What is Your Client Experience (And Why it is so Important)
When it comes to running a service-based business, there’s one term that you’ve likely heard a lot– client experience. It’s honestly the sole thing that service-based businesses revolve around because it can make or break your business.
But what exactly does client experience mean? Why is it so important? These are the questions that we’ll be answering in today’s blog post!
What is a Client Experience?
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.
What Makes Up the Client Experience?
In this day and age, clients have more opportunity and ways to interact with you than they ever have before. It’s important to understand and be mindful of different components of their experience, like:
YOUR SERVICES
The services you offer should solve a problem for clients and should meet their needs and expectations. Remember that even though an experience might not be tangible, the elements that make it up are.
INFORMATION
This counts for all information about your business anywhere. If you’re able to anticipate and answer questions in one form or another, whether it’s an FAQ on your website, through your posts on social media, a forum of some sort, etc., then you’re already off to a great start.
PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH YOUR COMPANY
If you’ve hired contractors or employees that deal with the bulk of the client-facing part of your business, it’s important that they’re up to speed on your business morale and equipped with the tools that make it easy for them to provide a great experience from their interactions with the client.
CLIENT TOUCHPOINTS
This is basically every way that a client can possibly interact with you– social media, website, ads, email, etc. Touchpoints play a huge role in your client experience because this is usually where first impressions are made.
Why is the Client Experience So Important?
Like we said before, the client experience is basically the thing that service-based businesses revolve around– it’s the backbone of your business.
Have you ever been a part of or witnessed a conversation around choosing one of two brands that provide a similar product or service? Usually, one of the most important defining factors that determines the winner in the situation is the one that has better customer service, the one that people enjoy using more.
Here are the facts (source):
1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience
92% would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions
72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people
However, if they’re unhappy, 13% of them will share their experience with 15 or more people
Not only is it tied to whether or not you receive repeat business, great testimonials, and referrals from past clients but it also is what allows you to stand out from the crowd. When you master your client experience, you’re able to sell the experience versus just the value of what you can do for clients. In fact, a Walker study found that customer experience will soon overtake price and product/service as they key brand differentiator.
On top of that, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer (client) experience.
What Should You Look Out for When Creating a Client Experience?
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.
When it comes to your website, it’s important that it’s easy to navigate. Don’t leave out the mobile display when double checking your website– a bad mobile experience can do damage to your brand, especially when 52% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile alone.
THE INQUIRY PROCESS
If you have a contact form on your website, for example, and it states a timeframe in which they can expect a response from you, always follow through on that promise– the sooner, the better. 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.
THE ONBOARDING 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 great. 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.
We’ve created a PDF Client Welcome Packet in The Creative Template Shop that includes pages for all of this information and more! All you have to do is one-click add it to your Canva account and customize.
You can grab this template, plus all others in The Shop, for only $47/month when you become a member.
WHILE WORKING TOGETHER
Communication is key here, people! Keep your client informed throughout every step of the process. Over-communicate if need be. 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.
THE OFFBOARDING PROCESS
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 small gift card
Sending a celebratory card for their birthday or important milestones
Sending a check-in email after 3-6 months
These are small actions that can really make a lasting impact on your clients because it shows that you care about them. Heck, they may even come back later to work with you again, and they’re more likely to recommend you to friends in their circle.
This may have seemed like a lot to take in about client experience, but the key is remembering how every part of your business will make your clients feel. 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.
