Improve your Client Experience Today!

Transcription

Providing a stellar client experience isn't rocket science, yet it's something most companies lack and to be honest, it's not a high bar. With these five tips, you can improve your client experience today. Hi, I'm Jadan Willis. I'm a photographer and business consultant and I'm so glad you're here. So why should you care about client experience? First of all, let's start with a brief definition. Client experience is exactly what it sounds like. Put yourself in your client's shoes and walk through your process from inquiry to delivery. How do you treat your clients? How do they feel while working with you?

If they have an amazing experience, that could lead to referrals, repeat business, and great reviews. If they have a negative experience, that could close off the opportunity for future business and could lead to negative reviews. I went to an article written by Andrew Thomas on Inc.com for some more stats and info. According to Lee Resources, when customers are unhappy, there's a 91% chance they won't do business with the company again. 

And according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, dissatisfied customers typically tell 9 to 15 other people about their experience, some tell 20 or more. And according to Andrew’s findings, it takes roughly 40 positive customer experiences to undo the damage of a single negative review. And this is based on his experience that only 1 in 10 happy customers leave a good review. And for every 1-star rating, you need (4) 5-star ratings to maintain an overall 4 stars. 

So if only 1 out of 10 happy customers leaves a good review, you need 40 positive customer interactions to undo the damage of one single negative review. 

And according to a study by American Express, 42% of consumers said that a recommendation from a family member or friend would influence a purchase more than a sale or promotion. This doesn't surprise any of us. We all know that typically a personal recommendation from a family member or friend is going to carry so much more weight than a random ad that you see while scrolling Facebook or Instagram. Not to mention great reviews can be used as testimonials on your website, social media, and boost your Google Business profile.

All right, let's get into it. Here are the five ways you can improve your client experience today. 

Number one, lay out expectations. Answer questions before your clients ask them or even think to have them. 

For example, on my photography website, I lay out the entire photography experience with me starting from inquiry to delivery. I explain here's the best time of day to take photos, here's how many photos you can expect, etc. And when a client books with me, I also provide them with a what to expect guide which goes more into the nitty-gritty details like clothing, makeup, etc. So by laying out expectations, this eliminates back and forth with the client so that they're not calling, texting, emailing you, asking when is this going to be done, what do you need from me, when is this deliverable coming, etc. 

So it's less work on your end to have to deal with the clients asking these questions. And it's also less stress for the client so they know exactly what to expect. And by laying out the expectations from the beginning, this also can validate the consumer's purchase. So again, lay out expectations. 

Number two, under promise and over deliver on those expectations. 

For example, when it comes to my photography, I tell clients that it will be two weeks until their gallery is ready. And realistically, I'm almost always delivering galleries in one week or less, so that's just a happy surprise when they receive the photos earlier than they expected. And I also will do the same thing with the quantity of photos. I'll say I'll deliver 20 photos for a mini-session. Sometimes it's double that. And again, these are just happy surprises for them. And the fun part about this is I made up those numbers. I'm the one who said it would take two weeks. I'm the one who said I deliver 20 photos when I know that I can reasonably beat those expectations.

So you get to manipulate this to your liking. 

You could also give a little bonus or surprise with your purchase. For example, it could be a sticker or a coupon, whatever. All of these tactics are going to look different from business to business because each business works differently. There's different price points, etc. So again, under promise and over deliver on expectations. 

Number three, make the booking/buying process easy. 

So first of all, you should automate as much as possible because it's less work for you and there's no lag time on the client end. For instance, on your website, you could consider using a Calendly plugin so that interested clients can book a discovery call right then and there and they don't have to email you and say, “hi, I would love to work with you. When can we meet?” And you reply and say, “I'm available tomorrow from 1-3, then Monday from 2-4,” etc. And then you just start that whole back and forth chain that we all love. You should remove any obstacles or hoops for your clients to jump through.

It's going to provide a much better experience for them that they can just instantly book a call with you and then you just receive an email in your inbox saying, “you have a call scheduled for this day and time.”

There also shouldn't be any confusion on what's next, where to find something, etc. So on your website, you should make clear, “if you're interested in working with me, please contact me here:____” You know, should these interested people fill out a inquiry form? Should they email you? Should they call you? It really just depends. Again, make the booking/buying process easy.

Number four, this is my favorite, add a little personal touch. 

So you could consider a welcome video, which is what Katelyn James, an online photography educator does. So she will send her brides, because she's a wedding photographer, a welcome video saying, “hi, Janie and Dan, I am so excited to work with you,” etc. 

For me, I like to send out a thank you card at the end of a photography interaction, saying, it was so nice to work with you and thank you for this opportunity.

For my consultant clients, I will usually include a card at the beginning of the process and a little Starbucks gift card saying, “I'm looking forward to working with you” and then one at the end of the process. I like to include a personalized gift card if possible for when I know what kind of things the client likes. For example, they like dining at this restaurant, shopping at this place, etc. But again, this is going to completely depend on your business and also depends on the price point. 

And another way you can implement this into your business is to customize templates to reflect your personality. Let's say you have some email templates or you use a client relationship management tool that has different templates in there. You can customize those to fit your personality so they're not just straight out of the box, you know, cold templates fit to the company that you got them from. So again, add a little personal touch. 

And number five, be a source for recommendations.

Whether you can or cannot help a customer, it's great to point them in the right direction or at least some direction. For example, I used to work at a hardscape landscape company and somebody might call and say, “hi, we'd love to work with you and we would like to get a stamped concrete patio done.” And then I would say, “unfortunately, we don't do stamped concrete. However, we could refer you to company ABC.” Even though we're not working with that customer, they still had a positive interaction with us. And later down the line, they could refer us to somebody else and we didn't even do any work for them. And it's just being a nice person.

Another example of this could be you do work with a client. Let's say a client wants a patio done, but you say, well, for this part of the job, you would need an electrician. If you have somebody in mind, great, or we can personally recommend an electrician that we've been working with for years. That helps the client so much, because then they don't have to do the extra work of finding somebody else to do this job, when you could just step in and say, we have somebody that we can recommend to you. Again, be a source for recommendations. 

Let's do a quick recap.

So number one, lay out expectations. Number two, under promise and over deliver on those expectations. Number three, make the booking/buying process easy. Number four, add a little personal touch. And number five, be a source for recommendations. 

So your homework is to implement these into your business. Like I've been saying, how you implement these into your business is going to look completely different from person to person, business to business, but they can all be applied. I hope you enjoyed and have a great day!

Don't forget the step-by-step guide to APPLY these strategies!