When I think about commonalities amongst successful business owners, understanding and embodying this idea stands out as one: The experience you provide your existing clients is one of your most impactful marketing campaigns.
In other words, if you’re constantly relying on new people coming in to sustain your clientele, building a sustainable, healthy business is going to be challenging.
A Spectacular Experience is Your Best Marketing Campaign
An all-too-common mentality of new business owners is that they can take their sales hat off as soon as they sign on a new client. They think,
“My marketing worked, they bought, and now I shift my marketing efforts back to my prospect list.”
But the reality is, their marketing has just begun.
And not because they are going to pitch their existing clients on more services, but because their existing clients will often be the single most impactful source of new clients.
According to a 2022 survey, 86% of consumers rely on word of mouth and online reviews to make a buying decision, family and friend recommendations are trusted by 92% of consumers, and 85% of small businesses report that word of mouth brought them the most customers.
So, how do you create a business that creates customers who want to share their experience with others?
By creating an experience that over delivers on every expectation.
Client Retention Starts On Day 1 (or before)
If the first mention of a client continuing services with you happens within a week, a few weeks, even a month before they are set to expire – you’re likely later than you should be.
As professionals and experts in our craft, we have the ability to mold our client’s relationship with not only our product or service, but with your industry as a whole.
I come from the Fitness world, so let’s use that to paint a clearer picture.
One powerful perspective to mold from day one is that fitness does not have a start and end date; it’s not something you do for three months, reap the benefits from, then go back to living a “normal” life.
No – fitness is a journey where the ultimate destination is an incorporation into your normal life.
This helps clients escape the mentality that there is always a time where choosing to live healthfully ends and they can go back to how they’re used to living.
Of course, if your client doesn’t want to renew, they will tell you. And I’d never recommend pushing a client to resign when they’ve already made up their mind they don’t want to do so.
But oftentimes new clients buy a three-month package already planning to be done after three months, for no other reason than that was the end date on the receipt.
Using language like, “Our first three months together” or “this first three-month phase of your program” can be powerful in shaping your client
Even better, this can and should be shared with prospects via your marketing as well, assuming you truly believe it.
Not only does this attract like-minded people and show prospects what you value as a health professional, but it increases the likelihood that new clients coming to you will already be bought in to your value system as a coach.
So, ask yourself:
“How can I help mold my client’s perspective to best help them succeed? What have they likely been exposed to that I can get ahead of?”
A Great Experience Begins With Appropriate Expectations
Your clients will judge their experience against what they were expecting.
Pause, and ensure you understand the totality of that sentence.
A $50 experience is wow-worthy to somebody expecting a $30 experience, just like a $8k experience is disappointing to somebody expecting a $10k experience.
Objectively, the $8k experience is more valuable and substantive than the $50 experience. When in reality, the $50 experience has left their consumers with a better taste in their mouths.
The bright side to that truth is that we have a lot of control over what our clients are expecting when they sign on with us.
We just have to tell them.
There are two major areas to create expectations around for clients:
- Process-focused expectations
- Expectations around potential barriers and how to overcome them
Processed-Focused Expectations
Process-focused expectations revolve around the actual process the client will go through during your services. You’ll want to communicate things like:
- How to get in touch when they have a question
- How fast you’ll respond when they reach out
- Where to go if they need an answer faster than you can respond
- How often you’ll analyze their progress and make updates
- The purpose of each step of your process
It’s helpful to communicate these verbally and respond to any questions, as well as create a clean, simple, branded welcome pack that your client can store and reference whenever they’d like.
Expectations Around Potential Barriers
The other area to get expectations for your clients is potential sticking points they may encounter, and how they’ll overcome them.
The specific barriers will vary business-to-business, but some examples include:
- What to do if things don’t go as planned
- What to do if they’re lacking motivation or want to give up
- What to do if they are in a rut, or not loving the program
- How to identify results or progress other than the obvious markers
By communicating these barriers you’re also normalizing them, so that when your client is faced with one of them, they feel it’s just a normal part of the process and they already have a plan to overcome it.
Similar to the process barriers, there’s value in communicating these principles to prospects via your marketing and content as well.
Use Feedback as Fuel
Ensuring your clients know that you are on their team and here to help with anything they may need starts before your sessions even start, as we know now, but this doesn’t mean your journey for ongoing feedback ends there.
Part of creating a great experience and keeping your clients around for the long term is knowing how they are feeling each step of the process.
If you’re unsure where your client’s at, regardless of how great your onboarding and experience has been, you’ll be left in the dark.
Plus, the longer a twinge of unhappiness rests within your client the larger it grows.
There are two perspectives to keep in mind:
1. Follow-up regularly, and err on the side of over-communication. You likely won’t know how your clients are feeling unless you ask, and it’s not worth waiting for them to bring something up. If you notice they didn’t have as great of a day or week based on their stats or feedback, instead of wondering – let them know you’ve noticed it and you wanted to be sure they were feeling ok, and that having an off week is completely normal. They may say everything is totally fine, but by being proactive you show them you care and get in front of potential barriers that will grow with time. Bottom line: Have a system that allows you to consistently check in with your clients.
2. Respond to feedback thoughtfully, objectively, and personally. To make the aforementioned system valuable, when a client does share with you, it’s paramount that you respond with care. It’s easy to take criticism personally, or feel flustered when a client shares anything but positive feedback, but have empathy in these moments; maybe it was difficult for your client to share that, or maybe they’re afraid of hurting your feelings. Regardless, respond to feedback with authenticity, empathy, and individuality. Not only will this consistently prove to your clients your high level of care, it will encourage them to continue to share with you.
Summary
- Creating a spectacular client experience will drive more clients than your best cold marketing campaign.
- Shape both prospect’s and client’s perspectives of your industry and service through your marketing and early client communications.
- A great experience begins with appropriate expectations. Create expectations for the process your client will go through, as well as potential barriers they may experience. Normalize those barriers and set a plan of action should they arise.
- Have a system that consistently gathers client feedback, and always respond with care. Don’t leave it up to chance that a client will reach out at the first feeling of something off — be proactive.