Nurturing client relationships through intentional communication & service
In this episode of Process to Profitability, I dive into maintaining strong client relationships. I share how scheduling templated emails, personalized a bit, at set intervals after working together is an effective way to follow up. Offering ongoing support for clients who need and want it is also beneficial, such as making updates or scheduling tasks for them as needed. I emphasize the importance of building trust with clients for long-term business success, as well as the value of referrals and the experience of working with a business. I discuss the importance of intentional and personalized communication and highlight the goal of offering exceptional service to retain clients and receive referrals. Finally, I touch on the significance of personalizing communication and show understanding for clients' personal lives to build meaningful relationships.
Timestamps:
[00:01:40] Why client relationships are important in your business
[00:03:09] How to build and nurture meaningful client relationships
[00:10:48] Follow-up and support for existing clients
[00:13:04] Take action to create a intentional client experience in your business
Key Takeaways:
Personalize client communication to build strong relationships
Offer ongoing support to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty
Use email templates for consistent and efficient client follow-up
Nurture meaningful client relationships through intentional communication
Prioritize exceptional service to retain clients and generate referrals
Simplify the service process and address client concerns proactively
[00:00:00] Most of us get into business because we want to be able to serve our clients really well, and that's a value that we carry from the very beginning of business into everything that we do.
[00:00:15] In this series where we're talking about doing business with intention, I thought it was important to talk about how we can nurture meaningful client relationships through intentional communication and through the service that we offer to them.
[00:00:31] This is especially important for anybody who is offering a one-on-one or a small group service because what people are really going to notice about working with you is how you respond to them, how you communicate.
[00:00:46] That is the thing that I get the most positive feedback on. People love the designs that I do and they love having their website done in a day, but they also love that throughout the process I'm communicating with them. They never feel afraid to ask questions. They always feel like they know exactly where we are in the process and that the whole thing is smooth because they are valued as clients and not seen as just a number or another way to make revenue for your business.
[00:01:20] And it has always been important to me to have positive client relationships because I value so much the people who trust me to work in their businesses, and I understand that those people are running businesses that are important to them as well.
Why client relationships are important in your business
[00:01:40] So let's start by talking about why client relationships are so important. For service-based businesses, for health and wellness professionals, for industry experts like you, this is crucial because so many of your clients are going to either be repeat clients and come back to you over time, depending on what it is that you do.
[00:02:09] Even as a website designer where I am designing and launching a website for my clients in one day, at least 50% of them come back to me for updates down the road or because they have questions and they do that because they know that I am going to be there and that they can trust me.
[00:02:28] And then the other way that your clients are going to benefit and work with your business long term is through referrals. And nobody is gonna refer something that had a bad experience. Even more than the end result that you get for them, the experience is what they are going to tell people about.
[00:02:49] If you've ever gone to a restaurant and you had a bad server, even if the food was delicious, you would tell people not to go there because the service aspect of that is so important to the way that we experience what it is that we have invested in.
How to build and nurture meaningful client relationships
Communicating intentionally with clients
[00:03:09] Some of the ways that I really like to build these meaningful client relationships is by communicating very intentionally and trying to connect with my clients. So I try to personalize where I can and where it makes sense in my workflows by letting them know that I understand the life that they are going through. If they've told me something that's going on in their life, I will remember that and mention it in the emails and in our conversations, but I also do it just through outstanding service because both of those things contribute to customer satisfaction and to loyalty that keeps them coming back.
[00:03:57] Now I know we can't personalize everything in our client communications because we have workflows that are set up, and that is part of running a successful business and intentional business is to use automations and workflows to do the best that we can. But even in that, we have space to make those communications very intentional and feel very relational. So instead of an email that just says, oh, great, you scheduled your sales call with me. I am using their name. I am telling them what to expect. I'm trying to make that process as clear and easy as possible for anybody, and I only have to write that email one time.
[00:04:44] And then when I send my delivery of the mockup phase of my VIP Day, what I do is I have one email template that has information about, okay, here is the PDF of your mockup. You can view it online at this link. And then I recorded a short video walking you through everything. So the email is templated, but the video that I record is very personalized because I am saying hello to them by name, I am walking them through the design, I am addressing any concerns that they may have mentioned. I'm talking about how we have used the design to intentionally create a strategy around the things that they tell me that they want to highlight in their business.
[00:05:33] And so the intentional and personalized part of that is in the five minute video that I record once they're ready to see that mockup. Then the email itself is a template that I just drop in the correct links, and that's a great way to balance having intentional communication that goes out quickly and is easy for you to do as a business and is also personalized to your client.
[00:05:59] And it's more than just, okay, let me walk you through this. This is what it looks like. I'm really looking back at the questions that they've sent me and filled in their questionnaire so that I can make sure to cover those when I'm doing that video.
Offering exceptional client service
[00:06:14] And then we want to offer exceptional service so that we can retain our clients, and we do have them send us referrals.
[00:06:23] Some of the ways that I do this is to go above and beyond what my client expects. Now I do not try to throw everything into my service in hopes that it justifies the price. But I do like to throw in something extra that they aren't expecting.
