Keeping it Personal: 3 Strategies for Building Strong Client Relationships

As a business owner or manager, your goals are to build your client base, provide outstanding service and keep your clients happy. However, it’s easy to get complacent and assume that if your client has relied on you once, they will keep coming back. While such client loyalty used to be prevalent, we’re in a far tougher climate now. Your clients want to know that you will look after them, go the extra mile and be more than just a supplier of goods and services. If you don’t hold up your side of the bargain, they can be more than happy to look for better service elsewhere.

Building a solid connection with any business is difficult, but clear communication, innovative corporate products or gifts, and innovative sales techniques are all ways in which you can build that foundation on a that creates a personal connection that can last a lifetime.

Good communication

When you’re on the hunt for key clients, it’s a busy time. You’re travelling to meet new people, making calls for meetings, and emailing businesses to see if there’s anything you can do for them. In fact, you go out of your way to be as helpful as possible to ensure you get their business.

This is a great start. You’ve presented your company as one that’s reliable and potential customers may enjoy your vibrancy. However, once you’ve got them on board, what happens next? In many cases, you’ve ticked the box and handed them over to the production team. You’ve sold them a product or service, and they expect to maintain that relationship. Your new client wants to hear from you, so follow up with an occasional phone call, get feedback and ascertain if you can do anything better. Failure to connect and communicate may end up with you having to fight your competition to get them back.

Innovative corporate products

Everyone loves receiving gifts, and business clients are no different. According to a Walker study, a customer’s experience will eventually be more valuable than the price of the product/service you supply. Therefore, it’s vital that you encourage this trend by stocking up on innovative corporate gifts and promotional products that you can hand out to your valued clients.

Popular options for gifts include branded reusable coffee cups, confectionery and customized office products. In most cases, if the gift is under $25 and tax deductible. This benefit alone is enough reason to be playing Santa for your clients!

Good sales techniques

There’s more to sales than donning a suit, putting on a smile and offering your customer the world. When you first build your client base, there’s an urgency to learn as much as you can about your client. You take notes, ask questions, and find out how to provide solutions for problems. As time passes and you’ve managed to solve these issues, your relationship may start to weaken as you lose touch with what’s happening in the everyday running of their business.

Smart sales techniques can stop this from happening. Check-in, ask how things are working out, be a listening ear, and get to know your client personally. From here, a productive relationship is built and grown. It takes practice, but savvy sales methodologies are the foundation of a fruitful client relationship.

When it comes to building a good rapport with clients, it’s not the signing of a document that secures it. It’s the hard work and dedication that allows you to take as much out of the relationship as you put in. That is the basis for a successful, long-term association.