Five best practices for building better client relationships

From before a client starts to think about signing up with your company or agreeing to work with you, it’s important to begin building the foundations for a strong relationship.

However, like many small business owners, you may be limited when it comes to time and resources.

It can often be difficult to figure out where to focus your energy when building client relationships, which takes a lot of time and effort.

Strong client relationships are often even more important for service-based relationships. This is where these best practices are absolutely crucial for your success.

Get to know your clients in detail

Prospective new clients can often tell if you are trying to push a cookie-cutter approach for sales on them. To get your relationship off to the best start, it’s important that you demonstrate to your clients that you were paying attention.

This needs to be done right from the start. This will often involve asking questions that help you get to know your clients. Understand their needs in more detail and take detailed notes that you will be able to refer back to at a later date.

Make sure that you note any professional needs and personal details. Take into consideration anything else that might be useful to you when it comes to building a good connection.

Understand pain points

Clients are typically always going to have a better relationship with a company that understands what they need. You will also able to solve their problems.

Communication is not the only factor that goes into building a strong client relationship. As well as communicating, you have to continuously prove that you are the right business for them by providing the right solution to their needs and issues.

Follow up quickly

Have you ever been in a situation where, after spending some time with a potential client, you get the feeling that things are going great? They then suddenly drop off the grid and don’t follow up with you even when they agreed to?

Avoid this by being the first one to follow up, since clients ghosting you during the early stages of the relationship is quite common. This is especially true if they are shopping around and talking to your competitors.

Make sure you are clear with the next steps at every client meeting. Put together a plan for when you are going to get back in touch.

Use management software

Building better relationships is not always about the human touch, however. Lots of companies and firms out there provide technology which helps improve the link between the client and the company.

Practice management software from BTC Software can make it easier to build a strong relationship with your clients and ensure that they are satisfied with the service that they are receiving from you.

BTC Software offers practice management software that is designed with accountants in mind, helping you get the best results for your clients and ensuring that you do not miss any important deadlines, even when you are working with a large number of clients with various needs and requirements.

Reconnect often

Once your client is onboard, it can be all too easy to simply put a plan in place for carrying out the work that they want. You might not make much effort to reconnect with them.

But taking the time to reconnect with your clients on a regular basis is one of the most important things to do. Building a strong relationship will help you avoid them leaving.

You will give them the chance to talk through their experience with you so far and give you information on anything that they are unhappy with. You should think about this as early as possible, so that you can act on the information quickly.

Building a strong relationship with your clients is key to business success. Keep these tips in mind, and start enjoying better client relationships from today.

Featured