Perhaps most appropriate for the service industry, a report that I created and used to ask for was the ‘Client Issues Report’ (CIR). Basically the CIR listed each Account Manager’s clients in order of significance to the business – most profitable perhaps would be an obvious criteria, but it depends on you.
Alongside each client name there would be an overview of current issues, be they good or bad i.e. “Having spoken to Mr Smith, we decided it would be right to make bi-monthly deliveries as the volume of goods he is ordering is increasing and he doesn’t have the storage space. It’s really important that our driver gets there before 8am as the factory access will be difficult after this time.
As director, you would expect a monthly “Client (or business) review meeting” to be held between the Head of Department and the Account Manager responsible for client retention. At this meeting the Head of Department would discuss each client and any issues or problems raised by the account manager. The Head of Department would give support and mentor the Account Manager to ensure a good resolution was concluded, but there would also be an opportunity for a little mild brainstorming of ideas so, as a supplier of the service, you would be pro-active.
Notes would be made in relation to each client and any action points noted also, but in addition the name of the person to take the action and an agreed completion or review date would be put down and depending upon the urgency of the action the notes would be highlighted in green, amber or red.
This form should be created in duplicate with one copy for the director so they would be able to see at a glance the current status of each client.
