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Who Cares About Client Rapport? You Do!
By Marsha Lindquist
Ask most people how they define “client rapport” and they’ll tell you it’s about “being nice.” In reality, building client rapport involves so much more than simply being nice. It’s about uncovering your clients’ perception of you and then leveraging that to enhance the relationship.
The level of client rapport you build reflects your reputation. When you build rapport, you go beyond just giving clients what they paid for; you go over the top and completely exceed expectations. Why is this so important? Because if you don’t pay attention to building client rapport, then your competition will do it for you.
Building client rapport is actually a three part process. It involves helping your clients know you, following-up with them, and then overcoming any barriers of doing business with you. Following are some guidelines for each part of the process.
Step one: Help Your Clients Know You.
Helping your clients know you is actually a five-part process unto itself. When you connect correctly, you build a loyal client base that seeks you out and refers others to you. The five steps to building the connection are as follows:
- First, you must ensure that your clients know how to describe the quality you deliver. After all, if you don’t know what your clients are saying about you, they may very well like you but not say it to others the right way. And if they don’t articulate the quality you deliver accurately, they may be spreading a false perception of you to others. Granted, you can’t stop your clients from talking about you, but you can have a discussion with them about what they’re saying so you can give them the words to better describe what they really mean. If you don’t help them in this way, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with your clients.
- Second, verify your clients’ perception of you. What they say about you to others and what they actually perceive may be different. For example, if someone asks them how you are to work with, and they say, “Well… (long pause) I think they’re good,” that long hesitation comes across as a negative, even though they said you were good. That’s why you need to verify what their perception is. You do this by asking them questions, such as, “How would you describe the quality of what we offer?” and “Give me an idea of what your perception is about the work that we do for you.” You can then address any hesitations or concerns to make sure they are voicing their perceptions accurately.
- Next, you have to authenticate what your clients say about your unique strengths and how you meet their expectations. When you “authenticate” this information, you get someone else—perhaps a third party—to validate what your clients say about you. In other words, you find out how they’re saying things to others. The important thing to be looking for here is how they’re describing your “unique strengths.” At this point, it’s not so much that you meet or exceed their expectations; you’re uncovering the reasons why they chose you in the first place. What are the strengths as they see it? What are the reasons why they rely on you to come to the rescue when they need you?
- After that, you have to exceed your clients’ expectations. That is, you have to go back to them and find out if you did indeed give them more than what they asked for. Sometimes you may learn that you didn’t exceed expectations or that you were merely satisfactory. If so, that’s okay, because now you’ve uncovered an opportunity to connect with them and find out what you can do differently to go beyond and reach a new height with them. So if they say, “You delivered what you were supposed to deliver on time and that met out expectations,” you can reply with: “I want to improve that. Tell me what would have exceeded your expectations.” Now you’ve opened the door for future business. And when you get that future business, you can do something that goes beyond the usual. You can go one level above so your clients perceive you as delivering an incredible value.
- Finally, you have to own your clients’ needs. That means finding out what your clients really want and putting their needs first, as if it were your need too. Then, the next time you’re delivering the product or service to them, you are also walking a mile in their shoes. You’re feeling their pains and understanding what they’re going through so you can exceed their expectations. By owning their needs, you almost become their partner. You become “one of them”—a part of their team and a part of their solution. When you connect with your clients on that level, they don’t look at you as an outsider providing something. Rather, they view you as an insider who is truly there to help. That’s when true connection occurs.
Step two: Follow up with your clients.
The more you stay in touch with clients, the more you build the five elements of connection. When you stay in touch with clients after a sale or project, they’ll feel that you truly care. Just be careful not to follow up too quickly. After you deliver the product or service, you need to let the client have some breathing time of a few days. If you follow up before they even get the product home or prior to the service being complete, you’ll only end up annoying them. The point of this initial follow up is to find out if the product or service is doing what it’s supposed to be doing.
Once you complete this initial follow up, you need to schedule additional follow up moments. During this phase of the follow up, you’re contacting clients simply to give them some information, not to sell them. Perhaps you can give them up-to-date developments on something that may impact their business, details on free seminars you’re conducting, or some newsworthy items. The more you can do this, the more you build a relationship. You’re building a trust that your competition can’t undo.
Step three: Overcome any barriers.
If you have any barriers between you and your clients, you’ll have a hard time growing your business. Your clients won’t bother with you, and they’ll seek out your competition. The most common barriers to rapport are:
- Lack of credibility – You build credibility by keeping your word. Every time you deliver what you say (and then some) you are building credibility that says, “You can count on me anytime you need product/service X.” Lack of credibility is the show stopper of client rapport. If clients don’t believe you’re going to do what you say, then they’re never going to come back to you again.
- Slow or no information flow – The more you can build an information flow between you and your clients, the quicker you’re going to be able to build your business. If your clients perceive that they can’t count on you for information, then they’re going to leave. So be approachable, not just for information related to your product or service, but for information on anything. Become a trusted advisor so clients call you whenever they need a solution, even if it’s not a solution you provide. The people who are approachable to their clients are the ones who get the repeat business.
- Poor complaint resolution – If your phone is always turned off, if you’re never available, or if you handle yourself poorly when addressing a complaint, you’re going to instantly send your clients to your competition. Not having an effective complaint resolution process tells your clients that they’re not important. Therefore, carefully figure out the best way for your company to address client complaints and always follow the process precisely.
Build Your Business…One Client at a Time
If you care about your clients and want to grow your business to new heights, building client rapport is the way to go. The more you can connect with clients, follow up with them, and overcome any barriers of doing business, the better positioned in the marketplace you’ll be. That’s when you’ll have a steady flow of work from your existing clients and from the many people they refer your way. So focus on client rapport today; it’ll pay dividends tomorrow.
About the Aurthor
Marsha Lindquist is a successful business strategist, author and speaker. As CEO of The Management Link, Inc., Marsha has over 20 years experience as a business consultant who works with her clients to transform their organization through her Value Advantage formula. She has enhanced communication, facilitated change management, and improved overall strategies with companies including BP Amoco, Fleishman Hillard International Comm., and Northrop Grumman. For more information on her speaking and consulting work, please visit: www.MarshaLindquist.com or email her: Marsha@MarshaLindquist.com.
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