For many businesses, maintaining a good client relationship is crucial. Unfortunately, there are many things that can cause the loss of a client. If you’re not careful, a client can be lost in as much as 10 days! Watch out for these 10 mistakes that can sour any relationship with a potential customer.
1. Slow to respond
It goes without saying that communication is the key to establishing a long-term relationship with your client. It’s important to be prompt and efficient as clients will be measuring your capability of communication during the initial consultation. You should ensure that you are available to them for responding to questions via phone, text, emails in accordance with their needs. Be prepared to answer questions as communication helps to solve almost 99% of problems.
2. Ignore client feedback
One of the factors that may play an integral role in souring the relationship with your client is simply ignoring their feedback. They will be having industry insights which will assist in building landing pages and smarter campaigns. Ensure that you are listening to your client’s ideas and implementing the best options.
3. Lack of professionalism
Maintain a professional relationship between visits. Avoid attending to calls and emails while talking to your client. You should wear formal clothing as it reflects your professionalism. You need to keep in mind that you have communication boundaries with the client. Don’t forget that your business is largely dependent on your actions. Keep it professional!
4. Underestimate your competition
Knowing your competitors is one of the indispensable factors that you need to ensure you’re on top of if you want to maintain a strong relationship with your clients. It will also help in setting prices in a competitive manner. This knowledge will be useful in creating marketing strategies and thereby improve business performance. Research and study the services and products provided by your competitors and how they are marketing it. These will eventually help in conferring new ideas to your client. You can tell them in what ways you are different from them and why they should go with your services.
5. Charge hidden fees
Be crystal clear about the payment aspect of your services. If your client is not capable of affording your services, they will have no stone unturned apart from going elsewhere. We may find that hidden charges are common among your competitors. You can stay true to your reputation by avoiding these fees.
6. Fail to keep agreements
Keeping promises is counted to be a measure of a person’s worth. You have to ensure at the same time that you are as good as your words. Failing to keep agreements will make you appear unprofessional before your clients. Agreements are recognized to be really powerful when it comes to business relationships.
7. Wait till the client pushes you
Don’t wait for your client to push you to accomplish a specific task. This will affect your relationship with the client in a negative way. Your client will definitely get irritated if he/she needs to push you for each and every task.
8. Treat clients differently
You will end up in highly disappointing your clients if you treat each of them in a different manner. You have to ensure that each and every consumer procures the best treatment from you. This will encourage them in purchasing your services. You can also add to the loyalty of your clients by treating them well. This will confer additional reasons for sticking to your brand and purchasing the clients. The customers are likely to give more reference to you which will help in expanding your business.
9. Don’t check in with clients/be unavailable
As mentioned earlier, your clients are your priority. Thus, you should be available to them in accordance with your business needs. They will be certainly disappointed with you if you are not available during their time of need. You should also check in with the clients on a regular basis to make sure that they are satisfied with the quality of work.
10. Don’t show up for meetings/late to meetings
You should also make sure at the same time that you should be punctual during meetings. Make sure to always meet your clients on time as they are expecting you to be efficient and professional. Don’t keep them waiting! Make it your goal to be early for every meeting and your clients will appreciate it.
