How to build lasting relationships with your clients

Lasting relationships with clients are some of the most lucrative resources a company could have. It’s no secret that long time clients tend to spend more over time, which could be advantageous to your company’s overall growth efforts. Building these relationships, however, is not easy. Whenever you attract first time clients to your firm, you want them to stay on board for the long run. Moreover, you want them to have you as their only preferred choice and bring in as many people around them as they can to do the same. 

Just as is the case with personal relationships, gaining the client’s trust and loyalty will not be easy. You have to go well beyond the basic contractual obligations you have towards them by investing your time, effort and resources.

Here are some top tips on how to go about it;

Know your client

As a firm, you can’t truly satisfy the needs of your clients if you don’t understand them. Every client will be different, meaning you have to take the time to research what each of them wants and the specific reasons why they want the products. Once you learn your client’s needs and routines, it will be easier for you to create a much more effective experience for them with your company.

For example, following your clients on social media keeps you acquainted with their lives and helps you tailor your services to better fit their operations. Moreover, it helps you understand their world enough so you can speak their language- that is having industry specific knowledge that gives you a deeper understanding of their culture.

Showing persistent care for your clients’ lives beyond mere monetary transactions is a sure way to develop trust and form a lasting relationship.

Communicate

What’s out of sight soon slips out of mind, thus the key to any good relationship is constant communication. It’s important for you to check in with your clients regularly to make sure that they have everything they need and to solicit feedback on your services, which lets you know whether your operations need improvement.

Communication doesn’t have to be monotonous- there are so many different kinds of content your company could utilize to stay in touch with its clients. Apart from conversing about your services in general, you could share how-to videos for your products, before and after videos from previous customers (with their permission) or educational and spiritual posts related to your brand, like a coffee company sending good day  wishes in the morning alongside a cup of their steaming beverage.

How to develop strategic communications for your brand

Be accountable

To build a lasting relationship with your clients, you need to cultivate trust. The client trusts you to satisfy their needs in a professional manner, and you must do everything in your power to never break this trust. As a firm, you need to know that not everything will go according to plan. How you handle such situations will have a great impact on client attitudes towards you. 

In such cases, it is best to openly acknowledge your shortcomings, apologize for any inconvenience caused as a result, and find a way to make amends quickly. Denying the problem will cause your clients to question your principles and lose trust in your dependability, thereby losing your future business to another firm. 

Exceed expectations

When first meeting your clients, it is important to set achievable goals in terms of quality and timeframe. It is even more important that you stand by these goals and do your best to achieve beyond them because one of the most effective ways of building lasting relationships with your clients is being an exceptional service provider. Customers will pay for the service they expect but will stay on board with your company when you go beyond the bare minimum service requirements for them.

Exceeding client expectations requires you to have a client-centric operation. Every move you make needs to be geared towards creating the best client experience possible. Some of the ways to add that extra touch include sending thank you notes to clients, checking in regularly to see how they are doing, sending warm wishes for personal events like birthdays and anniversaries, as well as sharing relevant and helpful information with them in an expert capacity.

Be accommodating

Most clients’ needs are different and they will expect custom solutions to solve their specific problems. As a company, it pays to be open minded in serving your clients’ needs. It may take extra effort and resources to accommodate all the varying expectations, but it will all be worth it when the clients chose to keep you on as their sole provider for years to come. 

A restaurant for instance, could offer special menus to cater for people with specific dietary needs such as lactose intolerance, or make slight alterations to recipes as per the customer’s preference. It also helps to make your business friendly for people with disabilities by adding things like ramps for wheelchairs in your premises or training your staff to deal with people with mental impairments in the right way.

Reward Loyalty

Loyal customers are important to any company. They not only spend more with you in time but also encourage other customers to come to you through referrals, all of which goes a long way in increasing your profits. To earn and keep this kind of loyalty, you have to constantly reward it. 

There are a number of ways to reward customer loyalty. You could come up with a loyalty programme such as the credit point system where customers earn points for purchases in retail outlets like supermarkets. Your company could also offer its longtime customers exclusive discounts, early access to products, free samples or even invitations to special holiday events like a new year’s party. Having a system to reward customer loyalty will keep them satisfied and happy to be part of your organization.

Building lasting relationships with clients is not easy. It takes time to build trust and loyalty between you and them, just as it takes time to build a brand that is strong enough to withstand the test of time. These relationships are what will keep your business on top; therefore, building them should be your top priority.