What Is Your Client Experience?

What Is Your Client Experience?

First impressions can be so important. Have you ever come to a business and something about the initial contact really was off putting? Or perhaps the opposite, the initial experience was so great you were wanting to come back for more?

Your client experience is so important. When you are working to attract new clients, you want their experience to be one that brings them to you and has them wanting to return.

Where can your clients and potential clients have an experience?

Your website

Is your website clear and user-friendly? While we don’t always have control of all the user experience steps, you will want to make the steps you do have control of seamless. It can be helpful to have someone else review the website as well to watch for any spelling errors.

On your website it will be important your clients can see the following:

What you offer Pricing

How to connect with you

Where you are located

Any important policies they should know about before booking

Any information or details about services they should know about before booking How to book an appointment with you

Your social media

All of these above points can be important to have on your social media as well. It is also important for your social media to be professional, updated, correct and active.

Your professional or business social media profile is a place to show what you offer, your workspace, products you use, etc… This can be a great place to plug in things you do in the community and sprinkle in a little glimpse of something personal. However, this is not a place to show a lot of personal things, state your political and religious views or air out your dirty laundry.

When I come across someone who hasn’t posted on their social media for a year or longer, I wonder if they are still even open. If you are opting to no longer have the social media presence it may be better to make that profile hidden.

There may come a time that your available days and hours may change, your location, email, social handles, etc… You will want to update that on the website and social media profile.

Communications

Do your clients receive an autoreply if you are unavailable when contacting you via email or direct messages on social media? Do you have a professional voicemail message? Is your voicemail full? How do you respond to emails, direct messages on social media, texts, phone calls and voicemails?

It is best practices to reply asap. My rule of thumb is asap, but by the next day if you are unable. I generally do not return a client contact back past 8 pm or before 9 am unless I am available, and they have just reached out. If your client doesn’t hear from you for a long time, they likely could be moving on. Be kind but clear in autoreplies what the fastest and preferred communication is to connect with you. 

When communicating in any of these ways have professional, friendly, and clear communication. It is also important to re-read any text communication to be as error free as possible.

In person experience

Now that we have talked about your online presence, let’s talk about your clients in person experience.

When your client is trying to come to your workspace is it easy to find? While that is something you may not be able to control, providing them with extremely detailed directions can be helpful to overcome that.

Once they have arrived, is the parking area clean? Again, this may not be in your control but if it is not, it should be addressed with whoever needs to handle it. Or you can roll up your sleeves and make it a better place.

When the client enters your workspace how are they greeted? Is it with a smile and friendly contact? Dealing with a grouchy person or being ignored is not what they are looking for. Be sure the greeting, whether with yourself or another person, is polite and professional.

Will the client be offered a water or told where the bathroom is? Do they need to complete a form?

Other things to consider in your workspace is the cleanliness. I encourage professionals to walk through their space regularly. Make sure that it is clean and that there aren’t tumbleweeds of hair, cobwebs, broken and ripped up furniture, major scratches and dents on the wall, etc... Keeping up with a fresh, clean look is important. Having a unkept space can make clients concerned about the sanitation that is held and the safety for themselves.

Go through the client experiences regularly to keep the experience positive, professional, and seamless. This is a small and great way to keep the clients you have and the new ones you attract.

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