WHY YOU NEED A PLAN OF ACTION FOR YOUR CLIENTS

Do you have a workflow when new clients come onboard or do you just wing it?

In this blog I will talk about why I think that a clearly defined workflow is critical to your service and how to write one by breaking it down into small steps.

It doesn't matter if your service is a copy and paste for each client or more bespoke for each client, having a framework is crucial in creating a slick experience for the client.

An unorganised service can be felt on the client end and they may not be able to define the weak spots but they'll still be there. You don't want them to think that there are any holes in the service you provide otherwise it knocks the trust that you have spent ages building up.

Prevention is better than cure and creating workflows in your business is a key thing to get right.

Let's address some of the benefits to creating a workflow:

Having a client workflow brings consistency across all your client projects

Remember word of mouth can be either your best friend or your worst enemy for service based businesses.

To ensure that you deliver on your promises and keep the standards high for each client project take the time to write out your workflow.

When word of mouth starts gets going spreading the word of your amazing business then you definitely want it to be positive high-quality praise.

Having a client workflow helps ward off burnout

Working from a place of clarity and rest sounds like a dream right?

Having an understanding of the time commitment and intensity each project will take, will be help to avoid overwhelm and not over commit in your calendar.

You are much more likely to produce quality work in a calm environment and on the flip side far more likely to produce sub-par work in a stressful deadline driven sleep-deprived state.

Client workflow, in Client Management System can add serious selling value

Why would you want to pay for a CMS system when you can dig through all your emails (lost in a rabbit hole), you can get all documents from your desktop or google drive and can spend time in doing all this??

And what about your clients, do they want to dig through a load of emails to find documents and invoices from you? What about if they could have their own client portal with all these documents to hand?

Plus what if you sold your service with this as a bonus ''you will get your own client portal'' with everything to hand? Would this give the client a white glove elevated experience?

A client workflow manages the client expectations

Your client will definitely want to understand each step of the process when working with you and will want to ask a gazillion questions. Those questions are understandable but think about how much time you could save that instead of having to reply to each client's questions you did a little groundwork to answer them all before you get them?

A workflow acts as both a list of service tasks that will be completed and a timeline all in one. This allows your client to see this as a map of what's to come in an easy way to establish and manage expectations from the start.

Within a CMS you can create a comprehensive workflow for each client project and also include hidden tasks that only you can see on the backend. This ensures that everything is done and nothing is duplicated.

A client workflow can set you up for scalability

One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make when they get to the point of growing a team is hiring someone to help to solve an unorganised system,

Putting a new team member in a mess of backend systems is a waste of money.

Putting a new team member into a streamlined system that they can easily pick up and help get the work done is a wise investment.

When you want to take someone new onboard a clearly defined workflow can help you pinpoint exactly what tasks within your business need to be delegated.

So now you know why a client workflow is important - How do you actually write one?

The easiest way to get started with writing any kind of workflow is to do a little brain dump session.

I find it easiest to start with a blank piece of paper and just map out the process that you want to take the client through from the minute they make contact with you.

ie....First contact with the client, what emails do you want to send and when, when do you want to send out an appointment schedule or the invoice or the proposal etc?

Once you have a general outline of how your service flows, then you need to drill down a little further. The more specific you can get for each line item, the better for your backend organisation and for future hires to easily be able to figure out what you are talking about.

I use Dubsado for both my own business and my clients, as a Systems Architect I am here to help my clients build Dubsado accounts for their clients and it works like a dream.

Yes there is a set up process and yes it can be a bit detailed to start with but that goes for any system that needs a set up.

If you would like to know more about how I can help you set up Dubsado CLICK HERE.

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