With the customer and Keeping pace with customer expectations can be difficult Sometimes, especially as your relationship grows and develops, it can sometimes be like walking on the water, but there are ways to ensure that you and your customers meet goals and processes are on the same page We asked a panel of members of the Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:
Q. What is a practical way to keep up with customer or customer expectations? What are the advantages of this method?
It is crucial to clarify with a customer what a successful engagement looks like and how they value the relationship. As a digital marketing agency, it is very easy for clients who deviate from what they value to get involved in side projects, and it is important to know that you risk losing sight of what matters – customer expectations from you. —Matthew Barden, Industrial Marketing
We have weekly meetings with customers to go through weekly “action plans”. The meetings last 30 minutes – in a nutshell. The action plan contains the key action items for the week. It covers what our team is working on and what the customer needs. If we can't meet with the customer, we'll send them the plan so they always know what's going to happen this week. —Reb Risty, REBL Marketing
In the customer service world, we have found that if we are proactive with regularly updated strategy and project schedules, it is a good way to meet changing expectations. We have found that this increases the overall efficiency of our own production and that our regulated process sometimes affects partners to help them with their own workflow stability. —Justin Moodley, LASAN
We provide reports that include results, ROI, campaign data, and pending items. This is a great way to track everything in one snapshot. We hold ongoing meetings if necessary. Each customer has a unique preferred communication style, so we adapt the communication to this. Some prefer weekly, monthly, or just quarterly meetings. Some want to email as much as possible. —Angela Delmedico, Elev8 Consulting Group
More articles from AllBusiness.com: [19459006
Customers have a personal life outside of the work environment. Give them peace of mind by delivering quality services promptly, by "walking to where the puck is" – which means you have to be there with the solution they weren't expecting. Empathy puts you in the position of your customers and increases your sensitivity to their needs in advance. Odin Liam Wright, TRUE
We train our employees to understand, anticipate and help customers when needed. And we train them to always show empathy and self-confidence. If there are any suggestions or better practices, we take note of them and check whether they match our corporate mission. We strive to implement the elements and tasks to improve our process and improve customer satisfaction. – Jessica Baker, Aligned Signs
To keep pace with customer expectations, create clearly defined processes. If it's not in your contract, project management documents, sales onboarding, etc., don't do it right. Learn from customer experiences and set up or update your process. For example, we are working on complex projects where customers sometimes feel lost. To fix this, we created custom client portals tailored to our process. —Ryan Meghdies, Tastic Marketing Inc.
Ask customers in advance what a successful project looks like for them. People find a direct approach refreshing and it gives you something concrete through which you can define success. When customers ask in advance about the expected results, they know that someone is personally invested in what is important to them, which contributes to building trust. It is much easier than trying to read their minds or being two steps ahead! – Kristine Neil, Kristine Neil Studio
CONNECTION: Organize yourself! Choosing the best project management solution for your company
