How to Create a Premium Client Experience
The client experience is one of the most– if not the most– important aspects of any business, whether service- or product-based. It’s one thing to perform your services or create your products well. Obviously we want to be exceptional in our craft and provide a great outcome for our audience.
But it’s a whole other piece of the puzzle to take into consideration how your clients feel working with you. What’s their experience like? What do they feel when they first learn about you through your social posts or website? How easy are you making things for them? How trusted do they feel that you’re taking care of them?
All of these points are crucial for repeat business, positive testimonials, referrals to more potential clients/customers, selling the experience, and eventually scaling your business. The cold hard facts are that people remember negative experiences with a business and use those to influence their next decision (a.k.a. running away) more than they do the positive ones.
We’ve learned a thing or two about client experience from our years of being service providers then transitioning to digital products, so we’re here to share our knowledge on how to create a premium client experience!
What is a Client or Customer Experience?
In order to be able to refine the experience you provide, you first need to understand what it actually means. The client experience is basically the sum of all interactions a client has with you, from the first impression of your business to the final offboarding and goodbye. It involves every single stage of the client journey, even from the very first time they stumble across your social media or website. Client experience is based on how you make your clients feel– both prospective and booked clients.
We know a feeling isn’t something you can see, but all of the components that could make it up are, so you should understand and be mindful of what those are. This involves:
Your services, which should solve a problem for your clients, plus meet their needs and expectations. Even though the experience may not be tangible, the elements that make it up are.
Information about your business anywhere. If you can anticipate and answer questions someone might have through your FAQs, social media posts, website about page, etc., you’re already doing great!
People involved with your company that deal with the bulk of the client-facing part of your business. Make sure they’re up to speed on your business morale and equipped with the tools they need to provide a great experience from their interactions with your clients or public audience.
Client touch points, which are basically any way that the client can possibly interact with you, like social media, ads, email, forms, etc. This is usually where first impressions are made, after all.
Now that you know what a client experience is and what makes it up, let’s break down the usual process of working with a client to make sure you’re taking into account all the ways you could be creating a premium client experience!
What to Pay Attention to for Client Touchpoints
Really think about the tone you set from your presence on your touchpoint channels. You only have a matter of seconds to really grab someone’s attention. This means your marketing message should be clear and concise, and your branding is consistent across all channels. We know how difficult it can be to talk about your offer in a way that doesn’t feel slimy, so check out these social content pillars and calendar we created in The Creative Template Shop!
When it comes to your website (if you have one), it’s important that it’s easy to navigate. Don’t leave out the mobile display when double checking your website design– a bad mobile experience can do damage to your brand, especially in this day and age where mobile navigation is just as common as, if not more utilized than, desktop.
If you don’t have a website and are using something like a public Dubsado proposal to capture client information, give info about you, your business and your process, accept payment, etc., you can still take into account everything we mentioned above. And don’t worry, Dubsado automatically repositions and resizes the elements in your proposal to work seamlessly with mobile view!
Handling New Inquiries
If you have a contact form, we’d suggest following up with the client no later than 24 hours, maybe 48. You can add your response time somewhere on your contact form to set expectations early on, or send an automatic email that thanks them for their inquiry and states your follow-up timeframe there instead, or even both.
Speaking of contact forms, be sure to include as much information as you’ll need to make an informed decision on whether this client will be the right fit to move forward with or not. Collecting this information beforehand makes for a smoother, quicker conversation in your inbox and/or during the discovery call.
Pro-tip: Create canned responses that you can use to reach out to prospects. Then, all you’ll need to do is personalize it and send it off without having to write a million similar emails from scratch.
Pro pro-tip: If using a Dubsado form, you can create drop-down menu responses that will attach to a specific workflow. This means you can have a workflow with an easy let-down email if a client chooses a budget range that’s below what’s required to work with you. Or you could have different workflows depending on which package a client selects that they’re interested in. The possibilities are endless!
Make Clients Feel Welcome During a Smooth On-boarding Process
You want to make this process as easy as possible for clients. This means having a streamlined way of sending their proposal, contract, and invoice (we prefer using our favorite CRM, Dubsado), and getting those to them in a timely manner. If it’s possible to send them during the same day, that would be best. However, always communicate when they can expect something, and then follow through.
To take it one step further, once the client has booked, you could send a welcome packet that lists all information they’ll need to know about you and the project– the timeline, your contact information, what they can expect working with you, deliverables, client homework, etc. They can keep this packet and refer back to it when needed, and it also gives an extra pizazz to your brand image.
In The Shop, we have a Client Welcome Kit that includes social templates, a PDF welcome packet, and even a Dubsado welcoming workflow to make this process especially streamlined and smooth.
What to Do While Working with Clients
Communication is key here, people! Keep your client informed throughout every step of the process. We believe there’s no such thing as over communication and if there is, we haven’t encountered a client that had a problem with it. It’s better to have a client tell you, “Please stop emailing me so much, I don’t need to know everything that’s happening”, than “Why haven’t I heard from you in a week?!”
Stick to the deadlines you’ve set for projects or tasks, and exceed them when you can. If a client says to have something to them by Friday, aim for Wednesday. When possible, overdeliver. For example, if you’re a photographer, there’s no problem with sending a couple photos that have been edited first as a sneak peek. Your client will appreciate this, and it helps with their overall excitement to see the finished products.
You tend to get really familiar with people when working so closely with them, so always pay attention to the little details about their life and business. Send congratulations if you notice they’ve hit a business or personal milestone, or a small birthday gift. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but showing that you’re paying attention and care about them deeper than just as a source of revenue, those are the actions that stand out most.
Leaving an Impression When Off-boarding Clients
How can you extend the experience even after they’ve signed off? Some super simple ways you can accomplish this are by:
Sending a handwritten thank you note
Sending a check-in email after 3-6 months
Sending a small gift card
Sending a celebratory card for their birthday or important milestones
Notice how those last 2 examples are what you can also do while working with them? It doesn’t take much to make someone smile and make a lasting impact! You don’t have to go out of your way or perform an incredible feat– just maintaining the experience you’ve been providing all along with these small actions can make a world of a difference.
The client experience may seem like a lot to have to be mindful of, but here’s a little trick that you can keep in mind when analyzing your own client experience: Always ask yourself, “How would this make them feel?” After all, feelings are the main driving force behind the decisions we make, so we definitely want to make sure that prospects and clients feel good, to say the least, when they experience any part of our brand.
Ready to create a premium client experience? Check out our new releases in The Creative Template Shop that are focused all around the client and customer experience! In fact, you can even join The Creative Shop Co-op and download every single template available for only $47/month.
