Justin Herring, YEAH! Local
Underpromise and Overdeliver
My client management tip relates to the point at which you make the sale. You want to get the job, and as a marketer, you know how to advertise your company. But don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Declare that you’re a boutique firm
If you don’t deal with paid advertisements, be honest about it.
Clients expect their agency to be open and honest with them. They aim to hire people who excel at their jobs. Not a group that exaggerates its powers and then comes unstuck afterwards.
How to make a promise and then deliver on it:
– Make a list of the services you can supply and put it in writing.
– Don’t be scared to say no to work that isn’t a good match for you or your team.
– Before you take the job, ask a lot of questions. Even if your clients are in a rush, take your time to make sure you grasp what they want from you.
– Add in some extra delights for your customer. This may be a free post or a mention of their company in one of your articles. We all want to be appreciated and cherished. Make it a point to spread the love to your customers.
– When you go above and beyond for clients or produce better-than-expected outcomes, make a point of it. You may do this, for example, by taking screenshots of excellent outcomes.
If you underpromise and overdeliver all the rest of your client management will become much easier.
Jordan Choo, Kogneta
When it comes to client management, I’ve always found that brutal transparency and ownership are what makes a successful relationship.
That means “owning” both the positive and negative things that happen by not pointing the finger at other factors and instead of taking responsibility and providing recommendations on how to resolve the negative things.
I have also found that clients appreciate brutal transparency even if that means saying no to more money. The more trust that you build with them the more that they’ll end up working with you.
As an example, I had a client who they wanted to increase their monthly content. However, when diving deeper into it we recommended against it based on business and marketing data. Though we sacrificed revenue in the short term, they have increased their work with us even more since then based on the trust we’ve built with them.
Omar Sayyed, Ties.com
Setting clear goals for growth and tracking the results of marketing efforts in the form of measurable figures demonstrates that your agency is delivering value.
Owning an agency as well as an online fashion retailer, I have been fortunate to see both sides of the Agency/Client relationship, and managing KPIs has to be at the top of the list when creating a fruitful partnership.
Matt Schmidt, Burial Insurance Pro
One important tip I love sharing with people is actually a really simple one. I cannot stress enough how it’s extremely important to set realistic expectations with your clients. By being up front and being honest with your clientele, you are setting the tone for your relationship.
Many people tend to mislead consumers about prices, or turn around time for the job to be completed. This bait and switch routine leaves people with a bad taste in their mouths. Not to mention it could lead to them not wanting to do future business with you.
By being realistic with people you’ll ensure that clients are on the same page as you, and should lead to a more pleasurable experience working with you.
Mike van der Heijden, Portal Ventures
Firstly, setting realistic goals and expectations – it’s a crucial relationship-building exercise. From there, (over)communicate everything your agency does – don’t pester them, but since we started providing weekly wrap-ups to clients – we’ve seen happier clients, less churn and bigger cross-sell opportunities.
Callum Sherwood, C4 Digital Marketing Australia
Managing clients’ expectations, deliverables & results is no easy feat. In my experience, the best way to do the above is to have a strong SOP for reporting & touchpoints.
Reporting wise, ensuring you have some level of data visualisation that is easily palatable by your point of contact client-side & their managers. These help with your touchpoints, when you notice an anomaly or something interesting, flick your client an email or call.
Sometimes this may fall on deaf ears, however, you are fulfilling your scope & keeping your service/brand in the client’s mind. The most important however is having a solid account management team to keep tabs on your clients, typically this of an account manager who is the day to day contact, along with an account director who will be the overarching manager.
Ben Soltana, Ben Soltana
The success as an agency is not based only on the size of the business or the number of clients we land. It’s also about the ability to keep existing clients happy.
There are a number of important factors that agencies must consider to win and retain clients, here is my top 3 tips on client relationship management:
1. Understand your client’s goals, needs and expectations
Many times there’s some level of confusion around what the clients really want so it’s very important to figure out what their goals are:
Spend time evaluating your client’s current marketing strategy. Their success KPI’s, their business goals.
Managing client expectations is one of the best ways to keep clients happy, informed, and avoid any misunderstandings.
Before starting the project, review each goal, and deliverable with the client.
2. Communicate clearly and regularly
Good communication is the number one factor that impacts success for agencies and freelancers. It is more than monthly reports and updates on how the projects are going.
Go the extra mile, make them feel valued and special and show that you care about their success.
3. Be ready to handle leaving customers
Even the most successful agencies will lose a client at some point. And when that happens, you need to be ready to handle it.
Make the best of it no matter how challenging the experience might be. Every situation teaches us something, even if it is a difficult or unpleasant lesson. Have a plan where you ask for feedback, suggest a solution, say thank you.
Ray Lim, I-Credit, Legal Licensed Moneylender Singapore
Most people think of advertising as a one-way street. The client sends a brief and the agency creates an ad or campaign in response. However, effective client management is a two-way process that requires communication and feedback from both parties. In this article, we will explore some tips for agencies to effectively manage their clients.
Communication is key
The first and most important step in effective client management is communication. It’s important to keep the lines of communication open at all times, especially when there are changes or problems with the project. If something goes wrong, the agency should be quick to communicate what happened and how they plan to fix it. On the other hand, if the project is going well, the agency should keep the client updated on their progress.
Set realistic expectations
When working with a client, it’s important to set realistic expectations from the start. This means being honest about what can and cannot be done within the given timeframe and budget. If the client is not happy with the results, it will reflect poorly on the agency.
Garit Boothe, Garit Boothe Digital
The tricky thing about client management is to focus on what the client thinks is important. This isn’t usually what you care about.
Whether you do paid advertising or SEO or marketing automation or creative work, it doesn’t matter. The client’s vision always comes first, and you need to cater to that. Even when they’re wrong.
If a client wants something small that I know isn’t important to the marketing campaign, I do it. This makes them happy and builds the relationship. Of course, there are limits to this, but small favors go a long way.
If the relationship is good, then they’ll go to bat for you when it matters. Relationships are a two-way street, and you need to build them when you don’t need anything. Then when you need something, they’ll hear you out.
Kartik Ahuja, GrowthScribe
In a sea of potential competitors, it can be difficult for businesses to stand out.
But by creating an experience that consistently exceeds expectations and building genuine connections with your clients, you can totally stand out.
Here are my top 2 strategies for excellent client management and retention:
#1 — Keep your clients in the loop
Remember, the customer relationship starts from day one and the first step in building great client relationships is to have open, regular, and clear communication.
Schedule biweekly or weekly calls and keep them informed about the progress of the work, and problems that you might be facing, and give them a clear picture of the current situation.
Also remember that not every client is tech-savvy. So always try your best to keep the conversation jargon-free.
#2 — Set clear expectations
Businesses are often tempted to over-promise and under-deliver. But this can only set you up for disappointment down the line.
Transparency and honesty are appreciated and it’s better to be upfront about what you can and can’t do.
Shaurya Jain, Attention Always
One thing that has always worked for me is being completely honest and transparent. Clients are forking out hard-earned money and if they feel left out from what’s going on at their company they will start making assumptions. Often negative ones.
When that happens, you as an agency aren’t seen as being very reliable. When managing client relationships, transparency is of the essence. That doesn’t mean you ping the client whenever you hit a social media share for the blog post your agency wrote. But let them in on the bigger picture.
Never make key strategic decisions without informing and discussing the implications of the decision beforehand.
What I do is get on a phone with clients and inform them of the latest happenings. Like the number of links we acquired and the increase in the number of leads for the website and so on.