Nurturing your existing clients should form part of your customer retention strategy.

It not only helps keep your customers happy – it can also lead to increased referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations. So it’s a win win!

Here are six things you can do to nurture your client relationships.

1. Communicate

Communication is key when it comes to good customer relationships. Improving your client communications – including listening to them – helps you understand your customers better. This in turn puts you in a better position to service their needs.

Customers are also more likely to appreciate you if you take the time to respond quickly to their questions. In fact, there’s not much that can send a customer packing quicker than feeling ignored or neglected!

2. Build trust

Trust is extremely valuable in client relationships, but it cannot be rushed. It always takes some time to build up.

You can help the process along by being honest and consistent, and by showing your customers you genuinely care. It’s also important to possess and display integrity (e.g. by doing what you say you will do), and to only promise what you can realistically deliver.

3. Be consistent and reliable

Trust can be quickly eroded through inconsistency and unreliability. So make the effort to be as consistent and reliable as possible with your clients – e.g. by delivering on time, and by letting them know if there is likely to be a delay.

Consistency can also be better achieved through good processes and systems that help you manage your workflow and create more reliable and predictable results.

4. Be accountable and responsible

Being accountable in business involves taking responsibility for your end of the bargain. Accountability is also much about being responsible for honest and ethical conduct in all your dealings, and for owning up to mistakes.

5. Connect on a personal level

Some of the ways you can connect better with clients includes sending personalised messages or emails, showing appreciation for their custom, requesting feedback, and even occasionally hanging out where they do (e.g. on social media).

Getting to know your customers on a more personal level lets them know you see them as people rather than just another name or number on your client list.

6. Ask for help from a trusted partner!

Sometimes a busy manager or business owner might find it difficult to nurture customer relationships to the degree they would like. This is where partnering with a professional virtual assistant can help. Our customer relationship services include managing calls and emails, responding to questions, sending out communications, and managing social media pages. Get in touch to find out more!

How we can help

At AS Virtual Solutions, we can help fill any gaps in your customer service, in turn helping improve your organisation’s CX. Ask us how!