A Stellar Client Experience: The Key Ingredients at Each Phase

BY MOYA MINNS, CLIENT EXPERIENCE SPECIALIST

Within the customer journey from discovery to renewal or referral are four macro phases or core activities that clients will flow through as they interact with you and your business: inquiry, onboarding, production or services, and offboarding. I'll be sharing the primary goal for each phase that you need to keep in mind as you build the right client experience framework for your business.  

INQUIRY PHASE

The first phase that clients will flow through as they engage with your business is the inquiry phase. The focus here should be to ensure a seamless introduction to your brand and creating an immediate connection. You want to ensure quick responses and follow ups to delight your prospective client. A great CRM like Dubsado is a perfect way to automate some of these initial steps through thoughtful, well planned workflows. During this phase, you also want to make sure potential clients have direct access to you, either through an immediate discovery call or a live chat feature on your website. Being approachable and available helps to build confidence in your processes and makes the buying decision easier. 

ONBOARDING PHASE

The goal of the onboarding phase is to welcome your clients and confirm or validate the sale by removing all barriers and setting the stage for a smooth experience with you. Keep your client in the loop with next steps. Send a tailored q&a Welcome Guide and introduce any team members your client will interact with. This will help your client feel cared for from day one. Who doesn't love a great orientation.  

SERVICE PHASE

The service phase is where you're doing the work for the client. But it's important here to still keep them top of mind. You need to keep the engagement level high and in essence, honor the promise of a stellar client experience. This is a great opportunity to have built in surprise and delight moments, routinely check in with clients, nurture them through a client specific newsletter sequence and share sneak peeks because they love it. And most importantly, notify clients of delays as soon as possible. 

OFFBOARDING PHASE

The last phase, the offboarding phase, is all about solidifying the experience by reinforcing the key elements of the three prior phases, connection, feeling cared for, and engagement. Follow up with your clients and make sure you've delivered on everything well. If the nature of your business centers around a significant milestone, perhaps celebrate with your client by sending a gift, a handwritten note of feature on your website, or a spotlight on your social media channels. Include a personal thank you video with your feedback form and say hello from time to time after the work with you is done. It really does go a long way. 

So keep these goals in mind as you're working on elevating your client experience: create an immediate connection with your prospective clients during the inquiry phase, validate the sale with an open book style welcome, keep the engagement level high and honor the promise as you're working on deliverables, and lastly solidify the experience with further connection and engagement as you off board your clients.

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