4 easy tips for building and maintaining client relationships

Happy clients are vital to keeping your business running and growing. Focusing on your client’s needs and building relationships are the building blocks of your success—these four tips are for building and maintaining lasting client relationships.

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Communicate regularly + effectively

Regular communication is key to building a solid foundation for client relationships. Actions you can take include:

• Regular communication to enable effective collaboration and achieving common goals. 
• Open dialogue keeps everyone informed and aligned about tasks and projects at all stages.
• Overcommunicating is instrumental when working with others but keep in mind client preferences with communication cadence. 
• Informing clients about your progress with daily tasks and remaining action items.
• If needed, negotiating timelines so you can underpromise and overdeliver and be on the same page.

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Be transparent

Being transparent is crucial to earning your client’s trust. Clients need to believe in you and your ability to deliver. People appreciate honesty, so admitting to yourself and your clients when you don’t know something is okay. Let your clients know your challenges, reach out for clarification and be resourceful. Once trust is broken, it’s difficult to re-establish. 

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Show appreciation

Everyone wants to feel valued. Clients invest their time, energy, and money to seek services from your business. Let them know that their efforts are appreciated and do so regularly. 

There are countless creative ways to show your clients you care and value their business – these acts won’t go unnoticed:

• Sending your client a thank you card.
• Providing them with positive feedback
• Simply reaching out to check in with them.

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Always exceed expectations

When you form a client relationship, there are expectations for the work you will complete for them. Clients expect their needs to be met, and you will deliver on what you promised. 

By exceeding your client’s expectations, you’re giving them the WOW factor, an element of surprise, and driving home their return on investment (ROI). This shows you go above and beyond to retain your client’s business and truly value your working relationship, setting you apart from the rest.

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Client relationship management is a competitive advantage

You depend on clients to provide you with work. Clients will be more willing to outsource tasks to you if you’ve taken the time to build trust through a working relationship. So, when you build relationships right from the start, you retain amazing clients and set yourself up for success and growth. 

When you have happy clients who feel like their business is genuinely valued, this message will spread throughout the community, increasing the potential for new clients and business growth. 

Undoubtedly, each organization is different, requiring different strategies. However, Virtual Gurus’ four simple tips for building and maintaining client relationships universally provide a strong foundation for where to start.

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