Happy clients = happy business
Once you have promoted and marketed your business to gain new clients, how do you keep them?
By keeping your clients so happy with your service that they become loyal, long-term customers and champions for your business.
To produce happy, loyal clients you need to:
- give them what they need,
- be nice, honest and professional,
- do an excellent job, and
- don’t forget about your customers once the job is finished: build on the relationship.
1. GIVE YOUR CLIENTS WHAT THEY NEED
Sometimes a customer comes to you thinking they want one thing but on listening to them, you work out they actually need something else. If you know your business and are good at what you do, you’ll be able to help them articulate exactly what they need, then either provide it to them or refer them to someone else who can. Customers like honesty and good advice, especially if it’s for free. Even if they don’t end up using your services, they are likely to refer their friends and colleagues to you.
An example:
My business offers scribing, writing, editing, proofreading and transcription services. If someone rang me up looking for a structural editor for their book about, for example, quantum physics, I’d explain that we don’t have the specific knowledge required to ensure a book about that subject matter is edited well, and offer to help them find an editor who does. But if they asked me to produce or edit their book about a range of different subjects, I’d be able to offer that service.
2. BE NICE TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS
Being nice doesn’t mean being saccharine or speaking with a forced smile. Being nice means just being professional and friendly, and sincerely wanting to help or work with your clients, staff and suppliers.
If you are nice all the time to all your clients, staff and suppliers, you’ll potentially win their hearts and minds, find it easier to obtain supplies and services, increase your earnings, do well in business and everyone will be happy.
Not being nice to your customers, staff or suppliers may end up potentially costing you clients, earnings and your business, as well as your own happiness.
An example:
When I am wearing my ‘editor’s hat’ my role is to fix people’s mistakes and/or improve their written work which is essentially to criticise what they have done. But it is possible to be nice to your clients whilst delivering that honest, critical feedback by recognising what they have done well and wrapping the critical comments in equally honest words of encouragement. That way, you avoid unhappy customers whilst still providing completely honest and professional service.
3. FOLLOWING UP ON THE JOB
After giving your client the best possible service, once the job is done, don’t abandon them.
Keep that relationship you have invested so much into alive!
For example:
A few days after the job, I send my clients an email to let them know I really enjoyed working with them, check that they were happy with the service, and mention that I look forward to assisting them again in future. Several weeks later I send them another email, again mentioning how much you enjoyed working with them and look forward to doing so again. If they are happy to be on your newsletter list, send them an email every few months.
4. HOW ELSE CAN YOU KEEP YOUR CLIENTS HAPPY?
To keep your clients extremely happy with your service so they become loyal customers and champions for your business, make sure you always:
- Do what you say you’re doing to do (or do it better than expected)
- Meet your deadlines
- Only take on bookings where you know you can do at an excellent job
- Make sure all your communications are clear, well-presented and professional
- Respect everyone you talk to in carrying out your business: clients, potential clients, staff and suppliers.
Your business will prosper.
Copyright Sally-Anne Watson Kane 2018
Check out my blog for more articles about managing sole trader and small businesses: On Time Typing Blog
This article is based on my own experiences as owner/operator of On Time Typing, a scribing, report writing, editing and proofreading business, providing services across Gippsland and Australia.
Sally-Anne Watson Kane
Writer, editor, proofreader, owner/operator - On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading
Sally-Anne Watson Kane owns and operates On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading (established as 'On Time Typing' in 2002) and Peewee Press (since 2003). Sally-Anne is a professional editor and full member of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) Australia, based in Moe, Gippsland.
Our services: typing, scribing, report writing, minute-taking, transcription, copy writing, editing, proofreading, graphic design, and self-publishing.
Sally-Anne manages an Australian-based team of eleven typists, scribes, transcriptionists, writers and editors (all subcontractors) including typists in Gippsland as well as typists, editors and scribes in Melbourne, Central Victoria and interstate.
Sally-Anne is a professional member of Institute of Professional Editors and Editors Victoria, and a full member of Life Stories Australia.
Sally-Anne regularly writes articles about sole trader and small business management, writing and editing, self-publishing, and contemporary issues in Australia, across a variety of platforms.
Sally-Anne has 25 years' experience in:
- editing and proofreading publications, websites, policies and reports.
- audio transcription (dictation, transcripts of interviews, focus groups, investigations, hearings).
- recording, transcribing, compiling and self-publishing oral histories and anthologies.
- writing articles, websites, reports and publications
- scribing and writing selection, procurement and referee reports
- scribing, writing and editing self-published memoirs and life stories
- providing self-publishing services to authors, businesses and organisations from handwritten manuscript through to printed book stage, including: project planning, budget, typing, editing, proofreading, graphic design, printer quotes and liaison. We specialise in producing memoirs and life stories, local histories, and minority voices.