Easy ways to build strong relationships with clients

Our jobs depend on the happiness and loyalty of our clients. When they become unhappy, the results can be quite detrimental. A few simple steps can help to avoid a fallout between you and your clients.

Follow these tips to help you build stronger relationships with your clients.

Maintain good communication: Keep an open dialogue with clients. Read your emails as soon as possible and answer voice mail in a timely manner. Don’t make your client chase you. They can easily find an alternate service provider or supplier who will respond to them within a reasonable time frame. Go above and beyond to be the one they can rely on.

Take ownership of errors: Complaints and negative client feedback are things we try to avoid at all costs. But if you happen to receive such a follow-up from a client, don’t immediately react defensively. Take the time to investigate the claims, to make sure part of your process hasn’t been compromised. For you top clients, the time spent doing this is far less than the cost of losing those clients because of pride and denial.

Stay true to company values: It’s sometimes easy to forget about the company mission statement you were first taught when you started working for your company. Every once in a while, refresh your memory by reading through the points your company finds most important. Or, post them around the office to remind both yourself and your coworkers!

Seek feedback: By sending out scheduled surveys, companies can see what their customers enjoy and what areas they should improve in. While these surveys never have a 100 percent reply rate, the sample size is usually large enough to give an accurate representation of the clients’ thoughts and concerns. Done right, you can use these responses to improve your company’s reputation.

And to keep a client happy, it is most important to PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES: Is my email response too harsh? Should I explain our services further? When in doubt, turn the situation around and imagine you are the client. If you must, ask a coworker, who is an uninvolved party in the situation, to give his or her opinion before you send out an important email.

What are ways you keep the relationship strong between you and your clients?