If you’re a solopreneur service provider—client communication (or lack thereof) can make or break whether a project goes great or terrible. Having good processes in place won’t repel every single reg flag client that walks into your virtual office BUT it will help significantly.
That’s why in this blog post I’m going over practical strategies and tips on how to make your client communication better to that you can work with your ideal clients in a more professional process. <<< This obviously will help you communicate better.
4 Ways to Make Your Client Communication Better
Set Clear Expectations for When & How You’ll Communicate With Your Clients
Before you even start working with a client—you need to set clear expectations of when and how they’ll receive communication from you. Not only do you want to include what day but also what methods you’ll use to get ahold of them during their project:
- Tell them what hours and days + what time zone they receive communication from you.
- Place clear boundaries around what methods a client can use to contact you i.e. you’ll never communicate on the phone or text with them and all communication will be via email.
- Consider using a welcome guide alongside your contract to spell out when any meeting will happen and what timeframes they can expect to hear from you.
Create a Workflow for How Clients Can Give You Their Content & Feedback During the Project
If your service includes any revisions or in general client feedback on edits make it clear from the beginning when and how those are happening. You can use a tool like Markupio for clients to give feedback on or have them record a Loom with their thoughts and you can use a tool like Content Snare for gathering content from your clients.
All of These Tips Can Help With Scope Creep
We’ve all had that one client (or more :/) that keeps wanting to add out-of-scope items to the project after you’ve started working on the project. You can consider using a project management tool like Asana or Trello to give your clients an overview of what you’re working on and what’s completed. <<< Personally I don’t like doing this but if it helps you go for it. The most important thing is to remember to set clear expectations in contracts or welcome guides that you send to your clients.
Stand Firm on Your Boundaries
No matter how good your processes are—you’re still going to have clients that try and push your boundaries. But this is your encouragement to not bend over backward for your clients. They’re paying you to provide a service for them you’re not their employee aka. you need to lead them not the other way around. And if a particular client is asking too much from you that’s out of scope—you need to let them go.
Tools You Can Use to Streamline Your Client Communication & Make it More Efficient
Use a CRM
You can use a Customer Relationship Management Tool (CRM) like Dubsado, Honeybook or WillowSpace to manage your lead capture forms, onboarding clients, invoicing and sending contracts. I personally don’t use a CRM as of writing this blog post because I haven’t found a need for it yet—BUT if you’re struggling with streamlining your communication using a CRM can help a lot.
Use a Project Management Software
Even if you only use it internally instead of externally with clients I’d highly recommend using a tool like Asana or Trello for keeping track of your projects. I use Asana to keep track of all the projects I’m working on. I personally never show a client my checklists for various reasons—one of them being that it’s often overwhelming to a client. But that being said some people find it helpful to have their clients see this part of the process—so you do what works best for you.
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