Any start-up business knows that one of the hardest things to do is attract new clients. You have to put a lot of money into marketing, branding, and advertising to even get your name out there.
Once the sale is made, your job is only just beginning.
In order to be successful in business in the long term, you need to have clients who stay with you, are loyal to your brand, and tell others how great you are. You need to make a good impression, be likable, and make customers happy.
Client relationship management
This refers to how a company treats its customers and works to create a good rapport with them.
Maintaining good relationships with clients helps generate repeat business, keeps them coming back, and promotes a positive reputation for the company.
A poor approach to client relationship management can ruin your business. If people have negative experiences, they will tell others and it will spread. With the internet, it is easy for someone to write a negative review that a lot of people can see.
Maintaining good relationships with clients is essential, especially for small businesses.
1. Establishing trust with a new client
Some of the first steps you can take to establish trust with a new client are to be respectful, be responsive, be consistent, and follow through on commitments.
They want to be confident that their project is in good hands.
If your client trusts you, they are more likely to deal with problems in a positive way.
If you do not seem confident or trustworthy, you will end up with a client who does not trust you and is always looking over your shoulder, even if you do good work.
Here are some ways to establish trust quickly:
Share your previous work
You’ll need to have a well-structured kickoff meeting with the client once they’re interested in getting started.
2. Managing client expectations on a project
The first step to managing client expectations is to establish what the client wants in writing. This way, both the client and service provider can refer back to what was agreed upon, and hold each other accountable.
Before beginning your project, you should ensure that you have a contract signed which stipulates all aspects of the project, including timeframes and associated costs. In addition, you will need an internal scope management plan.
Although you have taken precautions, your client’s expectations may still cause problems. Your client has spent a lot of money on this project.
People want to get the best value for their money, which can sometimes lead to arguments and strong feelings.
Some clients will try to stretch the project scope by deliberately or subconsciously ignoring contract details. Some clients may not fully understand your resource limitations and others may get swept up in the excitement.
Although you may want to please your clients, sometimes their expectations will be unrealistic. In these cases, you need to be able to tell them that you cannot do what they are asking in a way that is respectful.
Dealing with unreasonable client requests
Expectation management is a careful balance. You can’t say ‘yes’ to every client request and revision or your team will quickly become overwhelmed.
You can get into trouble if you automatically say ‘no’ to everything that is not part of the project scope.
Pat Brans, a professional consultant, describes an experience in which he began pushing back too hard and the consequences that resulted.
Brans said that not saying no to requests was like working in the dark, because his clients would stop communicating completely out of intimidation. This led to him either misinterpreting requirements or not understanding business issues.
It is important to find the happy medium when communicating with clients to ensure that expectations are managed correctly. This can be done by deciphering which requests are rational and which are not.
A client request that makes sense is something that improves the final product – maybe a small change or a new idea that you hadn’t considered – which is simple to execute and doesn’t take up a lot of your time or money.
Or an extra task they’re happy to pay for.
A request from a client that is unreasonable is one that would take a considerable amount of time, is not something that you are obligated to do under the contract, is something that goes against your professional opinion, or is something that would not add value to the outcome.
How to say NO to a client request
What happens when you need to push back against an unreasonable request?
The act of saying no is always going to be an uncomfortable one, even for those who have a lot of experience in being an account manager. Having this conversation will require a lot of tactfulness.
Here are some tips for saying ‘no’ to unreasonable client requests:
It is important to first listen to what the other person has to say before responding. They may have something important to add that you had not considered.
It is important to understand the rationale behind a business’s request before making a decision. Ensure that you have taken into account all perspectives before coming to a conclusion.
- If the client’s idea will not work, give them your professional opinion. Explain why it is not useful to them and their business. Support your explanation with past examples – and remind them that you have their best interests at heart.
- If their request lies outside the scope of the contract, point out the exact part of the agreement. Explain the cost of adding this work on, and what fees will be incurred based on the value of your time.
- If you simply don’t have the resources to fulfil their request; be honest. Explain why you don’t have the capacity – then offer helpful advice or alternatives based on their needs.
- If their request is going to delay another aspect of the project – explain this clearly. You might ask them to weigh up their priorities, and only go ahead if they’re willing to sacrifice a different component. It’s all about compromise.
Managing client expectations requires thinking carefully about what they want and approach the situation in a calm and tactful way.
You won’t always be able to get what you want, but it’s important to be able to explain why you’re making the choices you are.
3. Respect your client’s time
Sarah Franklin, co-founder of Bluetree.ai, says it’s best to under-promise and over-deliver to maintain positive client relationships.
It is best to respect each client’s time by offering face-to-face time and creating a human connection. Making them feel rushed, unimportant, or taking up too much of their time can disintegrate your relationship.
