What’s the one thing that makes your business stand out amongst competitors?
If you’re thinking that it’s competitive prices or additional business hours, you’d be mistaken.
Don’t get me wrong – while both those things have their place, there’s one thing that takes the trophy when it comes to standing out:
Creating a five-star customer experience.
Think about it…
If your customer experience is on point, it’ll give your clients the WOW factor – which will result in them coming back for more, and referring others to you.
With that being said, let’s jump right into 5 elements that’ll help you create a five-star experience for your customers:
- Education
- Communication
- Preparation
- Collaboration
- Value adds or fun
If you want to create your own customer experience you can download the playbook and use the five elements at each step in your customer process
1. Education
When a client is making use of one of your services, you need to educate them on how they need to behave.
By “behave”, I don’t mean it in the naughty child sense.
I simply mean that you need to explain to them how the process will work, as well as what’s expected of them if they want to work with you.
E.g. How they should deliver content to you, how they can give feedback, etc.
People like clarity.
Therefore, you must set expectations and boundaries early on so that your clients know exactly what to expect.
A great example of how you can give your clients clarity right off the bat is by creating a welcome video that explains:
- The first step they need to take.
- What they need to kick off the project – e.g. filling in a questionnaire, and where they can find it.
- How and when they can communicate with you.
- What you need from them and how they can send it to you.
You also need to explain to them what they need to know to work with your project management system.
So if you’re using something like Asana, Trello, or ClickUp, you can always include a “how-to” video explaining exactly how the system works.
If you’re not sure what you need to include in this section, you can always refer back to your FAQ section to see what questions your clients are asking. Addressing these questions will create a great customer experience.
2. Communication
Ever heard the saying “communication is key”?
Well, that saying couldn’t be more true when it comes to your clients.
Because let’s face it… Without effective communication, projects can’t be successful.
The problem is that a lot of us are really big introverts – making communication with clients feel like a huge burden.
Lucky for us, communication processes are there to communicate to clients for us.
The great thing about setting up communication processes is that it’s pre-planned, and can even automate to keep up with conversations. This will reinforce expectations throughout the process, and keep clients relaxed because they know what to expect next.
Having a transparent process in your project management tool can also help you stay on top of client communication. If you don’t know which project management tool to use, here are some that I recommend: Asana, ClickUp, or Trello.
Some other examples to make communication easier and create a better customer experience are:
- Email templates or canned responses.
- A client portal.
- Using a tool like WP Feedback or Project Huddle to make feedback easier.
3. Preparation
Preparation goes hand in hand with education.
Here, you need to explain to your clients exactly what you need from them, and by when you need it.
This includes their “homework” and its deadline.
In addition, you must explain to them that there will be consequences if they don’t deliver their homework in time, such as a delayed project, or moving them to the back of your calendar.
That being said, you need to help your clients as much as possible with preparation if you truly want them to have a five-star experience.
E.g. You can create content, visual references, workbooks, checklists, copywriting templates, etc to help them with this part of the process so that they don’t have to spend hours upon hours doing their “homework”.
Because let’s face it…
If clients feel overwhelmed, they will outright avoid the task and you’ll never get their project done.
Some great tools you can use for this are Content Snare that makes content collection easier, or Content Collection forms on your website with a form plugin, such as Gravity Forms.
4.Collaboration
You want to work with your clients, not for them.
By creating a strong collaborative process, you’ll be creating a better way to work with your clients, which will result in the process being more productive and you being able to actively guide your clients rather than always reacting to drama.
It will also minimize the time on repetitive work while maximizing your time on more creative work.
The secret here is to be in control and set boundaries, but at the same time lovingly guiding your clients to work with you.
Collaboration tools, such as email templates, wireframes, feedback templates, and style tiles can help with this.
5. Value adds or fun
Now it’s time to add some fun.
While all the previous elements will help you create a streamlined and extremely professional experience for your clients, you need to delight them as well.
Because let’s be honest…
Without a little fun, a process can become tedious and boring.
To add fun, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What would make the experience of your service feel more special or unique? How can you show them that you care?
Great examples of making your customers’ experience more unique and fun include:
- Giving them stationery gifts to help with preparation work, such as planners, sticky notes, or a physical workbook.
- Coffee vouchers when it’s time for them to do their homework.
- A lunch voucher when you work with them on a specific day.
- A launch party or even just some launch drinks.
- A welcome pack.
- A celebratory gift when they complete their process.
What’s Next:
There are thousands of companies out there offering services.
The key to standing out is offering a five-star experience to your customers.
By including education, great communication, preparation, collaboration, as well as fun in your process, your clients will have ultimate clarity and enjoy every step of your process.
Please feel free to contact us to find out more on how we work with clients.
