The reality is, we spend so much time thinking and worrying about business development, and in most cases that exuberance is not really matched with the same level of excitement for our existing clients. Which is crazy because we all know that clients get much more profitable the longer we keep them. Despite knowing that – we keep making the same mistakes and jeopardizing our most important client relationships. What if we could avoid those mistakes?
Stacey Singer has a great love of how agencies combine business, creativity, and psychology. She has worked in agencies large and small and now she devotes her expertise to helping agencies build amazing client relationships that really hold up, even when things get rocky.
In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Stacey and I discuss why paying attention to existing client relationships is even more important than pursuing new clients. She walks through the need to try to imagine your relationship from the client perspective, as well as specific but seemingly small things she has learned that can sometimes damage that relationship.
We also dive into the need for a client satisfaction analysis, as well as why putting the client first doesn’t automatically mean blindly agreeing with whatever they ask for. Sometimes telling the client “no” leads to a stronger relationship.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- Specific ways agencies mess up the client experience
- The need to see the client experience from the client’s perspective
- Simple ways agencies undermine trust with clients
- How to get a response from challenging clients
- The importance of explaining the implications for actions
- The error in interpreting client questions as an indication of a lack of trust
- The need for clear service standards
- How an exchange program with a client can be incredibly insightful for both sides of the relationship
- The danger in letting your agency needs seep through to the clients
- Why being invested in the client beyond just what your agency can offer can lead to more business actually
- How to tell the client ‘no’ but have it sound like a ‘yes’