“Spoiling” your clients or customers

I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You receive an email or a phone call inquiring about your business and how you can help them. They’re excited to have found you and in most cases have already read your website. They know the benefits of using a (please circle) Virtual Assistant/Freelancer/Website Designer/Graphic Designer and they are ready to talk to you about how you can help them realise their dreams and goals. They are ready to sign the dotted line.

Just like courting a new lover you answer phone calls and emails straight away because you’re just so excited to be working with this new client. You want to build a relationship quickly but steadily and so you make yourself more available then you would tend to normally.

After a while, you start to ease back on the gas. You are still enjoying every moment of working together but the rest of your clients are feeling left out and perhaps even jealous.

You start to feel torn between your new client and your existing clients. You definitely have enough time to go around but how do you make them all feel just as equally important as each other? How do you keep that new relationship “glow”?

C’mon, I know I’m not the only one to have done it. And this is where I’m going to get a little preachy with you. You need to continue making each client feel like they are the most important one you have. To do this you need what I call a “Communications Plan”.

A Communications Plan is simply having a system in which you maintain contact with your clients, especially the ones you aren’t working with on a daily basis. If you don’t maintain contact and communicate with your clients, how will you know when they need you? How will you know they are satisfied with their current level of service? How will you know if you are seeing the ‘real’ them and they are seeing the ‘real’ you? And finally, how will you know if your working relationship is a good fit for both parties?

Your Communications Plan can be made up of various strategies including:

• Weekly emails
• Weekly/Fortnightly or Monthly teleconference or online meetings
• Monthly “Clients Only” newsletters
• Handwritten notes or cards
• The possibilities are endless…..

The key here is to being regular and consistent. Your client may be extremely busy and is still learning how to use a Virtual Assistant. If you don’t keep in regular contact, how will you know when that client is finally ready to hand over some of their to do list to you?

I for one will be working on my Communications Plan as I’ve been a bit lax these last few weeks. Having a Communications Plan is how I plan to make each of my clients feel as important as each other.

Do you have a Communications Plan in place already and if so, have you recorded it somewhere to remind you? What system do you use to keep in touch with your client base and why have you chosen to use it? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Tagged as: building relationships, Business Management, Customer Service, new client, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant