A New Way to Think about Client Care
Client care will make or break your business. How you respond to your clients and address their needs and wants will define you and will determine your ability to grow. After all, happy clients tell their friends. Unhappy clients leave you and then they tell everyone. Client care is probably the most important service-based activity in which your business is engaged. It doesn’t matter how inexpensive your service is or that you have innovative ways to fulfill the needs of your clients. If they don’t feel cared for in a way that they can relate to, then your business will be just a distant, bad memory.
Client Care Is Not Defined by You
One of the biggest errors that business owners make is to believe that they define what makes for good client care. The problem with this line of thinking is that you are not the client. You’re the service provider. Good service is certainly part of good client care, but it’s only half the battle.
Client care expectations, along with the actions that will fulfill those expectations, can only be defined by the client. So, while you can have great insight into your market and what you believe they need, you have to transfer that over to their needs and wants. Even when you do market research on common problems that may be experienced by your clients, you must also talk to your clients to find out what they want and need from you.
Getting Feedback from Your Clients
Now that you’re ready to think about client care from the perspective of your client base and target market, it’s time to take action. As mentioned above, you certainly do need to complete research to learn about the pain points that are present in your target market. More importantly, you must speak directly with your clients to find out what they want and need from you. You can accomplish this in a number of ways:
- Set up an online survey. There are many websites available online that will enable you to setup a free online survey that can be sent out to your clients as long as you have their email address. Make sure that your clients know that the answers will come back to you anonymously and that you plan to use the feedback in order to improve their experience. You can also offer some sort of incentive for people who take the time to complete the survey. Make sure that you make it easy to understand and that you respect the time of your clients. If it’s too long, your clients aren’t likely to complete it.
- Make follow-up phone calls. Making follow-up phone calls after appointments or after services are rendered is an important way to ensure that your clients are happy. These calls are a good opportunity to learn how you can be of better service or if they have questions about their experience. These calls can also reduce the number of past due accounts because your clients can ask questions.
- Use a suggestion box. It may sound old school, but it still works if you provide services to your clients in your office. You may want to ask for the client’s name and contact information, but assure them that it will only be used in relation to their comments. Then, if you receive a comment that really does need follow up, you know who it is from and how you can reach them.
Get Help with Your Client Care
Clients ARM understands that you only have so many hours in a day. Sometimes you may feel torn between completing administrative necessities, following-up with clients, continuing to provide services, and also looking for opportunities to grow your business. Clients ARM is here to help. We can assist you by providing first party client care, collections, and even assist you with your accounts receivable needs. We provide a free, no-obligation process review to service providers to show you how we can improve your processes, make you more profitable, and save you much needed time and money. Contact us today to learn more about how you can benefit from our more than 30 years of experience.
