HOW TO CREATE A DREAMY CLIENT EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS
This blog post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support is very much appreciated and enables me to carry on creating free content like this blog.
You probably know from experience what a difference it makes when you receive stellar customer service compared to mediocre.
One leaves you feeling excited and inspired; the other leaves you feeling deflated and resentful.
How your clients feel when working with you (and before and after) can sometimes be a bit of an afterthought, but how could it change your business if it was a priority?
Keep on reading to discover how to make clients sing your praises from the rooftop by making their experience feel oh so dreamy!!
When you work with a client, and they leave feeling like they had the most fantastic experience working with you, a few things will happen:
- They’ll be more likely to invest with you again in the future.
- They’ll leave you a thoughtful testimonial that you can use as social proof to attract other clients.
- They will rave about you to their peers, who in turn will also be begging to work with you.
- They will talk about their amazing experience with you on their social media platforms (free advertising anyone 💁🏻♀️)!
So, what are the tangible ways to create a dreamy client experience for the people who choose to work with you?
First Impressions
First impressions count!
Are you aware of the impression you’re leaving with potential clients when you first come upon their radar?
- What does your social media look like?
- Are your social media platforms branded?
- Is it easy to navigate, and can someone quickly discover what you offer and how to work with you?
- If you have a website, is it easy to navigate and inquire about working with you?
- Do you have a “work with me” page that lays out your package details on your website?
Remove any resistance and hesitation a potential client might have about reaching out to work with you.
Booking process
Next, you want to think about how you make potential clients feel after they’ve reached out to work with you.
You want to make this stage in your client experience as easy and resistance-free as possible.
What does the final step look like for your client to book in with you?
- Do you need to arrange a sales call before you can confirm you’re able to serve them? Calendly is an excellent scheduling tool to make this process straightforward.
- Is messenger or email your go-to communication tool to sign clients? Having a template set up for your responses can be helpful so you come across as professional and consistent.
Once a client has agreed to work with you, what does it look like?
- Is it easy for clients to pay an invoice? Do you have Stripe or PayPal payments set up?
- Are you using contracts that you can email and sign electronically? DocuSign is handy for this.
onboarding a client
Your client has now taken the big step of deciding to invest with you. They’ve paid their invoice, and they’ve signed on the dotted line.
Your job of impressing them with your excellent customer service is not over.
How can you make them feel special at this stage and remind them they made a brilliant decision in deciding to work with you?
Can you send them a gift to show your appreciation? It doesn’t need to be anything expensive.
When I work with Pinterest clients, I gift them one of my paid Pinterest digital products. This is a welcome surprise for them, AND it’s something they can use & will be beneficial to them.
The onboarding stage is also a great time to communicate any boundaries and manage expectations for what it looks like to work with you. This helps to avoid any unwanted misunderstandings further down the line.
When I first onboard clients, I let them know that I respond to emails and messages within 48 hours (usually quicker); this means that a client knows they are not being ignored when I don’t respond immediately, and they are not left wondering when I’m going to answer, because I’ve already managed that expectation early on.
People worry about setting boundaries, but the funny thing is clients LOVE boundaries. It makes them feel safe and that you are taking control. Clients only get annoyed when you don’t clearly communicate these boundaries, and it feels like you’re pussy-footing around.
Want to make your brand new clients feel extra special?
During the project
Communication is vital when working on a project or service for a client.
It’s very tempting to go off and complete the project and only get back in contact when you’re finished.
The problem with this is you know what’s going on behind the scenes, but your client doesn’t. All they see is that they’ve paid a big chunk of money, and you’ve gone quiet on them. Even just a tiny level of communication will go a long way.
You know what your service looks like, so it’s simple to set up some email templates to send to your clients regularly to keep them up to date with the project.
I have two Pinterest service packages that take around four weeks to complete (Pinterest Account Setup & Pinterest Strategy). I know precisely what happens week to week, so I’ve set up templates that I send to my clients outlining their project’s progress once a week. My clients LOVE getting these emails and being kept in the loop.
Offboarding
The offboarding stage is possibly the most critical part of the client experience.
When you’re offboarding a client, this is the point at which you deliver the work, but you also want to extend the client experience.
Is there a way you can keep in touch with your clients past the point of working with them (without being creepy, of course)?
Get creative here:
- If you use email marketing, could you put your past clients on a super-exclusive email newsletter where they have access to unique pieces of training and promotional offers?
- Can you check in with them regularly to see how they’re getting on?
- Can you follow them on social media and maybe share their promotional posts as a way of supporting them on their journey?
- Can you add them to an exclusive Facebook group set up for past clients only?
Here, the aim is to make them feel special and like they weren’t just another paying customer to you.
So there you have it! You are well on your way to creating a dreamy client experience and giving your clients a reason to shout out from the rooftops about how amazing you are to work with!!
