Building relationships with clients is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. Your customers will rely on your company for years if not decades. They’ll be there for you when times are good and bad, so it’s important to make sure they’re happy now and in the future. In this guide, I’ll walk through a variety of ways that you can build strong bonds with your clients so that they stay loyal for years to come.
Be Interested in Serving the Client, Not Just Making a Sale
You should always be genuine, helpful, open to new ideas, respectful, and honest with your clients. You should also be empathetic, patient, and reliable. Furthermore, you should be friendly, approachable, and trustworthy.
You need to listen carefully when they are talking; if they know that they can trust you then they will feel more comfortable talking about themselves than if all you do is try to sell them something right away.
The best way to build relationships with clients who will stay around for years is by being consistent in everything that you do: from how you answer the phone or email inquiries; meeting deadlines; answering questions quickly and thoroughly through documentation such as contracts or proposals (in case of any misunderstandings); providing good service; delivering on time; communicating regularly so that nothing gets missed during projects etc.
Be Responsive
If you’re concerned about how often to respond to clients, consider this: If you don’t respond quickly enough, your client may reach out again and again. This will make them feel as though they are being ignored. And when this happens enough times, it can lead them to believe that their business isn’t important to you and that they should cut ties with you altogether.
It’s also important that the responses you give clients are personal and authentic. While there are plenty of automated systems available for responding to email inquiries, they generally fail at giving the recipient an impression of who actually answered them (especially if it’s not someone directly connected with their inquiry). If a potential customer receives an impersonal response from a company representative, or even worse yet, nothing at all, they’ll likely feel neglected by the brand in general.
Offer Monthly Promotions or Special Offers to Engage With Clients
You can create a series of promotions for your services that are relevant to the season, like offering an early bird discount on annual packages during the summer months when clients are booking their vacations or planning their year-end festivities. You can also cater your specials based on industry and even the client’s business itself. For example, if you’re working with a new restaurant owner who is getting ready to open their doors for business in just two weeks, offer them a special deal on marketing collateral—like postcards or flyers—so they have something tangible they can hand out at events leading up to their grand opening.
Make It Easy for Clients to Refer Your Business
Another way to build lasting relationships with clients is to make it easy for them to refer your business.
You can do this by including a link on your website that provides the referral reward for each new client who comes in through a client’s referral code. You should also create an email template that you send to new clients after they have worked with you, asking them if they would mind referring your business and providing them with a link where they can do so.
Finally, consider creating a custom landing page on your website or blog that allows people who have been referred by existing customers to enter their information, get connected with you, and receive information about how much money/time/etc., their friend will earn when he or she becomes one of your customers as well.
Provide Clear, Easy-to-understand Information
In today’s world of instant gratification and constant distraction, people want information that’s easy to understand and access quickly. Provide multiple ways to connect with you so your clients have the opportunity to get in touch with you before they need something from you. The more effortless it is for them to connect with you, the better chance they’ll take the leap.
Use Social Media Effectively
New business owners often lose sight of how powerful social media can be as a marketing tool because they’re too busy focusing on building their businesses rather than marketing them—but this isn’t a good idea. Social media is an important channel for connecting with people who may not yet know about your business but could use its services someday (and if they already know about it but haven’t purchased it yet, getting them back through social channels might be just what they need). Using these platforms effectively will increase awareness of who you are and what services/products are available through your company’s website or storefront; plus it helps build relationships between customers that last over time.
Create a Responsive Business Website That is Easy to Navigate and Looks Great on any Device
There are a lot of ways to create an excellent website, but you should start with the one that is responsive. Responsive design means that the content of your site adjusts to fit any size screen being viewed on any device. That way, whether someone is using their desktop computer or smartphone and browsing through your blog posts on the go, they’ll be able to read them easily and enjoyably.
Responsive design also makes it so anyone who visits your site will see their browser load quickly without having to wait for pages to load one at a time as they scroll down. This makes visitors happy because they won’t have to wait forever just because they’re using an older model phone.
If you currently use a CMS (content management system) like WordPress or Drupal, then upgrading from standard web design will require some additional work; however, if you haven’t upgraded yet but want more flexibility in how your site looks and feels then switching now could be beneficial later down the road when new features become available within those CMS platforms over time since those upgrades will allow us to access them faster than before by simply updating our current sites instead.
Create the Content on Multiple Channels Where People Can Connect With You and Your Business
The best way to engage in meaningful relationships with clients is by creating content on multiple channels where people can connect with you and your business. Whether it’s a blog post, a newsletter, or even a video series on YouTube, you’ll be able to reach more prospective customers by keeping them engaged with fresh content.
The same goes for social media—if you’re going to have an Instagram account, use it! Don’t just take pictures of your sandwich and post them once every week or two weeks; instead, share what’s happening in the world around you (like an interesting article) so that other people will follow along as well. Social media is all about building connections—and staying active will help build those connections faster because it takes time to create real relationships online.
By Showing Genuine Interest in Helping Clients Solve Problems, You Can Build Connections That Last With Them
When you help clients solve problems, they’ll feel more comfortable working with you. And the more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to buy from you, refer their friends and family members to your business, and come back for more business in the future.
Here are some other reasons why it’s important to show genuine interest in helping clients solve problems:
- Clients will be more likely to buy from you. As a result of a strong relationship between client and professional (which is built on problem-solving), when it’s time for them to buy something from you (e.g., an engagement ring), there’s a good chance that they’ll choose your product/service over others because of how much trust there is between both parties at this point in time.
- Clients will be more likely to refer their friends and family members who also need help solving similar problems—and if those referrals turn out well too then everyone wins.
Conclusion
Building relationships with clients is one of the best ways to keep your business growing and thriving. Customers who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to refer your business, which will help you grow faster than ever before.
About The Author:
Caroline Bird is an entrepreneur and writer with a background in business management. She currently writes for a digital agency in Brisbane like Pixel. She often writes about business growth, digital marketing, and technology. Connect with Caroline on Twitter @BCarolinebird12
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