Can you create an "experience" for your clients that will make them refer you over and over? Read this article for 5 areas to factor in and manage when providing a service for your clients.
What if you developed such a stellar reputation for delivering outstanding results that people lined up to work with you?
What if your clients were so thrilled with the service they got from you,
they told everyone they could and referrals poured in?
How awesome would it be to create that kind of reputation in your market?!
It all starts with creating exceptional client experiences. Creating real results and a great experience is a win-win for you and your clients. You get a raving fan and the confidence that comes from a job well done. The client gets the result–the change–they came for. And by serving them well, you’ve made a difference in their life.
But it’s not always easy to guarantee long lasting results when you provide a service like coaching, consulting, training, speaking, or advising. So many other variables are at play in your client’s life (and often yours), including:
• Competing priorities and life’s many distractions
• Fear, doubt, resistance and the stories that hold people back from taking action
• Overwhelm, indecision and procrastination
• Unspoken (and often unmet) expectations in the relationship
• Lack of outside support within family, friends, community, etc…
• Lack of resources (financial, energy, people, skills, etc…) to take the required action
As service providers, you can’t avoid facing these issues (and many others) with clients. Even if you avoid them, they are there, often working at cross purposes to the goals both you and the client are working toward.
But the better you are at creating an overall client service EXPERIENCE that supports clients at multiple levels, the greater results your client’s will get (and the more referrals you’ll get!)
So what do I mean by creating an “experience”?
There are five areas to factor in and manage when providing a service to clients:
1. Environment
The environment you create—through your physical (or virtual) presence as well as policies, processes, systems and actions—can make a huge difference for the client. You want to structure your services in a way that showcases how firmly committed you are to providing the RESULT they hired you for. Think about how your enrollment processes, scheduling, meeting, and follow up approaches support the goal of creating a positive experience and a solid outcome for the client.
2. Expectations
Everyone comes into a new relationship with both spoken and unspoken expectations. The better you are at uncovering and addressing the hidden expectations, the better the relationship will go. For example, many people hire a coach or consultant to work on a specific goal. But they probably also have an unspoken expectation that the coach or consultant take the lead in some way.
If you understand that on some level, the client is asking you to lead—lead the process, lead them through their own resistance, take a stand for them—you can step into that place with confidence. The client might not be able to express this directly but they will definitely know it when they experience it (or not).
3. Energy
There is a natural rhythm and flow that people go through when taking on big goals and making changes. Typically they start out hopeful, excited and very motivated. There’s immediate gain because of that initial upswing in energy. Then, at some point the client hits a plateau. The breakthroughs aren’t coming as quickly. The energy they had isn’t as high. The work is more challenging. Other distractions and priorities vie for their attention and time, which usually leads to a ‘dip’. They wonder if this is going to work. Resistance kicks in. But on the other side of the dip is often a surge in energy, breakthroughs and results.
When you understand the natural energy rhythm in your work and prepare the client for the likely stages, you will have a far lower check-out rate, far fewer complaints and frustrations. Clients will experience smoother sailing through the tough spots of the process—which means a better success rate and true results.
4. Emotion
Emotions are tied closely to the energy flow. When people are paying for a service—especially if it’s a service that involves making some sort of life change—they will experience a whole host of emotions throughout the process. Hope. Excitement. Fear. Disappointment. Frustration. Confusion. Overwhelm. Motivation. Flow. Peace. Stress. Doubt. Accomplishment . Pride.
It’s important to recognize and normalize the common emotions of fear, doubt, resistance, breakthroughs, breakdowns, plateaus and anything else you see as typical in your work. Clients need to hear that they are ‘on track’ and that they can handle any feeling that comes their way. Without this validation they are likely to assume that negative feelings are signs something is wrong—with them, with you, with the process, whatever—and quite likely quit working with you.
5. Expertise
The client is ultimately hiring you for your skills, knowledge, process and expertise. But I put this one last on purpose. You see, too many service professionals get so wrapped up in their content, their credentials, their expertise that they overlook the other four areas. It’s important that you be skilled, knowledgeable and talented. But if you are ONLY that—without being adept at managing the other aspects of the overall client experience, you won’t get the raving fans, the results or the referrals.
The most important thing I can leave you with is this: you are responsible to provide an experience that is in service of the outcome the client is paying you for. That doesn’t mean you take on FULL responsibility for their results. In most cases the client is ultimately responsible for the result because achieving it depends on the actions they take. But when you honor the relationship by handling the environment, expectations, energy and emotions along with providing your expertise you will become known for your exceptional level of service and results.
