Your clients are one of the reasons you do what you do. They hired you to help them take their businesses to the next level and achieve their goals. While it’s usually never anyone’s intent to have professional relationships go south, it can happen when expectations aren’t aligned. Everything from communication practices to final project results play a part.
Managing client and partner relationships well should go without saying. Still, anything involving human nature can be a struggle at times. What drives effective client management can be subjective and malleable, but there are some best practices to follow. Learn about five of them below.
1. Set up a Communication System
Communication can get messy. You can lose track of requests in less than a day between the phone tag games and flooded inboxes. From a client’s perspective, reaching out for help or to follow up on an important deadline should be simple. Setting up a meeting and securing a slot on your calendar (no matter how full) should be painless, too.
But it’s nearly impossible to serve clients well if you don’t have the tech tools and protocols to manage communication. Inevitably, you’ll miss emails and take days, if not weeks, to return messages. Meanwhile, those counting on you to deliver might lose confidence in your abilities.
It’s better to leverage calendar management and communication tools that automatically sync information between you and your clients. This way, others can make appointments and schedule meetings based on your schedule. Everything updates in real-time and automates the basics, giving you time to focus on project deliverables instead. A Snagit free alternative can help you easily send screen recordings to clients to answer questions or concerns. Tools like these can help you meet your clients’ communication needs without overextending your capacities.
2. Be Realistic
One of the reasons clients end relationships is they don’t get the results they expect. They’re under the impression you’ll deliver “X,” and they get “Y.” Sometimes, this misalignment happens because of miscommunication. It’s all in the interpretation and what one person thinks the other is saying.
Slowing down to ask clarifying questions and checking for mutual understanding can help avoid these undesirable outcomes. Miscommunication aside, overpromising and under delivering is another root cause of poor results. Know what you can reasonably do for your clients and where their requests might be too much of a stretch.
Setting realistic expectations starts with your business plan. If you’re a solopreneur and don’t want to hire others, maybe you establish a cap for your client roster. You might not take on more than five clients, ever. Another way is to limit your weekly assignments or projects. Either approach can work if you’re upfront with clients about deliverables, timelines, limitations, and communication guidelines.
3. Establish Accountability Standards
No relationship is one-sided. Your clients should also have expectations to live up to. If you put forth all the effort to maintain the working relationship, it’s bound to fail. Solid professional partnerships work to each side’s advantage when there’s accountability for both.
In your initial talks with clients and partners, be upfront about what you need from them. Maybe you’re negotiating a contract with a new supplier. What are your standards for deliveries and potential service recoveries? Likewise, if you’re providing services, what information do you need from a client to be successful? Knowing the answers beforehand puts you both on the right path toward mutual accountability.
Furthermore, what happens if one of you fails to live up to your end of the deal? Establishing guidelines for respectful communication and work agreements goes a long way. You’ll avoid confusion and feelings of being taken advantage of. For example, what is an acceptable recourse if your client suddenly changes direction after you’ve delivered work? Maybe you complete one revision for additional payment or limit how much rework you’ll do per project.
4. Stay Organized
When you’re juggling multiple clients and projects at once, you need systems to keep you on track. It’s not only about managing communication and calendars. You want tools like project management software to keep the pipeline from backing up.
A project management system ensures you have all your ducks in a row. It also lets you see where tasks are and how much is on your plate. With a quick glance, you’ll know if you can take on another client or if you need to say no. Project management dashboards also reveal if you’re able to rearrange work to accommodate last-minute requests. Overall, it informs you about your workload capacity so you don’t end up guessing.
With tools to organize your projects, you’ll often come off as more professional and reliable as well. You could automatically share status updates and handoff tasks. It shows you’re on top of their demands and handling their needs efficiently. You’ll also eliminate some of the back-and-forth requests for information.
5. Treat Clients as Individuals
Yes, you are engaging with clients and partners on a professional basis. But if you’re too transactional, it can backfire even if you deliver the goods. At the end of the day, you’re providing something of value to people, not inanimate businesses.
Building successful relationships means getting to know the business and individual needs of those you serve. It may be something as simple as engaging in small talk about a client’s personal observations of current events. You might ask about some of the details of their lives outside work, such as hobbies, family, or a recent trip.
Sending tokens of appreciation and industry information they might find interesting are additional ways to build rapport. Show how you can provide additional value in ways your competition may overlook. Also, get to know the intricacies of their business and what makes their solutions unique.
Client Relationship Management
Managing client and partner relationships doesn’t have to be like navigating a minefield of surprises. Knowing your limits and establishing guidelines at the start makes everything from communication to project deliverability smoother. Using a combination of practicality and humanity will help you come out ahead.