Marketing

Client Care: 4 Strategies For Strengthening Your Relationship With Clients

Client Care Women Talking

As we all grow more distant from each other physically and socially, you can be forgiven for letting your relationship with clients slip a little. Everyone is under immense stress at the moment, and it can be hard to focus on anything other than simply getting through the day. It’s OK to feel this way, but if you’re reading this article, we’re going to presume that you’d like to do something about it before you find yourself wondering where everybody went. That’s why we’ve put together this list of strategies for strengthening your relationship with clients:

Give Back

Your clients are used to swapping their cash for your services. However, a strong client relationship goes beyond mere transactions. Consider sending a thank you note wrapped up in a little bundle of goodies to let them know you’re thinking about them. Gourmet corporate gift hampers are a great way to do this as they provide an extra personal touch that takes your relationship to the next level without compromising the professional aspect.

Provide Incentives

Let’s be honest here, everyone is always shopping for the best deal. No matter how good your product or service is, if your clients don’t feel an attachment to you or your brand, they’ll happily give their business to your competitor if a lower price or tempting perk is offered.

To avoid this, offer discounts for clients who sign longer retainer contracts and always make sure you go above and beyond. We’re not saying you have to work for free, but a little extra thrown into the deal every so often will show clients that you care and keep them coming back for more.

Wish Them A Happy Birthday

Even if your relationship isn’t yet at the level where it’s appropriate to be sending personal birthday presents back and forth, anyone can recognize their client’s company anniversary and share some love. A simple note or phone call can go a long way towards strengthening the relationship between your two companies. Acknowledging their latest milestone shows not only that you care, but also that you pay attention to the finer details.

Promote Them

Do you have a client who could really use the services of someone else you help? Put them in touch. As long as you have good, open communication with your clients, you don’t even need to go with the cheesy “tell them X sent you,” line. Just let your client know that the other will be expecting their call, then fire off a quick email after your meeting.

Not only does this help support your client’s business, the one who was hunting for a product or service will greatly appreciate having the process streamlined for them. The caveat here is that you probably shouldn’t do this if you don’t already have a pretty solid relationship with both companies. You don’t want to run the risk of one client not delivering on their end of the deal as this could reflect unfavorably on you.

These four strategies will help you strengthen your relationships with clients, both now and into the future. Of course, there are other ways to go about doing this, but we’ve chosen these strategies because they’re not quick tricks or flashy gimmicks. Instead, they are designed to provide long term, sustainable results – as long as you put the effort in. Let us know in the comments what strategies you’ll be implementing, then get out there and show your clients that you care.

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Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

One Comment

  • Alan Melton

    Very good blog post Hubert! Our relationships with our clients are definitely at risk, since we are hindered from meeting with them face to face. These thoughtful strategies will help to keep our relationships intact. I especially like your thought of promoting your clients. Now is a time when they need more business too. Your thought about sending a gift is great and simply sending a hand-written note has become a rare and therefore valued interaction these days.

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