Top 10 Tips for Successful Client Interactions
- Understand that managing a consultant should not be a full-time job, but getting results is.
- Adapt your processes and thinking to the client’s needs. That means making everyday interaction as simple and painless as possible.
- All client communication and documents should be succinct and grammatically correct.
- Develop a project brief for everything so you can be sure that you and the client are in agreement about objectives, scope, timing and budget.
- Keep a tracker of all marketing programs and review with your client at regular intervals.
- If a client isn’t available to review/approve, move the process ahead to the best of your ability until you have a chance to connect.
- Be efficient, do not bombard your client with emails and do not pack meetings and conference calls with too many people. If you are planning to multi-task during a call, you probably shouldn’t be there.
- Carefully choose the right vehicle for all communications. Phone, email, IM and in-person meetings all have their place – take a moment to think about which is best.
- If you’ve got bad news to share, pick up the phone and talk it through with the client, right away.
- Make your subject lines count – they are sometimes all a client has time to see. If you need immediate action on something, write it in the subject line so the client can prioritize