Getting clients through the door is one thing, but keeping them engaged is a whole other challenge.
Here’s some food for thought:
Whether you're a seasoned accounting firm looking to revitalize client relationships or a brand-new graphic design startup eager to leave a lasting first impression, this post is here to help. We’ll be exploring 5 tips any professional services business can follow to increase client engagement and minimize any chance of client churn.
First, let’s go over why investing your time and effort into client engagement should be a priority:
Client retention
Engaged clients are more likely to remain loyal to your business, reducing customer churn and increasing their lifetime value.
Getting referrals
Engaged clients who are satisfied with your work and the client experience are way more likely to refer your services to other people. Happy clients will gladly promote your brand through word of mouth, testimonials, and other recommendations, amplifying your marketing efforts.
Increasing revenue
Engagement increases cross-sell revenue by 22% and up-sell revenue by 38%. It costs way more to get a new client through the door than it costs you to upsell your existing clients. When clients are engaged, they’re more likely to purchase more of your services.
Getting firsthand feedback
Existing clients can be the best feedback tool of all. Happy clients are willing to take the time to share their ideas with you through customer surveys, giving you a great opportunity to improve your service and offerings.
Now, let’s talk about some of the problems that probably led you to search up this post. Here are a few common signs that you need to put more effort into client engagement:
Are you only in contact with your clients when you’re working on a project for them? What about in-between? One of the best ways to keep clients active is to stay in communication with them even during downtime. This can look like:
Casual and personalized email check-ins asking how your clients are doing.
Recording a short video or calling up your clients to express appreciation and give them some updates about what you have in the works.
Including curated content that’s tailored to their interests.
E.g. If you’re a real estate agent, you might choose to share market trends, home improvement tips, or other property listings that could be of interest.
Sometimes just receiving an email every now and then can help you stay top of mind and remind your clients that you’re always there should they need any more support or services.
A common mistake is to limit your relationship with your clients to being transactional in nature. That means only providing value to them when they buy your services.
Businesses that excel at client engagement are the ones who find ways to provide their clients with value-added content that addresses your client’s challenges and pain points and educates them, without expecting anything in return. Some ideas:
It all depends on what industry you’re in, but for some, offering downloadable resources is a common engagement tactic.
Let’s say that you’re a graphic designer who works primarily with photographers. You might want to offer a downloadable workbook they can use to organize their photoshoots, jot down ideas, and organize their shot lists.
Auditory learners prefer listening to podcasts than digesting content like eBooks. If you’ve got the right personality for it, running a podcast can be a huge win. It offers so many opportunities to provide value, invite guests of interest, and let your clients get to know you on a more personal level.
By investing in content creation efforts like these, you can position your company as a trusted advisor your clients will feel confident relying on the next time you need you.
At the beginning of this post, we mentioned that sometimes clients themselves can cause project delays. This can be really frustrating if, for example, you’re an ad agency trying to start a campaign and still haven’t received their assets.
Our advice is to make things as easy as possible for your clients using modern communication tools like client portals, project management tools, or customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Such tools are built to speed up information transfer, which ultimately has an effect on client engagement too.
Content Snare is one example of a tool for collecting data that’s trusted by hundreds of professional services companies. It helps you set up forms for your clients to fill out to speed up the process of collecting information, files, and assets from them.
Join thousands of service businesses in saving valuable time by slashing time spent on client communications in half.
No matter what industry you’re in, you can always play a bigger role than simply being a service provider. You can also play the role of a connector that links clients together for the greater good!
Building a community around your brand (both online through social media platforms as well as offline) encourages engagement and helps your whole ecosystem grow. You can look at:
Host interactive workshops or seminars where clients can participate in discussions, ask questions, gain insights, and network with industry experts and peers.
If you’re an interior design firm, for example, you might want to host webinars about current design or market trends and invite a panel of experts who can share their insights with your clients.
Create online groups where your clients can connect, share insights, or collaborate on industry challenges together.
Host networking events (either online or in-person) to bring your clients together, have engaging discussions, and help your clients build relationships as the result of having you as a connector.
One more client engagement tactic is to acknowledge and celebrate milestones in your client relationships, like project completions or anniversaries of working together. Some ideas for how you can do this are:
Send personalized gifts or experiences to your clients. Think outside of the box for this. No one wants the same old merchandise with your logo on it or stuff they’re likely to toss out because it’s nothing special. You might want to consider gifting them with memorable experiences like a wine-tasting experience. Alternatively, you might want to gift them with unique art, a gift basket for their whole team to enjoy, or anything else you can think of that your clients will value.
Related: 45 great gifts for a CPA
This also depends on your industry and how many clients you have, but if you’re a life coach or real estate agent, celebratory dinners might be in order!
These small efforts foster a sense of partnership and strengthen the bond between your company and the client.
Investing your efforts into client engagement is essential if you want to stand out among your competitors. By implementing some (better yet all) of the ideas shared in this post, you can look forward to cultivating stronger relationships with your clients that will only translate into brand loyalty and growing your business.
Sylva Sivz is a seasoned copywriter here at Content Snare, based out of Vancouver, Canada. She has spent years working in agency environments and moonlights as a touring house DJ!
