Improving Client Communication as a Small Business Owner
Collaborative Post
If you feel as though your client communication isn’t quite what it should be, or if you feel as though you need to make some changes with your strategy but you don’t know how to go about doing this, then the first thing you need to do is work on a plan of action. If you can do this, then you will find it easier to follow through, and to make sure that you are making the right changes at every step of the process.
Set Expectations
First of all, it’s good for you to try and take the time to set expectations nice and early. Strong relationships are built on joint understanding from the very first day. When you know that you are starting a new relationship, you need to try and establish timelines as well as deliverables and even communication cadences. You then need to confirm them in writing. Ultimately, if you can discuss the preferred challenges you are facing, including the working hours and the path to escalation, then this will help you to ensure that nobody is caught off-guard. This will also help you to give your clients the confidence needed to make sure that they are in very capable hands. When expectations are set, and when they are adjusted, this is the best way for you to manage surprises and it also helps you to ensure that the groundwork is laid properly.
Be Compliant
Maintaining compliance as a small business owner is so important. If you want to be compliant, then the first thing you need to do is understand how compliance affects you and what you need to do in order to align with it. It may be that if you go on a lot of phone calls, you look into hiring a TCPA compliant dialer. If you can do this, then you will find it easier to not only make sure that you’re going through the right channels, but that you are also not putting your customers at risk. Fines can be costly if you are not compliant, so make sure that you keep this in mind, if you can as it will make a major difference to you.
Action Everything
You also need to make sure that you action everything if you can. End every meeting you have, or even every call and email, with clear direction. Make sure that you understand who is doing what and what comes next. A post-meeting recap email might include bullet points for the decisions that have been reached or even the deadlines that are present. You might also want to include the person who is responsible for the task as well. If you can make sure that you adopt this approach, then you can make sure that everyone is accountable, and you can also make sure that you are ensuring that you always have an accountable roadmap to track things as you go.
Personalise Everything
Another good thing to do would be for you to try to adopt a more personalised approach. No two clients are the same, so make sure that you resist the urge to adopt a more cookie-cutter style of communicating. If you want to help yourself, then it’s wise for you to tailor your updates and your conversations so they suit the client's goals and the preferences they have. If you can make sure that you implement high-level summaries and details, then this will help you to keep track of things as you go, which is great.
Understanding things like this allows you to adapt the content, the tone, and the format so that people can resonate with it. Pay attention to patterns and adjust accordingly if you can. If you know that people respond to Slack messages quickly or if you know that they respond to emails better, then keep this in mind, as it will make your operation smoother overall.
Showing is Always Better
Visuals communicate way faster, and they can also have a bigger impact when compared to more text-heavy explanations. It doesn’t matter what approach you take here, but you do have to make sure that you always align everything properly so you can make sure your business runs like a well-oiled machine.
Act Fast
Another thing you need to do is try to make sure that you act quickly. In client relationships, one thing to know is that silence is often seen as neglect, even if you know that you are working endlessly behind the scenes. Show that you are reliable by taking the time to acknowledge the client communications you have, and also make sure that you are not waiting until you have a full solution to respond to them. If you do, then you may find that you end up struggling to maintain a good level of communication. You don’t need to be constantly online here, and you also don’t need to put a focus on responding as fast as possible, but you do need to make sure that you at least give the other person an expected time for them to be updated, and that you also make sure that you are messaging when you say you are going to. If you can do this, then you will find it easier to come out on top.
Share Bad News
Another good thing to do is to make sure that you share any bad news as honestly as you can. Issues happen, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about them, but at the end of the day, if you withhold information and if you do not pass along key information when you can, then this will impact you later down the line. Make sure that you are maintaining trust by sharing key information on issues when you face them, and that you always explain situations without being defensive or even trying to focus on why you're not to blame. Honesty is always the best policy, and if you can keep this in mind, then you will reap the benefits later down the line
—End of collaborative post—
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