"Love" develops when a relationship is nurtured and built on trust, which is precisely the case for your client relationships. When you keep a close relationship with your customers - meaning you keep them in the loop as projects progress and offer help on a regular basis, they’ll be more trusting (and more willing to do repeat business with you).
The good news? Building trust and nurturing client relationships isn’t so hard with the right intentions - all you need are the right tools. Whether you’re managing projects, a team, or an entire business, here are three tips to help make your clients love you.
Letting your clients know how a project is progressing and being transparent with them goes a long way. Better yet, keep them looped in on a project that's moving along beautifully. So, where do you start? If you have a team, it actually starts with them. Managing schedules and your team’s utilization is something that’s directly in your control and that directly influences a project's timeline and budget. You can ensure that all the tasks that need to be completed are accounted for and that, more importantly, your team has the capacity to do them. When you can proactively manage deliverables and budget so that your projects stay within scope, you won’t only be demonstrating your transparency with regular check-ins, you’ll be showcasing your ability to deliver on time and on budget.
When you make a point to collaborate with your team and give your clients a better way (i.e. a technology platform) to contribute, you’ll create a greater sense of trust, rapport, and deliver better work. Collaborating with your staff through better communication streams, real-time project collaboration platforms, and smarter tickets will make it easier to deliver great work, especially when clients are given access to a client portal where they can input their ideas and solicit feedback, which fosters transparency and accountability - no smoke and mirrors. With an integrated business communication stream or email sync, it’ll feel like you have a central business inbox that’s linked to all your client work where everyone on your team can easily see what's going on. Coupled with a centralized place to collaborate, your team will be able to do their best work since collective brainpower produces better results. Plus, by soliciting your client’s feedback through a client portal, they’ll feel heard and respected. Bonus: if you find a platform that integrates with Google for Work, you’ll be able to manage projects and communications very easily since your business-related emails won’t get buried in isolated inboxes (again, making it easy to collaborate and know who’s on top of what).
Finally, using a platform that’ll send you automated notifications when projects are slowing down or held up is key in helping you stay proactive (so that clients never call you out). If you create tasks in your business management platform, have them push automatically to Google with 2-way sync and easily manage tasks with special task lists there. Task notification emails keep managers and assignees informed, so all you need to do is pick a smart technology platform that can integrate with these tools.
Like any real relationship, things develop organically over time. But, when you can show that you’re reliable, transparent, and genuine, it can speed up the process! Let's not forget - this is business, so the best way to earn your client’s respect is to be proactive and on top of everything. With that, you’re nearly guaranteed your client’s "love".
If you’re looking for a platform that’ll help you be an all-star in your client's eyes, you need to check this out.
