is your staff being treated? It’s got to be both ways.GRAY You bring up a great point. Clients don’t really see your end of the picture—they see only their own problem space. They’re not wondering how many extra hours this will take you. They’ll stretch you to your limits if you let them, so you have to have boundaries.

HILL: Once you start going above and beyond, that becomes the baseline, and then suddenly it’s like, “Oh, well, now I expect you to do this for free.” You can be taken advantage of at times—sometimes intentionally, but usually not. So there’s this constant balance of making sure we provide exceptional service but that it doesn’t spread us too thin or not pay off for us in the end.

GRAY: With every client, you have to take a look at the value of the relationship altogether. Sometimes I tell them, “Listen, we have a lot to deal with at this moment that I don’t think you appreciate.” I try to be patient and not take it out on them. They don’t understand our world, and it’s not their job to. It’s our job to set the boundaries.

MUNOZ: We’re a 12-person team, and we actively choose up front those we work with and those we don’t. We have a no-assholes policy. So when it comes to the question of who gets white-glove treatment, the answer for us is everyone, because we’ve made this commitment. Where it gets interesting is when the relationship goes beyond you as the founder. If it’s a salesperson or an account manager, we’ve got to trust that they’re going to deliver the same level that we would. What I invested in very early on was making sure clients interact with us in a way that makes it crystal clear what our core values are. What’s our brand vision and brand story? Why was Catalyst even created from my spare bedroom? I need the person on my team three layers down to also feel, experience, and talk about that same thing and have that same vision and purpose. White-glove is going to transcend you as the founder when the rest of the team can understand where you came from and why it’s important—and that it ties to their own personal purpose and their journey.

GRAY: We’re a 500-plus-person company now, and that’s been one of the big challenges: How do you cultivate a culture of constantly going above and beyond, and make sure it’s actually making its way all through the ranks as you scale? If it’s not cascading all the way down to the right places, being a larger company actually becomes more of a liability.

MUNOZ: Some people don’t like the analogy, but it’s like giving a kid a cookie. As leaders, the more we can tie it back for employees—“you did this thing and it equaled this”—the better. That’s what will create the flywheel of success. If you as an employee earn benefits for your team or for your clients, and you as a leader can call that out and celebrate it, you will incentivize more of that to happen.

GRAY: Sometimes I miss when we were a 10-person team, because I knew everyone’s name. When you’re at 500 people, it’s much harder to make each one feel like a person and not just a number, and make sure they know they’re a valuable part of what we do.

HILL: To your point, we’re a team of 10, and I’ve hand-chosen those people and spent a lot of time making sure they fit. When your employees are happy, they go above and beyond. I also match clients with specific team members, because I know they’ll fit and that they’re going to provide the best service possible for that specific client.

MUNOZ: Most other entrepreneurs want to talk to the owner. A year ago, I rebranded our business development person as “integrator matchmaker.” That literally is her job—to connect the client with the integrator who’s right for them. So when a client wants to talk to me, I’ll say, “I know you want me to match you, but Jodie is our matchmaker. She knows everyone’s skills and assessments. I’ll talk to you, but she’s the one who will actually get shit done.” That helps create the raving-fan flywheel. We want them to go tell all of their friends about the service they got. That all brings leads directly to us.

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