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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How are you nurturing your prospects?

The most valuable thing you have in your business is your potential and existing customer list.  These are the people who’ve already done business with you and those that have raised their hand indicating that they want to find out more about you and your business.  I find it interesting that it’s extremely common for me to find businesses that don’t seem to really value their list.  Many don’t actually keep track of it, and those that do keep the list updated, frequently don’t really do anything with it.

How are you nurturing your prospects?

Business owners often tell me that their biggest challenge in their business is getting new leads.  Then I ask them what they did with the leads they generated last month.  The typical response is “I followed up, we met, but they’re not ready to buy.”  That probably describes 90% of your encounters with a prospect — only about 10% ever buy during that initial meeting.  That doesn’t, however, mean that the remaining 90% will never buy, it just means that they aren’t ready right now.  There’s an open door to nurture that relationship, to continue to touch base and provide information that educates and adds value.  And that’s where most businesses fail.  They fail to keep in touch.

Your list of prospects and your existing customers are the most valuable thing in your business.  We all know the cost to generate new leads far exceeds the cost of nurturing someone who already knows you.  Sources indicate it costs 5 to 10 times as much to generate new leads.

There are several ways a business can keep itself top of mind to keep the door open for future business.  Plan how and when you will keep in touch with prospects and existing customers.  This is really about building a follow-up process and that will require a multi-pronged approach to ensure that authenticity is maintained.

The following is a list of options you can use to create a follow-up system or process within your business to ensure that you never get forgotten.

• Monthly electronic newsletter
• Telephone call
• Hand-written note cards
• Invitation to a Networking Event
• Video message
• Sending an article of interest
• Direct Mail
• Invitations to a Speaking Event
• Social Network Connections
• Special Offers

Can you think of some other items that should be part of your follow-up system?

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Building a viable marketing strategy has two critical components:  identifying your ideal target market and creating a unique core difference.  Many business owners think that the key is simply to be better than your competition.  But, being better than the competition is an expectation.

Build a client experience that your customers will tell others about.

And while it’s important to strive to be the best in your field because it will make for happy customers, it’s not compelling enough to create the same buzz that being different generates.

Customer Service is NOT a Differentiator

Talking about providing quality customer service is important, but that too is really an expectation of every business.  And it’s certainly not a point of differentiation that you can use as a central marketing message.   If you don’t make it obvious and communicate relentlessly about what makes you different, people don’t know what else they should be asking about and they’ll simply evaluate you based on price.

I think businesses are finally starting to grasp that customer service is not a point of differentiation.  No one will stand up and say they provide terrible customer service.  And the same holds true for your level of knowledge in your industry, your integrity, and the fact that you deliver on-time.  I’ve recently completed some business audits for several local businesses, and, in a number of cases, when I asked about how they were different than the competition, I had business owners tell me that their knowledge was what made them different.  Those individuals went on to tell me that they work hard for their clients and that they’ve earned their trust.   I’m not disputing that these points might be true.  I am, however, saying that not one of your competitors is ever going to say they need to hone up on their facts or that they’re not always truthful, or they deliver late.  No one in your industry is going to communicate those kinds of things, so they’re not useful as points of differentiation.

Build a Client Experience

Your unique difference is really about creating an experience that people will talk about.  People don’t talk about the basic things that they expect out of an organization they do business with – they talk about the extraordinary things that you do.  Help yourself out of the rut of commodity with every other company that is saying the same thing and build a client experience that your customers will tell others about.  Think about how every point of contact from your company builds an experience and start to think about unique ways to make yourself memorable with each touch point.  Help yourself out of the rut of commodity with every other company that is saying the same thing and build a client experience that your customers will tell other about.

Stay tuned for some upcoming posts that will provide some tips on building a true client experience.

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