If you can anticipate your clients’ needs and concerns, and solve them before they arise, you will be ahead of the game. Use scheduling software to access your calendar and appointments remotely, and be available to your clients through personal and timely communication. Be relevant, be real, and be realistic with your clients.
4. Maintain positive relations
Jennifer Phillips, the Vice President of Marketing and Client Services at Traktek Partners, believes that maintaining positive relationships is key to success. She says that maintaining a positive client relationship is crucial for the success of any agency and that communication is key.
In addition to maintaining open communication, responsiveness, and flexibility, we also use Basecamp to manage projects and clients.
Utilizing Basecamp allows us to manage multiple clients effectively by having an online repository of files that everyone on the project can access. This repository includes messaging, contact information, and requests, which helps keep everyone on the same page.
5. Educate your clients
Saheen Najeeb, a digital marketing analyst at Fingent, believes in a two-pronged approach. They use the following strategies:
Educate Clients Through Outbound Campaign
We need to keep our clients engaged by educating them about product updates, changes in our business, and new trends in their industry.
Periodical Client Service Team Reach Out
Check in with your client service team occasionally to get updates on any issues your clients are facing.
The questions in a survey are meant to help the customer service team understand any potential issues the customer may be facing that they need to address.
6. Make an employee act as an advocate for the client
Joe Youngblood from joeyoungblood.com says that they have years of experience with effective client management and reporting. They have improved satisfaction rates and retention over the past 7 years by communicating with clients in a unique way.
A sales representative at our agency is responsible for acting as an advocate for their clients.
They can view everything that is relevant to the client including current projects, conversations, goals, and metrics.
The sales representative is responsible for advocating on behalf of the client by inquiring with the fulfillment team about any issues that could cause delays.
The following process occurs internally and is out-of-view of the client. This mechanism is used by account executives and team leaders to realize if a client might be unhappy with progress. This would then spur them to make better attempts at communications regarding these issues.
This process is not perfect, but we have seen a significant increase in customer retention. This is because the advocate process helps our internal teams communicate more effectively with clients, addressing their concerns before the clients themselves ever express them.
7. Learn to manage time
“Time management is the most precious and finite resource you and your clients have when you are managing multiple clients,” said Shiv Gupta, CEO of Incrementors Web Solutions. “If you want to build healthier relationships, you have to respect their time.”
Basically, you need to establish some deadlines to get things done that will please both your clients and your boss. Oftentimes, clients may have unrealistic expectations in terms of timeframe, but you need to be practical as well when you’re figuring out how much time you need.
It is important to set clear deadlines so that team members are aware of how much time they have to complete tasks.
8. Learn their communication patterns
Duckpin’s clients are people with different communication patterns.
The way your individual client receives and shares information can tell you a lot about their personality. If they are expressive, amiable, or passive, that says something about their character. Maybe they are even dominant.
How do you communicate with your clients? It is your responsibility to communicate effectively, not your client’s responsibility to adjust their communication style.
What kind of communication does your client prefer? How well does your client stick to their schedule? Knowing this makes it easier to schedule future meetings.
No matter how difficult it may be to communicate with your client, eventually you will find a way to connect with them. Be patient and kind, and you will find success.
9. Involve the client in the process
Before you start any work on a project, Djordje Milicevic, who works with StableWP, says that you should involve your client in the goal-setting process.
It is beneficial to both you and the customer to stay up to date on what is happening. I have used Pipedrive to manage both new leads and existing customers.
I create a sequence for every stage in customer relationships at the beginning and use this tool to track communication, automate repetitive administrative tasks, and create reports with their dashboard. This method allows me to see and address a client’s needs before they are even aware of them.
10. Understand their needs
Mitchell Kelly, the director at Pathfinder Alliance, believes that understanding your clients’ needs is the key to success. He says, “I had 3 clients to start with and I knew everything about them from top to bottom: their business, their products, their goals and what they needed to do to achieve them.”
However, as the client book increased in size, he needed to hire additional help to manage everything. Unfortunately, this led to much improved organization.
If client meetings were scheduled more often, deadlines would be more likely to be met, and results would improve.
This necessitated that he improve his skills at a few fundamental strategies.
- Get the right project management system – They use Trello which allows them to assign tasks to employees and build out templates for any repeatable tasks (i.e. onboarding).
- Develop a watertight onboarding process – They send new clients a Google Form which gathers background information on the client (goals, KPIs etc.), facilitates them providing them access to everything they need (ad accounts, analytics accounts, CMS access etc.) and allows them to hit the ground running with minimal back and forth.
- Process everything – They use Trello card templates so any repeatable task has a process documented and VAs and new hires can step in and immediately be productive in our business.
- Schedule reporting and meetings – Client’s need transparency to know what they are working on and the results they are bringing. They use Datastudio with Supermetrics to schedule monthly performance reports and meet clients in person quarterly to review progress and strategy.