I regularly talk about building systems within your business because it’s the easiest way to create a consistent and repeatable methodology around an activity in your business.  And you can use that system idea to create a consistent and repeatable experience for your prospects and clients.  With a system, you can also measure and uncover ways to improve your whole business process over time.  Taking the opportunity to audit and collect feedback at least annually gives you the chance to provide something very different from the competition.

And one of the best places to start this process is with your best clients.  Your top clients will have your best interests at heart and be able to provide valuable comments and views as they experienced your products and services first-hand.  And you’ll draw them in even further and respect you even more when you ask for their candid feedback.

If you’re up to the continuous improvement challenge, here’s a 6 step process you can use to improve your client experience.

1. Identify 5 or 6 of your best clients.  You want this list to consist of those clients that came away with exceptional value from working with you.  The idea here is to confirm which aspects of your product or service provide the greatest level of value.

2. Schedule a 1 hour time slot with each to interview these clients.  You want to know why they hired you and ask them how they believe you differ from the competition.  As business owners, we think our clients value certain aspects of our business but we’re usually a little off the mark.  You want to be 100% confident about what it is that your clients value.

3. Build a case study outlining the results they experienced.  A case study demonstrates that you know how to solve a problem and that you when do solve that problem, you have experience delivering certain results.  A case study includes some background information on the client, some details on the problem they were experiencing when they hired you, the type of solution you provided, and the results or outcome you delivered.

4. Quantify the value vs. price.  Spend some time elaborating on the details so that you can articulate the rate of return they received from working with you.  Ideally you want to be able to quantify those outcomes.

5. Ask the client what you can do better next time.  Be sure you understand where there gaps in your offering so that you are able to create opportunities for improvement.  Are there items that you could alter to improve the results or experience next time?

6. Reverse engineer you product or service.  This will allow you understand where the changes or enhancements can be made to improve the process to build a better experience.

Investing the time to do a results review with your clients can be a remarkable selling feature for your business.  You get to confirm why it is that your clients buy from you and reinforce the experience they’ve had with you so they tell others around them.  Build your business and your credibility by reinforcing the client experience you deliver.

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Create a system to build your referral business.

Referral Marketing is the most cost effective form of lead generation out there and probably the most common, and yet very few business owners actually have a formal referral marketing process or system.  The more you consider marketing and referral marketing a system, the more successful you’ll be with it.

We already have all kinds of other systems in our business so why not marketing a system too.  With a system there are very distinct steps in the process and the more consistent we are at following the process, the more success we will have.

There are four distinct steps in building a referral marketing system for a small business:

1. Make it easy to spot your Ideal Client.  Be very specific with your strategic alliances as to who makes an ideal client for you.  Give them a list of all the characteristics—and not just the demographics but also the psychographics.  Psychographics identify values and behaviors which are just as important in building an ideal client profile.  The most specific you are, the better referrals you will get.

2. Provide a list of trigger statements.  The best way to describe what you do in your business is to talk about the kinds of problems that you solve.  And that’s really useful for your referral partners because it’s easier to listen for the problems or challenges that people are experiencing.  For example, if I manufacture widgets, I might express that I’m having a tough time tracking my costs.  I don’t say I think I need a new accounting system.  Identify a comprehensive list of trigger statements to make it really easy for your referral sources to help you and their network.

3. Teach your referral partners how to present your core message.  Your core marketing message is the statement that tells people exactly what you do.  It’s most effective when it identifies the exact problem that your product or service addresses.  Try to avoid industry jargon because your prospects don’t talk that way and often don’t know or talk using those phrases.  Everyday language will help you keep your message simple and repeatable by others.  If it’s tongue-twisting, no one will remember it or be able to repeat it to others.

4. Communicate your marketing process to your strategic partners.  Tell your referral partners the exact process you will use with their referrals.  Take them through the process to ensure that they are comfortable with your process, how you follow-up, the frequency of communication, etc.  Your referral partners should be able to communicate this process to their referrals as well so they can set the expectations when they introduce you.

Systemizing your referral marketing process is kind of like teaching your business to market itself.  The more thorough you are in building this system, the more successful you will find you referral business.

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Building and maintaining a website takes an immense amount of time and effort, but it can be the most powerful tool for you and your business.  And while your designer has key tasks in this process and we’ve spoken about those over the last few weeks (see Part 1 and Part 2), you, as a business owner also have a task in guiding the designer.  The following are some key questions and actions you as a business owner should be prepared to provide.

Your website can be the most powerful tool for you and your business.

1. What do you want your web site to do?  Is it intended to simply generate leads or are you wanting it to actually make the sale too?  If you’re selling directly online, products or e-books, you’ll need some kind of shopping cart system.  If you’re a consultant or an attorney, you’ll want the site to help people get to know you, like you, and trust you.

2. Provide logo files and coloring.  Your designer will ask you some questions about layout, but it’s your job to provide your logo files and input on the coloring details.  As a start, you might take note of a few web site designs you really like and show your designer so they have some ideas.  As the business owner, you’re responsible for ensuring your branding carries through your project.

3. Images.  Just because you can pull off any number of images online and re-use them, doesn’t mean you should.  I can tell of a number of people I know who have received invoices for images that they’ve used without permission or a purchase agreement.  I would recommend purchasing images for your site or if you use images from a creative commons site, that you have given the proper credit to the creator.

4. Content.  As the web site owner, it’s your job to provide the content that is required for the website.  Again, your designer can give you some ideas on site layout but they will not provide the content for you unless that is something that you’ve hired them to do.  (And I’m not sure that any decent web designer also has the skills to write content—that’s not usually the case.)  Your content should be provided to your designer in a complete and grammatically correct fashion.  If you make grammatical errors, your designer is simply copying and pasting what you provided.

5. Communicate.  When your designer asks you for feedback, be available to provide feedback.   Much of the time it takes to create a web site is in the back and forth and waiting for feedback.  The faster you get your new web site online, the faster it can start generating results for you.

These are probably the most important items to start with because they will help your web site project progress at a much faster pace.  And your web site really is a critical piece of your marketing communications.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on any additional areas of focus or questions relating to a web site project that you think are important to cover.

Please post your comments below.

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