Building Better Client Relationships

If you’re not careful, long lasting professional relationships can start to feel less like a work partnership and more like a marriage of convenience. You begin to develop a routine based on consistency, loyalty and reliability. However, like every good relationship, taking proactive steps to keep things strong and healthy is crucial. There’s a fine line between keeping your process consistent and getting stuck in a rut. As the years and the projects go by, fostering strong client relationships is important. There are a few things we do at BURKE to keep the collaborative spark alive.

Communicate Clearly

In any long lasting relationship, it’s easy to start making the assumption that everything is going smoothly without actually checking in. Creating an open channel of communication allows your client to be comfortable in openly and honestly sharing opinions with you. Establishing ease and trust between each other is the best way to extract quality feedback that ultimately brings you closer to excellent work that fulfills your client’s needs.

Show Gratitude

Everybody wants to know they’re appreciated. Taking proactive steps to make sure your client has everything they need and more goes far. Provide reports before being asked to, create meticulous file backups, and get used to anticipating the needs of your client in advance. In addition, getting personal with acts like a handwritten thank you note for their business may seem small, but are always meaningful. Show your appreciation and take the chance to brag on your client whenever you can! Social media is a great tool to promote the projects you collaborate on and show that working together is exciting and meaningful to you.

Redefine KPIs

Business goals are bound to change over the course of a professional relationship. Show that you’re invested in your client’s growth by getting involved in redefining their key performance indicators (KPIs) as time goes on. Proactively analyzing project metrics and determining how work can perform better shows that you understand the client’s business and are invested in their success.

Annual Planning

Great agencies treat the growth and success of your client’s organization as equally important as your own. Going beyond the role of creator and moving into a position where you assist in annual planning and strategizing shows that you value the actual results of the work you’re creating. Becoming a part of a client’s annual planning is a huge opportunity to establish your services as part of their process, and demonstrate that you care about elevating their brand.

Strong connections are the key to successful projects. Our goal is to always add value to our client’s work, so we aim create a lasting valuable relationship as well.