Your customer journey: Are you overlooking communication?
We’ve all heard the phrase “communication is key”, but how often do you stop and look how effective your business communication is with your clients? How you communicate with your clients and potential clients can literally make or break your client experience.
I could talk all day about the importance of refining your customer journey, but I want to focus on one key element today - communication.
Imagine yourself as the client. You’ve read the details of the services on the website, swiped through the company’s Instagram posts, read the Google reviews and you can’t wait to get started. So, you fill in the contact form and excitedly wait for a response. Then you wait, and you wait, and you wait. Excitement turns into frustration and then disappointment. Before you know it, a week has gone by before you get a response, but it’s too late. You’ve moved on. You’ve found another company that has responded showing an interest in wanting to work with you.
The point I’m trying to get across here is that if you are not prioritising communication with your clients, you’re going to make them feel like they aren’t a priority.
Communication isn’t just important when you’re onboarding new clients. You could have created the best onboarding process ever, the kind that leaves them with that warm and fuzzy feeling BUT if your communication whilst your delivering the service sucks you’re likely to have an unhappy client on your hands.
So, let’s talk about the things that you can do to ensure your communication is effective with your clients.
Everyone has their own definition of what timely communication is so make sure you and your client get on the same page. Your clients aren’t mind readers. It’s important to make sure you set clear boundaries in the beginning by communicating your SLAs and response times. Something as simple as an automated reply that tells them you will respond to their email within 48 hours leaves them feeling informed and valued.
Secondly, ensure your communication is frequent. Responding to a client’s initial enquiry within 48 hours is no good if the next time your client hears from you is in response to them chasing for an update. If you want to create an ideal customer journey you have to maintain your client’s level of excitement about the project you’re working on for them (It’s ok, I can already hear you shouting ‘Yeah right! When do I have time for that’ at your screen but the good news is there are so many systems out there, like Dubsado that can help you automate this process that it doesn’t have to become another thing to add to the list). The key is to update your clients regularly; informing them of timelines, key milestones and giving them plenty of notice if you’re going to require information from them.
Next, I want to talk about how you communicate with your customers. If you’re asking your client to do something, make sure it’s clear and concise. We have all had that one client who hasn’t provided the information required, even after that third chaser email. So, you put their project on hold until they come back to you. But did you try calling or sending a message to ask if they’re ok? In some cases, you’ll quite often find that your client is procrastinating because they need additional support. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you bend over backwards and jump through hoops for every client that isn’t responding, but taking the time to ask these simple questions really goes a long way.
If you want to improve your communication with your clients you should start by making a list of all of your client touchpoints and review the communications you send. Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are they frequent enough?
2. Are they informative?
3. Are they friendly?
4. How long does it take me to answer client’s emails at different stages of the process?
Sometimes it can be hard to review your own business objectively so its ok to ask for help. If you have a friend or colleague you can trust to give you honest feedback this would be a good place to start. Alternatively, if you would like an in-depth communication review you can book a call to review your process from Inquiry to offboarding.