5 Tips For The Best Client Experience
If you’re a small business owner then you likely started your business with the intention to serve others through your product or service.
Your clients are (or should be) one of the best parts of owning your own business. Clients can motivate you and be motivated by you, they believe in your vision as you believe in theirs, and they are part of the reason you push yourself to do more (and do better for them).
...and let’s be real, through their investment in you, they are helping you reach your financial goals 💪🏽
If you’re trying to grow your business by booking more clients or reaching more customers, you need to be thinking about how to keep them around. But, how do you do that?! It starts with taking action to create a better client experience.
Below, we’re sharing some of the best (and easiest) ways to enhance your clients’ experience with your brand so you can serve them and take your business to the next level
Tip #1: Set expectations from the beginning
This is a non-negotiable! You can’t afford to skip this part. And honestly, you don’t want to. Boundaries are essential to a healthy relationship with any client. It’s easy to allow problematic client behaviors to continue for fear of upsetting, or even losing, the client. This sets a precedent that can lead to bigger problems down the road.
You need to decide what boundaries are important to you. Identify comfortable physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual limits before starting out with clients.
One way you can create a better client experience is setting the tone so everyone knows what to expect. One of the best ways to set expectations and outline your boundaries is to create a contract agreement for both parties that details your working relationship.
Start by building a document of the services you and the client agreed to, pricing, and anything else relevant to the agreement, like timelines, ad-hoc services, communication guidelines and your office hours.
For product-based brands, you don’t want to be stuck in that “expectation vs. reality” side of the coin. Make sure you outline all the specifications of your product within the landing page description so that your customer understands the fine print and specifications of what you’re selling.
Tip #2: Automate repeatable steps
Make your life easier by working smarter not harder by implementing a CRM system. It not only shows your level of professionalism but it helps elevate your client experience because things will flow seamlessly for them on their end, too.
My personal favorite is Honeybook. Adopting Honeybook into my business early has been life-changing because it has been an amazing time-saving tool. We just spoke about creating contracts above and Honeybook is the perfect system to store all of your contracts so you’re only creating them once.
Honeybook makes sending invoices super easy, too! Never forget to bill for your services again! This system allows you to set up recurring invoices with specified due dates for your different clients and will send friendly reminders if the payment is missed. Chasing payments?! We don’t do that anymore 👏🏽.
Honeybook has also simplified the onboarding process for our clients. We are able to create workflows and automation that send questionnaires, links, and document requests. It’s been a game-changer for our team!
If you do anything, investing in a CRM system will not only save you plenty of time but will help you keep your sanity.
Tip #3: Onboard Your Tools & Resources
This is crucial. Never assume your client is familiar with tools even if they are commonly used among your industry or theirs.
Share with your client the tools they need to become familiar with that you plan to use during your time together and any resources that can assist them.
One of the best ways to do this is by using Loom, a screen-sharing program that makes sharing walkthrough tutorials with your client as simple as: record, screen share, send the video link.
Tip #4 Communicate Regularly
Communication is essential for any great relationship with a client. It not only helps build trust, but it allows both you and your client to check in with each other to make sure you’re on the same page. Discuss deliverables, ask questions, get feedback, talk strategy… These are all great conversations to have regularly with your clients.
A simple way to create ongoing communication with your client is to schedule standing meetings or calls. These don’t have to be frequent, as you still need time for the actual work. Talk with your clients about what works for them and go from there. Whether it’s bi-weekly, monthly, or once every quarter (depending on the project or type of work you do), your client will really feel like a priority, and they’ll be better able to plan their days, as well.
If you’re a product-based business, you can outline expectations with your customers, too. Creating FAQs, detailing shipping guidelines or the process from checkout to delivery are all great ways to establish great communication with your customers.
Tip #5: Underpromise but overdeliver
I know this is a popular saying in our industry, but I really do believe this is so important. It will make a difference in the way you engage with your clients and how they view you. Delivering doesn’t mean a grand gesture, an expensive gift, or complicating your life to provide what you think your client needs to feel like you care.
Instead, it can be as simple as creating a timeline for your project and letting your client know you will provide their mock-up or marketing collateral on a specific date. Then overdeliver and surprise your client by showing up in their inbox a few days early. This not only delights your client but now you have created an experience where you went above and beyond
the recap…
There you have it, 5 tips for the best client experience. Take your client’s experience and elevate it by setting the right expectations, automating your onboarding and invoicing process, walking them through useful tools and resources being used, communicating regularly, and always aiming to overdeliver.
We can almost guarantee if you implement these tips into your client experience, you’ll be running back to tell us how amazed your clients are with you!
You have your homework now, I’m cheering you on!
