How to Free Up Time and Build Lasting Client Relationships

Client relationships are the key to successful projects. Learn how to properly set expectations and free up time so you can focus on getting to know your clients and meeting their needs!

Your business value consists of the quality of the service you deliver and the experience you provide for the clients that work with you. Building successful client relationships will help your projects run smoothly and allow you to cultivate long-term partners. Excellent relationships with your clients may also turn them into advocates for your business, generating new referrals long after their project ends.

But building strong relationships with your clients can often take just as much effort as building your business. Luckily there are steps you can take to streamline your processes and enable you to focus more time on delivering the best client experience.

By automating strategic parts of your booking process and adopting more streamlined workflows, you’ll be able to create new opportunities for personal interactions.

Though it may take some set-up time upfront, don’t be discouraged. Investing in automation with client workflow automation software will free up valuable time in the long-term. Instead of spending hours on administrative work like emails and follow-ups, imagine what your projects will look like once you’re able to spend most of your time connecting with your clients and learning their unique needs.

With our tips, you’ll be able to get back to the best parts of being in business–making an impact, and being there to watch your clients’ smiles grow.

Save Time Getting to Know Clients

When you start out on the right foot, it is often easier to cultivate a relationship. By getting to know your clients from the get-go, you can introduce yourself and your business right away while also getting to discover more about their unique needs and desires.

The time in between your clients reaching out and expecting an answer is critical since they might be considering other business options. To save time, sync the contact form on your website with an automated email. By immediately responding, you’re showing already how easy it is to work with you, and your potential clients will be sure to appreciate the quick acknowledgment.

Within your email, it can be a great idea to include a simple questionnaire to learn more about what your client is looking for. Create the questionnaire as a tool you can use to vet your leads and determine whether you should move forward with an initial meeting or consultation. The questionnaire will help you save time that you might otherwise have spent going back and forth over phone or email.

Your questions will often vary depending on your industry, but some good questions to include at this point might be:

• What is your target budget?

• What is your target date or project timeline?

• What is your preferred method of communication?

• How did you hear about us?

Once you receive a questionnaire response, you can determine the appropriate next steps such as scheduling a meeting or following up for more information.

Establish Your Relationship Terms

Once you’ve vetted your client and are ready to move forward with a project proposal, it’s time to make sure everyone’s clear on the relationship terms. Just like a romantic proposal, you wouldn’t want to dive into the relationship without everyone first understanding each other's wants, needs, boundaries and more. When using a proposal software, you should make sure everything is clear and agreed upon in a contract.

Your contract should include work boundaries that protect both you and your client. You can include anything you want, from your work hours and turnaround times to the scope of work, payment schedule and the communication channels you’ll use. Make sure your clients sign off before paying and moving forward.

There will also be specific legal language to include about project termination, refunds, intellectual property, liability and much more. We suggest consulting with a business lawyer to create contracts that are relevant for your specific industry and services.

In addition to protecting everyone, having a contract can help you set expectations with your client and hold yourself accountable for what you’ll deliver. Throughout the project, reiterate your contract terms in your emails and at different project milestones. Doing this can assist in strengthening your client relationships since your clients will always know exactly what to expect from you along the way.

Automate the Administrative Work

Although automation might sound like the opposite of personalization, it actually goes hand in hand. Establishing a more efficient workflow can help you save more time, and the time you save can then be put into more valuable interactions with your clients instead.

If you’re not sure what type of work to automate, start by focusing on anything administrative or repetitive. Greeting your inquiries with a thank you email and sending out a new client questionnaire is a great example. As you move further into the project, you can also automate your invoicing schedule, follow-up emails and more.

Consider mapping out your current project pipeline (the steps in your process from the first inquiry to the final invoice) and seeing which manual steps you can use a client workflow automation software for instead.

Instead of going back and forth to schedule every phone call and meeting, we recommend working with a calendar that anyone can use to book time with you. A calendar with custom scheduling, otherwise known as our online meeting scheduler, lets you set available times for different types of appointments, whether it’s initial consultations, project meetings or workshops.

You can make it easy for clients to contact you by adding your calendar link to your email signature as well as sending it at key project milestones. When you’re onboarding a new client, it will surprise you to see how much time it saves you to move them forward in the process.

By creating automations for your admin work and follow-ups, you can put more focus on preparing for more personal touchpoints like client meetings and project reviews. In short, you are able to spend more time on the fun stuff–delighting your clients and seeing the impact of your work!

Fill Your Time With Personalized Interactions

Once you have more automated workflows in place, you can use your time to invest back into delighting your clients. The secret to building better relationships? Listening and learning – just like in most of our other relationships in life.

We recommend you start taking more notes during your client interactions so that you have the ability to refer back to specific mentions as you work. Even things that might seem inconsequential can end up coming up later as a great way to improve their experience. Pay attention to both personal and project-related notes that may come in handy throughout the project.

Above, we suggested automating your initial client touchpoint with intake questionnaires. By including a question about communication preferences upfront, you can tailor your ongoing communication in a way that they’ll appreciate the most. They might prefer frequent check-ins or a mix of in-person and online meetings versus video chat and phone calls. Whichever option they prefer, accommodating their requests can help make them feel more comfortable to work with you.

If they are okay with frequent check-ins, create some touchpoints along the way even when you haven’t hit a project milestone. More frequent check-ins will ensure there aren’t long periods of silence while opening up more opportunities for feedback.

A check-in could be as simple as asking a quick question, or you can also develop more interactive opportunities, like client homework. As long as it’s an easy lift on their end, it can be a great way to create new conversations. The more often you connect with your clients, the easier it will be to deliver on the project while also building a successful relationship.

Make Sure the Relationship Lasts

Why are client relationships so valuable in the first place? The more you understand about your clients, the easier it is to help them. On the client’s side, they’ll feel comfortable and well taken care of. When they know and trust you, you can then become the service provider in your industry that clients want to continue working with over and over again.

Investing in building strong relationships with our clients can also turn them into brand partners and advocates. When you provide an excellent experience, they’ll want to spread the word about your business and advocate for your services.

It’s essential to remember that the client experience doesn’t have to end with the project. It’s always beneficial to ask for feedback once your project is over, which you can do through another automated questionnaire once everything is finalized. Find out what they enjoyed and what can be improved so you can continue improving your client experience for others. Asking for feedback is also a clear sign to your clients that you value their insight.

As long as you have their permission, it’s also a great idea to continue to interact with clients in the long-term. If it makes sense for your services, you can connect to see how they’re doing post-project. You can also continue to show your business value by sending out ongoing resources through a newsletter or blog. To make sure your clients want to stay involved with your business, consider offering a referral program with benefits or discounts that they’ll be sure to love.

Like any relationship, you can also get creative in showing how much you care. Incorporate new ways to delight your clients, such as reaching out or sending a card when it’s a holiday, birthday or another special day in their life. Adding those personal touches along the way will make working with your business more memorable and help set your brand apart from your competitors.

When you’ve invested the time to get to know your clients, it’s much easier to maintain a lasting positive impression. Relationships might take work, but you’ll always reap the rewards in the long run.

I write about the tools of crms to help other small businesses and freelancers who are getting started themselves or just want to gain more knowledge. I hope that the information I provide helps you grow your business!