Boss, I don't know how to tell you this....

Picture the scene.  You are in charge of managing the relationship with one of the highest profile customers your business has and you have just received the phone call in which they tell you that the relationship is finished. Ended. No more.

Tragically for the Met Office, the world's most famous weather forecasting agency, this scene wasn't imagined, but became an unwelcome reality last week. A relationship held since 1922 with the BBC appears to be, notwithstanding some last ditch attempts to resuscitate it, all but dead.  True, the Met Office will continue to provide some services (including, severe weather warnings) but the bulk of services, representing £3m of annual income, will be put out to tender, opening the door to global competitors.

There may be trouble ahead - Michael Fish and his infamous failure to anticipate severe weather in 1987

So what went wrong?

The BBC and the Met Office share the unenviable space of public-private organisations that are trying to carve a commercial way forward in a world where cash is not plentiful.  However, according to Steve Noyes, the Met Office Customer Services Director, "Given how early we were rejected in the process, it is our understanding that price was not part of the consideration".  Various potential reasons are cited as the underlying reasons for the separation, including views on content (the Met office contention that the BBC was angling to dumb down weather forecasts), technology (the Met office forecasting app has received poor feedback) and the range of services offered (a New Zealand competitor, MetraWeather, already provides weather graphics to the BBC). 

Notwithstanding the odd "Michael Fish" faux pas,  the debate clearly wasn't about forecast accuracy - already commonly viewed as the best in the world, a £97m investment in a supercomputer will allow the Met office to predict 6 days ahead, at post code granularity.

No. The signs are that this falling out is about a deterioration in relationship over a number of years, culminating in this very public divorce. Could this have been prevented?

Time to open the relationship management handbook

If there were a relationship management handbook, then these would be 7 of the key areas that it would recommend you pay close attention to.

1. Risk and reward.  The amount of energy you spend on a relationship, should be governed not just by revenue or profit (in real terms £3m of the Met Office's £220m total revenue is small beer and given the allocated cost is unlikely to have generated much profit) but also by the strategic and reputational risk of losing that relationship. The brand impact globally on the Met Office, even should it regain the contract, has been profound, far more than the relatively small quantum of the contract.
2. Understand your customer.  The BBC, bless it, has been operating in a nightmarish squeeze needing to save money and being unable to raise additional revenue through the licence fee.  One wonders how clearly the Met Office was in understanding the BBC's position, potentially believing that the BBC would defer to its demands in the end.  Expert relationship managers evidence real empathy and find ways to unlock value for the customer.
3. Relationships, at all levels.  It is crucial to understand the stakeholder landscape of your customer and know who holds the power.  Additionally, anticipating power shifts and assessing how external pressures impact are critical skills. Relationships should be forged at all levels (operational, strategic and Executive) and, in complex political landscapes, externally.  Fluid and frequent communication between each relationship layer will help the Responsible Executive triangulate messaging and assess risks to the relationship.
4. Escalate early.  "We could have told you that they were going to do that" is oft the clarion cry from the staff on the ground, atuned and sensitive to the growing tensions. Equally "then why didn't you tell us" is the response from Executives.  Creating an environment whereby escalation of relationship concerns is viewed as a strength not a failure is crucial for effective customer relationship management. Better to know early and do something about it....
5. Partnership approach. Great customer relationships are built on trust and mutual respect. The opportunity to develop synergies and innovation will only occur when both parties look beyond the detail of the contract and explore wider possibilities.  If the contract was worth only £3m to the Met Office, would it have been possible to jointly identify new opportunities that could have been exploited for mutual benefit?  Global marketplaces, technological insights, cultural similarities - on paper there should have been numerous ways to generate synergistic revenue streams.
6. Attitude. Like all Greek tragedies, hubris (excessive pride or self confidence, verging on arrogance) generally pre-empts disaster.  Although I have not noticed it through my Met Office contacts (always bright, usually charming), it would be understandable if the Met Office, a bona fide British Institution, felt impervious to the normal stresses and vulnerabilities that most businesses suffer. Peculiarly, a prevailing corporate pessimism can be helpful in doing whatever is required to protect a relationship.  The customer really should be king.
7. Contact strategy. For better or worse, keep on talking with your customer and if the relationship becomes strained then, like any good marriage, try and re-energise it. Absence of communication will create a vacuum into which tensions, paranoia and exploratory conversations with competitors will seep....
   
   

Chris Lorimer lives near Exeter, home of the Met Office.  He is an organisational consultant who specialises in supporting businesses to collaborate. For further information, please contact Chris on chris@lorimerconsulting.co.uk