Ways To Ensure You’re Always Bringing Value To Your Clients
With so many competing companies in today's marketplace, clients have countless options when it comes to patronizing a business. To influence their decision making, clients look for companies that they believe will add value to their lives.
Below, I am going to share my thoughts on ways small business owners can consistently bring value to clients.
I will explain how these methods strengthen a business's connection with its clients and ultimately ensure the business's longevity.
Demonstrating A Constant Mission Of Improvement
There's rarely such a thing as a perfect product or service, so demonstrating a constant mission of improvement is something I've learned clients highly value.
One way to ensure you're always bringing fresh value to new and existing clients is by n taking their feedback AND implementing it.
Your clients are the ones using and benefiting from your product or service every day, and they can be your best allies in improving it to their advantage.
Ask questions, listen to your clients, and apply their feedback in actionable ways they'll notice — and don't be shy about sharing these improvements.
Letting your clients know what changes you've made and why reassures them that you're taking their input seriously.
It also keeps you from staying stagnant down a long road of growth ahead.
Building Strong Relationships With Clients
Clients are humans and there are people behind every successful business and huge brand name.
Building a strong relationship with the client builds trust and client empathy.
The clients really feel that you understand their problems and feelings.
We are close to our clients (we are together on this journey), carefully listening to them and offering a high level of customisation and support to cover their needs.
At the same time, we are always curious to get to know people and we are always in for a virtual or face-to-face exchange with our clients.
Meet Their Changing Needs
The one way you can always bring value to your clients is to meet their changing needs.
Clients change their lifestyles, and consequently their needs, over the years and you must recognise that to move into that flow.
For instance, those selling bulk items to clients during the years when they are raising children should recognise there will come a day when the client will be an empty nester.
You could lose them if they feel all you are willing to sell them is bulk items.
The key to keeping them is to know when that time approaches and offer to change their orders before they come to you.
The same goes for any industry.
Know and recognise changes your clients are making in their lives and learn how to add to them.
How do you do that? You listen to them.
Get Their Feedback
It could be through an online survey or other methods but find out what they like and don’t like about your business.
They’ll be honest, especially your regulars, and they’ll normally also have some pretty intelligent commentary.
From there, act on the feedback.
Bonus points if you specifically recognise a client who helped improve your business.
For example, when Mr. Smith comes in saying you should do something and you do it, tell him about its impact and you’ll have a client for life.
Support Them Through Hardships
Bringing value to your clients happens not only in the product or service you provide them, but in going beyond that.
During the pandemic, many of our clients struggled with uncertainty.
We ran extra workshops, meet up with clients more regularly, provided more resources, renegotiated payment plans.
Our clients were so appreciative that our company not only cared about them but were also providing them with actionable assistance — and the value to them was priceless.
Listen To Your Clients And Implement Their Feedback
Many companies tout that they listen to their clients, but that is only half the equation.
Listening to your clients and implementing what they say into your offerings is the best way to add value.
If you don't implement or respond to what is being said, you effectively communicate to your clients: Thanks, but no thanks.
Pro tip: If you implement a change based on client feedback, highlight the difference, why you made the change and reference that you listen to your clients.
If you can put a face and name to the clients giving feedback, all that much better.
This gives your clients the feeling that they are part of the innovation and helping to drive business offerings.
And if you do it for one client, others will believe you'll do it for them, too.
Pay Attention To Client Complaints
Pay close attention to what your clients complain about.
Even the most successful business has clients who are dissatisfied some of the time.
It's never pleasant to focus on things like negative reviews or critical social media posts, but these can be very helpful in pointing out areas where you need to improve.
You can also learn about potential issues by polling your clients.
Be as specific as possible in your questions.
Aside from multiple-choice questions, it's good to ask open-ended questions, such as, "What's one feature you'd like to see that we don't currently offer?"
Get On The Phone or On Line With Clients
Pick up the phone to check in, use messenger, or video link.
Don't wait until the end of an engagement to get feedback — seek out your clients' insights proactively so you can adapt to address them before the relationship is complete.
Ask what is going well and what can be going better.
Then, rally your team to address any suggestions for improvement, both for that client and for others who might also benefit from those real time adjustments.
Integrate Question-Based Client Service
Are you not asking your clients how they are doing?
Are you leaving it to Survey Monkey for them to answer 1 to 10?
Bad idea.
Open-ended questions asked by real team members and having real conversations is the way to put your clients first.
You bring value by listening as well.
Take notes, follow up on concerns and show that you are really paying attention to what your business is offering them and how you are helping.
All of this is tantamount to two-sided communication.
It’s not shouting platitudes via social platforms or canned email responses, but one-to-one client service.
You can automate a lot these days, but the key to longevity is keeping one-to-one communication personal.
Use Data To Demonstrate Success
To consistently bring value to your clients, you can show them how you compare to your competitors and give them a reason to choose you instead.
Using data and numbers will demonstrate why your brand is the better option.
For example, you could compare the costs of products to show that yours is the better deal.
Whatever you choose to compare, it'll allow your audience to conclude that your business is the way to go so it feels like a no-brainer.
Nurture Your Relationships With Clients
In business, the relationship you have with your clients can die if you don't nurture it.
And many entrepreneurs make the mistake of starving the relationship they have with their clients by reducing it to the transactions of their current products or services.
Sales, revenue, profit, or whatever metric you hold sacrosanct is a lagging indicator of the value you bring to the market.
Value is the core of business activity and to maintain focus on the value, you have to pay attention to these parts of your business.
One would be the buying process.
I prefer to see it as the client's experience of your business.
Make the transfer of value substantial and fast.
From the top of the funnel down to the checkout button, meet your client where they are and provide contextual value.
Hope that helps!
