How Well Do You Know Your Clients?

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your client knowledge? Want to determine how well you really know your clients? Challenge yourself or your team to a game of “Client Trivia.” You might be surprised by how much you know; on the other hand, you could be surprised by how little you know.

We recently played our own version of “Client Trivia” and while some of us knew a lot of the answers, others not so much. Regardless of how many points you can score, it’s useful to learn where you fall, whether high or low; if you don’t know your clients as well as you think you do, you can be aware that more energy and effort is needed to get to know them.

Why is it important to know your clients?

Customer service

In this day and age, sadly, good customer service is hard to find. But when you do come across it, it’s refreshing and surprising. It makes you want to scream, “Thank you for doing your job!” And you want to communicate to whoever is helping you how much you appreciate his or her service.

When you go beyond just “doing your job” and put forth the effort to know and remember details about individual clients, it demonstrates to them that you care. That type of intentionality does not go unnoticed; it stands out. It doesn’t mean that you have to become best friends with your clients, but it goes a long way when you remember birthdays or can ask about their family members by name.

Trust

People want to do business with people that they know, like and trust. Transparency and honesty are becoming less popular, but I find that most people prefer genuineness over fakeness. They admire people who are honest and tell it like it is (within the confines of respect, of course).

A great thing about trust is that it can continue to grow. Knowing about your client’s company strengthens their confidence in you and your capability to make wise decisions for them.

Great Word of Mouth

Do you know what results from a combination of customer service and trust? Referrals. By actually knowing your clients, you are marketing yourself. By investing time and energy in them, you are investing in your own marketing representatives as they go on to share with others about their customer service experience.

Relationships are the key. Obviously, great work is a must, but knowing people can separate you from the competition. Who will a client return to when they need your services? Another vendor who simply does a fantastic job or someone who does a fantastic job and also knows where their son goes to college? People talk about their friends and want their friends to do well, so spreading the word about your service will happen naturally.

Long Term Payoff

Through our 25+ years of experience, we have discovered that great relationships matter most. Those relationships lead to trust and a client’s trust in us allows us to produce a great product for them.