How to Keep Your Clients and Keep Them Happy

The most important thing you do as a business owner is to make your current customers happy. This is the basis for repeat business, referrals and overall ongoing new business for you company. If you cannot retain your current customers you will have a very short-lived existence in the business world. I wanted to break this down to a step-by-step how-to for not only keeping clients but how to keep them happy and coming back!

1. Show that you Value Your Clients Time and Choice to Work with You! – Your client could have gone with any number of other contractors or consultants and they chose you. Your acknowledgment of that fact will show by how you manage your time for them. If you say you will be there – get there and be prepared – on time and without excuses.

“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late.”

2. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. – So many times, people get contracts and dig right in and do not let the customer know of progress being made. The customer then either thinks they have been forgotten or that they hired a bad choice and start looking for ways to fix their mistake. It is YOUR job to relay to the customer what progress is being made and what timeline you are on for finishing… but do not make the mistake of over promising. Make your time goals realistic and then add a few days for the unseen circumstances that will undoubtedly arise.

3. Be Flexible, but not a Push-Over – Every client is not the same so be careful at being too tied to your personal communication preference or your timeline. Customers sometimes need to spread out a project for financial reasons or may not be comfortable with certain communication methods (i.e. – texting or email when they prefer phone calls or office visits). If you want to retain their business you must realize that you may have to give on your preference for timing and communication. It is better for you to your methods rather than to put your customer out of their comfort zone and create a stress in the relationship.

4. Avoid Surprising your Customer with Billing – You do not want the end of an otherwise good contract to be filled with any surprise about pricing or how they got their bill. In the beginning, you should make it very clear on what the billing process will look like. From down payment to final installment, they should know what to expect and when. You may think it is not a big deal to send a bill right away but for business owners and home owners, they are looking for that bill and want it off their minds and books. There should be no surprises in what the price is either. All contracts should clearly state pricing and how add-ons work so there are no questions. If something gets changed during the contract it should be in writing with pricing quoted clearly.

5. Continuously ask for Feedback – When you are starting the process of a new contract, ask the customer if there is anything you did not answer for them that they have questions about. During the process, ask them how they believe the process is going.

Business and Personal Branding – So, Who Are You Again?

Who are you? No, really, who are you? If I Google your name what will I find out about you? Will the search results pull up your professionally designed blog that will tell me all about you or will it pull up those embarrassing photos you took at that party? Worse, will nothing come up at all?

The internet has integrated itself deeply into the fabric of life. So much so that people are turning to search engines and social media outlets to find out information about businesses and individuals. If the wrong information comes up or, worse, no information at all, then your prospective clients may hesitate to do business with you. This hesitation can cause you to lose business to a competitor who has put in the time and effort into their business and personal brand.

It is a common misconception amongst small and independent business owners that personal and business branding is only for the “big guys”. Maybe at one point in time that was true but I can safely say that is no longer the case. The internet has leveled the playing field and provided anyone with a dream and the willingness to work a way to build a successful business. As a consequence the marketplace is chock full of people trying to get the attention of prospects and the only way to be heard above the noise is to brand yourself so that your prospective clients remember you when they think about your particular industry.

For example, a real estate agent who takes the time to cultivate a personal brand as an expert in the real estate industry will sell more homes than a person who doesn’t. This is because when people need help buying or selling a home, they will go to the person who has demonstrated that they have the knowledge, skills, and solutions they are seeking. Think about it. When you need help with a problem, who are you going to turn to? Someone who has proven to you that they know what they are talking about or someone who says they do but you have no way of knowing for certain.

Business and personal branding is not as difficult as it may first seem and anyone who has a business should have a strategy in place for doing it. The easiest way is to start a blog and to begin writing articles about the industry topics that are important to your clients. Not only should these articles provide information that your prospects can use to make good decisions, they should also position you as a knowledgeable expert in your field.

Business owners aren’t the only ones who need to have a personal and business branding strategy in place. Even if you are employed, you need to take steps to build a personal brand for yourself outside of your job. The world is gradually switching over to a freelance mentality which means rather than being “employed” by a company you will be “hiring yourself out” to the business that offers the most benefits in exchange for your skill set.

It’s a subtle difference but an important one. As a freelance employee, you need to prove to the hiring manager that you are the best person for the job. How much more impressive would you be to them if they searched for your name on the internet and found a branded website by you full of articles on industry specific topics. I think they would be very impressed indeed. Additionally, should you ever leave your employment, you can leverage your personal brand to launch into another employment opportunity or to even start your own business as a consultant.

Other people who can benefit greatly from branding themselves include:

* Financial planners
* Consultants of every stripe
* Health care professionals
* Sales and marketing professionals
* CEOs and other upper management
* Independent contractors

Getting started on the road to branding yourself is as easy is setting up a website and providing relevant content for your prospects. If this sounds like the direction you should be going in, then contact me for information about a branding system that I am using to help brand my work at home business. Branding yourself is no longer an option, it is a necessity if you want to compete effectively in a crowded marketplace.