The 7 Best Practices for Building Client Relationships

The 7 Best Practices for Building Client Relationships

Building and maintaining client relationships is of course important for any business.  However, even a company that offers client relations as part of their services needs to make sure they have the best practices in place to build new client relationships  and strengthen existing ones.  Today we'll discuss the 7 best client relationship practices that businesses of all shapes and sizes can implement and benefit from (and yes, corporate events are recommended).

Maintain good communication

Maintaining client relationships starts with good communication  - this mean’s high quality, relevant, helpful content delivered via channels that work for the client, in a volume that is suitable for them. It also includes being responsive in a timely manner: quick, considered responses foster loyalty and trust, and show good intentions.   Maintain client relationships by following up on commitments and making sure your clients know how valued they are to you. Finally, keep an eye out for opportunities to surprise clients  with kindnesses - not just as favours but because it genuinely feels good too!

Be enthusiastic

It may sound obvious, but it’s all too easy to forget positivity and calmness when communicating with a client. A calm, upbeat exterior helps everyone (and it’s important this is backed up by a complete commitment to deliver).  Likewise, showing enthusiasm for the project you’re building together can be infectious and builds the client's anticipation to see the end product. Overall, always look to be someone that people look forward to working with.

Host a corporate event

Corporate events bring a whole host of benefits to businesses, and can help position you as a thought leader in your niche. Think about how to use corporate events to position your business as a thought leader. You don’t even need to be an expert (although it’s advisable that you do have worthwhile knowledge): you could just be the business that collates all the best minds of the industry in one room, making your event the one to attend.

Be transparent

Building strong client relationships is often about overcoming client resistance by getting them to feel more confident, happy and at ease. Explain the work you will be doing in a way that is clearly understood. This will enable clients and prospects to trust your process and will help with the success of project sign-offs or the meeting of objectives. Clarity is key when it comes to communicating details of projects, planned work or joint ventures, and summarising conversations helps clarify these points as well as explaining industry language jargon and expectations. This builds trust quickly between both parties. When working on complex projects, helping clients fully comprehend each step without overloading them goes a long way towards reducing frustration levels and building confidence, and time spent here is rarely time wasted. 

Prioritise trust

It might sound like something out of an obvious business handbook, but building trust with clients is just as important as good communication. If trust is shattered - by failing to communicate a change to a project or deadline for instance - it can muddy the waters and potentially mar the relationship, leading to unsuccessful delivery, failed objectives and even the parting of ways. To that end, it’s best to be upfront and honest with your clients at all times. It may seem like a difficult thing to do - but it will be the best, and clients will appreciate and respect your openness and honesty far more than they will finding out at a later stage that you've been covering something up. 

Exceed expectations

Under-promise and over-deliver is a business adage that has stood the test of time  because it’s so simple, and so effective. One of the best ways to win over a potential client is by being a professional who delivers exceptional results. The key to this is to go the extra mile whilst not overselling yourself and promising unrealistic results, as this will only set up unreasonable expectations.  Exceeding expectations shows you care and helps position you as someone your client would like to work with on future projects. 

Cultivate a real relationship

Lastly, this is another piece of advice that may sound obvious but is often overlooked. Sometimes we can forget that our clients and business partners are at their heart people, with busy lives and important things going on outside of the office.  We should always look for opportunities to signal to each other that we care away from just metrics, results and performances (whilst recognising just how important these things are) - remember people do business with people! 

Looking to host an event for new clients?

Whether you're hosting a client event, looking to increase your company's visibility, or simply want to build relationships with the people who make up your customer base, corporate events can help. Events, whether in-person, hybrid or virtual, are great ways for professionals in similar fields to come together and learn from each other while simultaneously building goodwill between themselves and their new clients or partners. To find out more contact us today.

Pip Martin is the Founder of The Tasting Quarter, a Corporate Wine Tasting & Specialist Events Company. After management positions in Harrod’s Foodhall, Pip became Corporate Events Manager at Richard Branson’s online wine merchant, Virgin Wines, where he hosted over 200 wine events in a little over 15 months for companies including BBC, Morgan Stanley, PricewaterhouseCoopers and JP Morgan. Since 2002, via The Tasting Quarter, Pip and his team have produced and hosted tastings in Spain, Russia and South Africa and co-hosted events in Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark and Switzerland for groups of 10 to 3000+. He has run virtual, hybrid and AI augmented tastings for companies including AVMI, Oracle, Adobe, Google and Cisco. He also counts all the Magic Circle law firms in the UK as repeat clients for in-person events. Pip’s media work has included wine presenting on Sky One’s Taste programme and BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Writing credits include wine articles for Condé Nast’s Gourmet Travel and Esquire.