How to Maintain Client Relationship

The central part of working life is maintaining and building client relationships. It is very necessary to treat our clients with mutual trust and respect irrespective of how they treat us. There is a saying which goes perfectly with this “First Impression is the Last Impression”. You need to keep this in mind whenever we are dealing with the client.

There are some key areas which we should take care and will help us build lasting relationship. We should always try and provide clients not only with efficient work and timely delivery but also we should learn more from our customers and share knowledge at the same time. This will help create a better rapport and also show interest and dedication towards work.

There are some simple steps for maintaining long-lasting relationship with clients.

Plan your project properly

It is very necessary to have a crisp plan in place when we start the project. The project plan should have accurate and detailed set of specification of all the work to be executed which will provide them with better understanding. The project plan should also have project timeline and deadline, if required. During the project planning and price negotiation both the parties (client and we) should be open to negotiations or discussions.

Communication is Important

This is very crucial part in any relationship and not restricted to only work and business. There are many ways and mediums for communication in today’s world like mail, phone, social media and not the least old fashioned paper mail. We should always be available for client query or request handling and always reply to them promptly and politely. We should always provide them with regular and timely project updates to ensure smooth working of the project.

Knowledge Sharing

Sharing our knowledge and doing something extra which is not expected from our client helps us build rapport and trust. In an ideal scenario our client will come with some particular service or product to be delivered, so we can share our skill and give them some new innovative ideas which might surprise them and also built confidence. By doing this we might get extra work and also extra pay. Sharing knowledge and ideas with clients and solving their problems in a better way will always help us build client confidence.

Timely Delivery and Maintain Quality

Getting work on time as promised to client is an essential part in client relationship but at the same time quality of the deliverable should be maintained. When we plan our project it is better to overestimate rather than giving too less time. This will help us meet the deadlines and also not hamper the quality of the deliverable. If anything goes wrong and we think that we will not be meeting the deadline then it should be communicated to client with proper and valid reasons and avoid nasty surprises.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Always be honest and open to client. Let the client know what qualities and capabilities our team has and what things we can deliver best. If we try to mislead our client with false hopes then there will be disappointment for both the parties which eventually affects the relationship.  Being honest and clear helps client to lay their expectation and also build trust in our work and at the same time we can meet their expectation very well and keep them happy and build good relationship.

About Author:
Shailesh Nambiar is consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. He actively contributes to information technology and VMO. He can be contacted at: shailesh.n@spluspl.com