Fractional CFO Secrets: How to Turn Negative Feedback into a Competitive Edge

This has been the worst possible CFO service I could possibly imagine. It boggles my mind that you run a business providing this kind of crap service. It hurts my heart to know that good people pay good money for this sorry excuse of CFO services. My name is Michael King. Welcome back to the Connected Accountant. Look, I don't care how amazing of a fractional CFO you are, if you're in business long enough, one day you're going to get negative feedback from a client. Now, I know negative feedback is hard for the average Joe to deal with, but I think it's even harder for those of us that are in the CFO or the accounting world because we tend to pride ourselves on being perfect and being excellent and exceptional. And when somebody comes to us and says that we didn't deliver or we under delivered or that we had a subpar experience, I think that stings a little bit more. I think it hits us a little bit deeper than it does the average person. But I can tell you that as a CEO, some of the most valuable input you can possibly get is from negative feedback from clients. And if you handle that negative feedback the right way. Over the years I've figured out kind of a four step framework that I use to process negative feedback so that I can make sure I extract the most value possible out of it. So today I want to share with you my four step process for processing negative feedback so that on that day that you inevitably get negative feedback from a client, you can make it into the most positive value added experience possible. Let's go ahead and dive in. The first thing that I want you to do, once you get negative feedback, I want you to just wait. I don't want you to do anything. And the reason for that is a lot of times when somebody hits us with negative feedback, it tends to stir up a lot of negative emotions inside of us that might look like anger or resentment or surprise. And when we're quick to respond to that feedback, while those emotions are still kind of fresh or raw, a lot of times we'll see those emotions surface in our response. And that doesn't serve us well. It doesn't serve our clients well. It doesn't serve the situation well at all. So I really want to encourage you, wait until you've gone through all four steps of this framework before you hit respond. The second thing I want you to do is I want you to get out a pen and paper and I want you to like OG style, literally write down what the feedback was you got from your client. And the reason for that is very specific. And that's because a lot of times when we get negative feedback, all we hear is, you suck. The service was horrible. I can't believe this. But when we sit down and write it out, what we oftentimes find is that there were actually some specifics along with those other words as well. Your service sucks because our last couple of CFO calls, you've gone 30 minutes past the end of our scheduled meeting, and that completely wrecks the schedule for the rest of the day. And then I'm playing catch up, and I feel completely disrespected that you would go over on our calls like that. Or they might say, look, the CFO reports and the advice and the direction that you've been giving me feels completely disconnected from what I've told you very specifically my goals are and the direction that I want to take my company. And I don't feel like I'm getting the value out of our conversations because it seems like you're just not paying attention to what's actually important to me. And so when we take the time to write down and really kind of dig through and see what were those bits of tactical feedback the client had, that's when we can really start to process and figure out what to do in response to what they've given us. This is where we really start to kind of uncover what the real value of. Of the feedback is. So once you've waited, once you've written, now, I want you to start on the process of reflection. Step three is reflection. And as you go into this process of reflection, I want to encourage you to adopt a mindset of genuine curiosity and not one of defensiveness. Because when you go into this reflection phrase, thinking, asking questions, and truly being curious about what is it that my clients is experiencing from their perspective? Why is it that they feel this way? What can I do differently to better serve them? That's where you start to uncover the true gold. So what I want you to do is ask yourself questions like, did I fail to set and manage expectations? Did I fail to show up the way they needed me to? Was my advice and guidance disconnected from what their goals and priorities were and really think through. If that's the case, what does that mean? Why is it that you under delivered or you didn't show up, or you didn't set manage expectations? Whatever that feedback was, really think through from a place of logic. Why is it you didn't show up? Have you taken on too much work? Have you not asked enough Questions of your client. Have you not set expectations the right way? Really think through that from a place of humility. The other thing that I think you'll find sometimes as you reflect is no, you did do a great job. You did show up for the client. You did set and manage expectations. You did give them guidance that you know truly to be in alignment with their goals and priorities. But maybe what happened was the client was pushing boundaries and you said no, like you should have, and they didn't like it, and so they've kind of responded emotionally. Maybe it's none of that. Maybe on the way to work on that day, your client got a flat tire, and then she got to work and the air conditioning was out, and it's 108 in her office because she works in the middle of downtown Dallas, Texas, where it's hot as heck, and she was just in a bad mood. And then to add to that, she's an hour late for lunch and now she's hangry. And you just happen to be the person that was stuck standing in the middle of her rage war path. Maybe that's what happened. That does happen sometimes. And so I really want to encourage you to think about that again through a lens of grace and just know that we've all kind of been there before. We've all kind of taken out our bad days on undeserving people at times and just kind of remember that that's just a human thing. And while it's not okay that they did that, just know that it wasn't about you. It was just about something that was out of your control, and there's nothing you can do about it. But it's really hard to understand if this was a you thing or a them thing. If you're not intentional about reflection with genuine curiosity. Once you've taken the time to wait, you've written, you've reflected, now you can finally figure out the best way to respond in a responsible way. Now a lot of people say, well, how should I respond? And I'm like, it depends on, like, a million different factors. I can't give you, you know, specific advice on a dumb video or a podcast because I don't know exactly what's going on with you and your client. But what I do know is, regardless of what happened, take the position of gratitude and humility in just doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. In your response, whether or not you were genuinely at fault or you genuinely weren't at fault, whether or not this was about them having a bad day or you not showing up the way you needed to. Gratitude, humility, and just treat other people with dignity and respect in that response. And I think you're going to find that regardless of where the relationship eventually goes, it goes there in a much, much healthier way. Not just for the client, but also for your mental health. Because you're going to be proud of the way that you responded. And that's so important in getting fulfillment out of the type of work that we do. So that's it. Four simple steps to respond to negative client feedback so you can get the most value Number one, I want you to wait. Number two, I want you to write. Number three, I want you to reflect. And number four, I want you to respond if you found this episode helpful, I would encourage you to check out my free newsletter. It's called the 5 Minute Fractional CFO and every Friday I deliver one actionable tip to help you start, scale or optimize your advisory services. You can subscribe for free at www.theconnectedaccountant.com blog. We will include a link to the blog subscription in the description below. That's it for this week. I cannot wait to see you back here this same time, same place next week. See you then. My. Sat.