ultimate guide to keeping rockstar clients
TRANSCRIPT
The Ultimate Guide to Landing and Keeping
Rockstar Clients
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Have you ever worked with a client that made you question
why you do what you do? Yeah. Not good for the hustle or creativity, right?
So how do you avoid such drama?
By landing only the best customers and keeping them!
Want to know how? The wait is over.
1.Start by identifying your rockstars: who do you want to work with and why?
2.Once you’ve identified your rockstars, it’s time to woo them.
3.Remember: customer service starts from the very first sales meeting.
Pro Tip: How you respond and engage with potential customers will tell them a lot about how your relationship working together will be, so pay attention to the little things, listen intently, and ask a lot of questions. Yes, they’re considering working with you but you’re also considering working with them.
• Always ensure that you’re identifying potential customers needs and wants, so that in return, you can make sure that you’re able to give them what they’re looking for.
• Remember: There is absolutely no harm in admitting up front that you may not be a good fit and I guarantee you that they will respect you for it.
• When wooing potential rockstar clients, you’re getting to know them and in doing so, you’re also making sure they really are the rockstars you think they are.
This stage can often reveal a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so don’t lose sleep if it takes a few calls or meetings before you can truly decide if you’re both right for each other.
STEP TWO:There are a lot of fish in the sea.
Be the Black Marlin.
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Have you ever heard about the Black Marlin? EVERYONE that’s ever fished wants to catch a
Black Marlin.
Be the Black Marlin. Make sure that YOU are the company everyone wants to work with.
• Regardless of how many chats you’ve had with potential customers, make sure to continuously follow-up and check-in.
• When you’ve sealed the deal, make sure to celebrate it!
• Always ensure your new customer feels loved and appreciated during the onboarding process.
You’re incredibly lucky that these fine folks have chosen to work with you, so make sure they know they’re valued and that you (and your team) are psyched to get started with them.
Here are just a few of our favorite ways to show the love: • Send out an email to introduce them to the team. Share a fun
quirk or little known fact about each team member that helps your rockstars get to know each player they’ll be working with on a personal level.
• Immediately (and constantly) shower them with social media love.
• Get the whole team to follow the company and the contacts you’ll be working with on Twitter, connect with them on LinkedIn.
• Announce your new partnership on your blog!
• Send a handwritten note in the mail to show your thanks and excitement to work together.
STEP THREE:Never Forget About the Daily Delight
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It’s all too easy to rock your new customer’s world in the beginning but get lazy, comfortable, and passive as you get into the swing of things. Next thing you know, you’re rocking the boat.
Don’t rock the boat.
• Long after the ink is dry on the contract, it’s important to never stop delighting your customers.
• A great way to keep your rockstars is to continue to make them feel like your only customers, no matter how many others you’re working with.
• Embrace the daily check-in.
• By ensuring that at least ONE interaction is made with each client daily, you’re ensuring that they know they’re top of mine (even if you’ve been heads down on another client all day.)
Even with rockstar clients, it’s not always going to be rainbows and sunshine.
In this crazy world of PR, we all have our good days and our bad. On the bad, delight can be hard to dish out, but know that even when trouble calls, the key is to act fast and deal with the matter at hand in a timely and respectful manner.
Launch or Announcement a little lack lustre?
Here’s how to have those tough conversations without jeopardizing your relationship
• It’s OK to admit you’re disappointed too. In fact, it’s highly recommended. It shows you’re human and you genuinely did not anticipate failure, but also that you are committed and motivated.
• If you were wrong, it’s OK to admit that too. Admitting it can be the first step to salvaging your client relationship.
• Where the team may not have met the client's expectations, a simple and expected review process should take place to identify weaknesses and faults.
• If the client genuinely has unrealistic expectations and you've fallen short of meeting them, then let the team know it wasn't them, but the client was increasingly demanding.
Fact: trouble will call.
It’s how you handle it and move forward that matters.
You’ve heard of the honeymoon phase, well this is applicable in client services too.
Remember how we said not to rock the boat?
This is easily avoidable by remembering to keep the flame alive and to ensure your clients know you’re grateful for their loyalty 365 days a year.
Here are just a few ways to throw some logs in the fire:
• You may need to rejig your processes for some of your oldest clients and that’s OK. Work with them carefully to identify what has been working and what’s not working and devise a new strategy.
• Schedule some FaceTime. For those clients that have been there through good and bad, make sure to schedule some visits. These types of meetups are a great way to reconnect and plan for the future.
• Continue to be their raving fan. Yes, you’re their vendor and it’s your job to have their back but when it comes to longtime customers, when you see an opportunity to do something awesome for them that may fall outside their scope of work, don’t think twice. Do it.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Rockstars aren’t a dime a dozen and everyone wants to work with them. When you land one, treat them well. A rockstar client a day keeps the burnout away. We promise.
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How do you delight your rockstar clients?
Tweet us @Onboardly!