[00:06:40] So when somebody books with me, I send them a client gift and none of my clients are ever expecting that to arrive at their at their home, but it's a really great way to welcome them into the service. The gift is really intentional. It uses their logo, their brand colors, and things that they are interested in.
[00:07:01] And then during my VIP Day process, what I will do is if I have extra time at the end of that VIP Day, I'll do a little bit of extra work. So I just had a VIP Day and I had extra time once everything else was developed. So I went ahead and did a custom 404 page design so that it fit with the rest of the website. And so that was a really easy and simple way for me to go above and beyond. It took about 10 minutes and I can then send that off to my client, and that's really a benefit to them, but it shows them that I care and that I'm thinking about their business.
Filling in any gaps in communication
[00:07:38] I've also started to find ways within my process that things might be missing as far as communication. I pay a lot of attention to what my, what feedback my clients give after we work together.
[00:07:50] So I recently had a client who said, I loved working with you, but when I was off boarded I wasn't exactly sure what to expect as far as how long the domain connection was going to take and what was gonna happen with my CRM and my email. And so what I did was I created a really quick PDF guide that walks through all of the VIP Day expectations. So what days are we going to be working on? What things, when are you going to have to give feedback? What can you expect as far as the actual getting your website live process? And then what happens after your VIP Day? And every client gets that dropped into their Google Drive folder, so it's there for them to reference.
[00:08:31] I created it once because I had a client say, this is something that could have been really useful for me and would've relieved some anxiety. And so now I offer that to all of my clients to use as they need, and that was a way that I was able to add to my service by helping to make the process as clear and simple as possible, and it doesn't take a ton of work on my end because I created the thing once and then I just add it to everybody's folder.
[00:09:01] And so what we want to do when we think about elevating our service and building those long-term relationships is finding ways that we can fill in any gaps or answer any questions that our clients might have before they pop up and do so in a way that it's really easy to repeat for other clients.
[00:09:20] So if you could create a guide that you can hand to them that's already done. But is going to address some common objections that come up or some common issues that might happen at a certain stage in working with you. That's a great way to offer them more value and a great service experience, and then build on that relationship that you already have.
Personalizing your emails
[00:09:47] Another way that we can really build out that customer experience, of course, is tailoring our digital communication with personalization. So if you use a CRM, you're always able to drop in your client's name, which is really important and very simple. That's a great way to do that.
[00:10:05] We can also just really hone in on who our clients are. I think that is one of the benefits of niching is that even the gifts that we choose to send in our emails or the stories that we choose to tell can relate to our clients if we know so much about who they are and what they're interested in and what is important to them. So that's a way that we can personalize our communication and really give our clients excellent services to understand who they are, the problems that they're facing, the transformation that they're looking for, and we just use that language so that they know that they are seen and understood.
Follow-up and support for exisiting clients
[00:10:48] And then we never wanna forget follow up and support. I think this is where so many businesses tend to let things slide because we spend a lot of time in our marketing getting people into our service because we want that revenue for our own business, and then we offer fantastic service because we are sitting with somebody one-on-one or we creating something for them, and we know that we want to do the best we can.
[00:11:16] Then we wrap up our service with them and it's hard to know what comes next. How do we keep them engaged? How do we follow up in a way that doesn't feel like we're hounding them and overdoing it, but also doesn't feel like, okay, you paid me for that last session, we did the thing, we're done, and now you have just dropped off of my radar altogether?
[00:11:40] So I think it's really important to remember that we need to have that follow up and ongoing support for maintaining those strong client relationships. That can look like scheduling a couple of emails out even in your workflows, so they can be templated emails that you personalize a little bit and they go out maybe two weeks after you work together a month and then three months and six months. And that way you are just continuing to follow up with your clients in a way that's really simple. It's just an email in their inbox, but it reminds them that you are thinking about them. And that's a great way to then retain them, remind them that you can continue to work together.
[00:12:21] Another thing that's great to offer is some type of ongoing support for clients who need and want that from you. So I have some clients who after a VIP Day, they're done, they're ready to take over the website themselves and others who want me to be able to then make updates for them once a month or schedule things out for them as needed. And so I can create a retainer package for them depending on what it is that they need because we've already worked together. I know the ins and outs of their website, and so it's really easy for us to bring, to maintain that relationship in a way that makes sense for them and works for my business and my time.
Take action to create a intentional client experience in your business
[00:13:04] So as you think about creating intentional client relationships, I want you to remember that we need to build in very intentional communication and personalization. We want to provide exceptional service and we want to engage with them through follow up and support options.
[00:13:23] Think about how you can do this in your own business. What are people asking for that maybe you could add to your service that's not going to take a lot of extra time and effort? What are some ways that you might be able to personalize your communications a little bit more.? Maybe that's just adding somebody's name in the emails that you send instead of having it be very generic and impersonal.
[00:13:53] So I want you to think about how you can do this so that from the very beginning when you start reaching somebody through your marketing, through when you have off boarded them and you are continuing to build that relationship and looking to retain your clients or bring them into your referral network. They feel like they have had an exceptional experience filled with clear and helpful communication that they are going to walk away from their time with you and really think positively about it and be excited about it, and want to share that with other people.
