How To Make Your Relationship With Clients Less Stressful
In today’s fast-paced digital world, we easily become wrapped up in our daily tasks that we forget how invaluable it is to regularly communicate with clients we work with. Good communication is the pillar of successful entrepreneurship and should, by all means, be maintained and nurtured. However, as much as we would like our client collaboration to run smoothly, there are always obstacles that slow us down on our road to success. Whether we are dealing with a demanding client or we are using wrong communication channels, there is always something that prevents us from achieving our goal. That’s why every small business owner should know how to manage their customer’s needs and live up to their expectations.
Here are a few useful tips how to leverage a relationship with your clients.
Choose the right media of communication
Various technological breakthroughs have enabled us to communicate more efficiently and exchange information in just a few clicks. The omnipresence of the Internet has given us an incredible opportunity to communicate by commenting and sharing photos on a variety of social media channels. While there are a number of ways you can communicate with your customers, it’s important to find the right channels that will leverage the communication between you and the customer. While some people prefer face-to-face communication, others tend to use email, video chat or even video conferencing when working with clients. To find out which one suits you, it’s best to talk to them directly and ask them which one they prefer.
Under-promise and then over-deliver
Managing client expectations is not an easy task, especially if we are dealing with a difficult client. Before initiating any collaboration, it’s of crucial importance to carefully measure your own capabilities. In other words, estimate the time you will need to complete the task and then under-promise.This will undoubtedly give your team some breathing room in case something unexpected happens along the road. In order to meet deadlines and finish the project within a certain budget it’s important to make your deadline further down the road and, then, allow yourself and your team to deliver ahead of time, that is, if everything goes according to the plan. In this way, your client will appreciate your work and value the efforts you are investing in producing a good quality work.
See Also: How To Finally Stop Overpromising
Keep everyone involved in the projects
One of the prerequisites of successful client collaboration is a good communication. Maintaining a good communication is the pillar of successful business. Besides regularly updating your client about the progress you are making and the pitfalls you come across during the project development, it’s also important to make them an integral part of the project. Luckily, thanks to the ubiquity of modern technology, we are given the ability to manage our business and our teams easily by using self-hosted project management and collaboration tools.
The collaboration software doesn’t only help you delegate your tasks and manage your team with ease, but they also allow you to involve your client in the project. Let them have a clear insight about all the stages of the project as well as all the modifications made on the project. Not only will they have a clear view of what exactly you are working on, but they will also have the ability to comment and invoice in a matter of seconds.
Get everything in writing
Building trust is a half way to success. Before you dive into any kind of project, it’s important to put everything down in the contract and list all the things included and excluded from the project. Bullet-proof yourself from potential conflicts by setting some boundaries and clearly defining what is unacceptable in your client collaboration. Once your client understands your vision and the objectives you are trying to achieve, the trust will unquestionably increase. This will help you cross any bridges in future and develop a long-lasting relationship with your client.
Make friendly communication
While it’s important to organize weekly or monthly meetings and have constructive discussions about any burning issues, it’s also vital to nurture a friendly relationship with your client. Sometimes communication with a client may suffer due to the inconsistency of the given data or simply inadequate language. Although most clients have at least some technical knowledge that enables them to keep a track of all the steps of the project development, most of them still find it hard to understand technical slang developers tend to use. By translating web-speak into the language that will be understandable to your client, you will make communication a breeze.
Rachel is currently working as the vice president of communications at ActiveCollab. After finishing her master’s degree in Communications she pursued a career in the digital industry, most notably in marketing and public relations.
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