5 Ways to Keep Your Clients Happy: Business Support Services
Pay Attention To Your Client’s Needs for Business Support Services
As a business owner, you know that keeping your clients happy is the foundation for the rest of your services offered. Sometimes these services can be provided without any additional help. However, this is not always the case. To make sure that you can give all of the required services, you can consider outsourcing your business support services to focus your time more effectively.
Get to know the expectations and communication style of the client you've been working with a client for a while. You'll likely pick up on patterns and habits that your clients embody.
For example, if emails are always short, a client might prefer to talk through weightier ideas. Instead of sending a new big idea through an email, shoot over a short note to set up a phone call to discuss. Also, consider what matters the most to the client.
By focusing on what matters most, you will consistently be bringing home the best work for your client. Never allow your focus to falter from this point. The client's needs are what you will use to build out the reputation of success that your business will enjoy for decades to come. There are many modern examples of businesses not advertising at all and flourishing on word of mouth business alone. Those companies put the needs of their clients at the top of their list so that when push comes to shove, they are in the metaphorical trenches with their clients. If you want a single focus to improve the reputation of your business for a lifetime, this is a great way to go.
Consider The Client's Day Routines
This is an extension of pay attention, get to know an individual's schedule, what a person's days look like are like and show some respect toward the situation. If you know Tuesday is a typically rough day, don't add to it with a pile of emails. Instead, save the less pressing matters for a different day. This can change how you do business, as mentioned above.
Some clients do not enjoy using email, and it can take enough time out of their days that they prefer not to do it. It is imperative for these clients that you find a way to set up times to communicate outside of email actively. This will show the client that you actively respect their wishes and will prevent your name from coming up in the eventual discussion for who they want to keep or drop when it comes to business support services. There is nothing more obnoxious to a busy professional than to constantly have someone reaching out to them in a way they do not prefer. Never be this provider.
Figure Out What Matters to Your Client
A great starting point is to get to know the communication style of the client and how your client is managed and help accordingly. Sometimes your client is a company and not an individual. When outsourcing Business Support Services, it is essential to understand that you might be interacting with a much bigger company than first thought. With this in mind, it can be necessary to figure out what the client or the manager involved wants the most and focus on high-quality delivery of that product. This is also a great way to ensure a long term client. If the point person for the company looks good, they will appreciate your work so much more.
When outsourcing support services, the client may not see what you do directly; however, ensuring that your company always has a positive tone in the voice of the boss is an important starting point.
Own Your Mistakes
And do it quickly. We all make bad calls from time to time. This is is the name of the business game. While we all prefer to minimize the amount of these mistakes that we make, they do come up eventually. The moment that these mistakes are noted, they need to be owned. Letting your client know that a mistake was made before it can permeate their business or be discovered on their own goes a huge way with customer success. Admitting mistakes makes you more trustworthy and improves the likelihood that a mistake won't turn into a deal breaker. If you are looking for a single tool to build out a long-term reputation as a business services provider, this is it!
Consistently Go Above and Beyond
Do more than what is the client asks or what is planned. In the day-to-day living portion of our work life, it can be important to remember that we succeed when our clients succeed.
Step outside the box and jump in to help out when you're good at something. In some cases, why your clients hired, you may be for more than just your skillset. You may be retained to help on one portion of outsourcing but have expertise in another area of focus, which can fall under a different product domain.
This skillset can be utilized to build out your rapport with the client by proposing new ideas or thoughts that could help both them and yourself. There is nothing wrong with winning together in this world, and that is accomplished by going a little farther than needed. While this can be an exhausting idea too some, it is one of the cornerstones of the industry.
At the same time, there may be a few times that your input might not be appreciated. However, in many other cases, this initiative will be loved and will go a long way towards building impressive customer relations and preventing losing a client in the long run. There is never a reason in business to avoid going above and beyond for a customer.
Remember, these 5 points are just the starting point for great customer service. Find out what your team excels at in addition to these cornerstones, and you will see your intra-business relations improve by a sizable margin!