August 29, 2023
Don: Hello and welcome to the Design and Prosper podcast. This is episode 92, and today we are talking about how to nurture your clients so they keep coming back for more.
[Intro Music]
Kris: Hey, welcome. Hello
Don: there. Welcome.
Kris: So today we’re talking about client nurture and how important it is, and we know that you all know that you need to nurture your clients, but we wanted to break it down a little bit because, you know, not tooting our trumpets. Yeah, let’s toot our trumpets. We were really good at it. We were good at it. You know, we were good at nurturing clients and they did keep coming back for more. Yeah. We had lots of repeat clients.
Don: Yeah. And it’s something that definitely comes naturally for Kris and I, but it is something that can be systemized. Like any part of a well-functioning business. There are many moving parts and lots of pieces that need to be all working together to be successful. And that’s why we love systems and the client nurture approach is not any different.
Kris: Mm-hmm.
Don: It can be systemized and you can learn how to do this.
Kris: So today we’re going to discuss a few of the ways that we have used, uh, to keep getting clients coming back for more. But it’s by no means an exhaustive list. Yeah. It’s a starting point. Yeah. And these are things that can be systemized, like Don was talking about before, they can be systemized.
Don: Absolutely. In fact, we needed them to be systemized because once you get busy, you start dropping the ball with this type of thing.
And it was something that was so important to us and the success of our businesses that we didn’t want that to happen. We didn’t want to start forgetting the key things about our clients. We want them to always feel seen and to feel heard. And in order to do that, we needed a little bit of help. You know, we need to be able to have a system that made sure that we checked in on our process with that.
Kris: Yeah. So the first one we want to talk about is to love bomb your client.
Don: Yes, please.
Kris: We love to love bomb.
Don: Love bomb everybody in your life
Kris: I mean, if you hadn’t noticed already. Like if you are new to us, get ready. We’re going to love bomb you. If you’re on our emailing list, yeah. We’re going to love bomb you as well. This is what we believe helps to make a really beautiful connection with clients.
And we’re not saying, if this is not part of your personality and you’re not a hugger and you’re not like lovey-dovey, it doesn’t mean that, no, this is not about that. But it makes your clients feel like they’re connected with you on a deep, intuitive level.
Don: Absolutely. And that there’s so much power in that. There’s so much power in being seen and being heard. You know, we are beings of emotion. Mm-hmm. We really are. And we ultimately make decisions based on those feelings that we have and not logic alone.
As people who are collaborating with another human, it’s, it’s just so important to get into that space with that other human and get to know them.
Kris: Yeah. And it can be tricky to think of how you can create positive experiences that result in long-term partnering with your clients. Yeah and the answer is through lots of lots and lots and lots of consistent acts of love and nurture and we like to call these heart-based processes.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. So like Kris said, we love to love bomb our clients and we are not talking about grand gestures. And like Kris said, we’re not talking about the hugs and things either. We are, literally talking about making sure our client is seen and that in itself is an act of love.
Yeah, where they really feel seen. One of the best testimonials that we get time and time again from our academy students and our one-to-one clients is they’ll say to us, I’ve never felt more seen. And when we hear those words, that fills our cup right up. It’s like, great. Job done. We have made sure that this person who is investing their money in working with us feels seen, and it’s just such a beautiful, powerful win-win for the client and for you.
Kris: Yeah. Yeah. So ways that you can give your clients a feeling of love is by knowing just a few facts about them and what their preferences are, Just be mindful of what your clients have got going on in their life. It’s even easier these days with social media, but you can start to pull the pieces together and start taking notice and really embrace that idea, that part of your job is to be a bit of a sleuth, an investigator, and really start to know them.
Don: Yeah. Absolutely. Because if you don’t know a little bit about what’s going on in your client’s life, and we don’t think you have to get right in there and be nosy and all the rest of it.
And creepy, don’t be creepy. But just really understanding the layers that they’ve got going on will avoid things like you feeling like they’re ignoring you or ghosting you, or you know, when things start to go a bit pear shaped with the client relationship.
Sometimes it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your processes. It’s all about what’s going on for them. And likewise, it could be great things that are going on. They’re on holidays, they’re their, their child’s having a birthday, you know, so they’re distracted if you know what’s going on in their life even loosely.
It will help you to really understand where they’re at and how present they can be for you in your processes as
Kris: Yeah. So how do you do this? How do you do this even potentially if it’s not easy for you to take notice and some of us aren’t like that, but what you can do is systemize it. So we have a system for this that helps you keep track and take notice. Because it really is those little things that make a huge impact on people.
Don: A hundred percent. And it’s kind of part list, part journal, and it’s a living and breathing document. So you keep adding things as you notice new things about your client. And as your relationship grows with the client, there’ll be some changes in their life that intersects with their business because our lives and our businesses intersect big time, right? For a lot of us designers who are solopreneurs and life and business intersect fully. So that’s going to happen for your client as well, especially on a long journey, and in a long relationship with a client, there’s lots of intersection that’s going to happen, so, so this beautiful little tool that we’ve created helps you to, to keep on track with that, you know?
Kris: Yeah. And so we do it really simply. We use a very simple spreadsheet and we make a copy for every client and we pop it into their client folder. And like Don said, it’s a partly part journal and we start taking notice and we have some categories that we have pre-filled just in case they pop up as ideas as well.
Don: Yeah, like we add their birthday, do they have a partner, what is their partner’s name? Do they celebrate an anniversary? What is their business anniversary? Little things like that. How do they like their name pronounced?
That’s a big one. Kris and I are always checking in with our new clients. Am I saying your name correctly? If we have a discovery call with somebody, we’ve never met them before, we want to make sure that we get their name. Correct. Because what will happen is they might be too polite and shy to correct you, and then three months down the track you’re calling them Sarah instead of Sara.
And then somebody else will say their name and get it right. And you’ll be so embarrassed and they’ll be like, oh, it doesn’t matter. It does matter. It really matters. It matters that we get these things right and that we don’t have any discomfort for our clients whatsoever. Yeah. So little things like that.
Kris: Yeah. Write it down phonetically even so that you don’t forget, because it can be really easy. To forget that sort of thing if it’s not written down.
Don: Yeah. There’s some gorgeous names out there. Honestly, Kris and I come across some gorgeous names and gorgeous souls, and we do not know the pronunciation of some of them, so we have to check in. So do they have children? Do they have fur babies? You know, do they have a favorite flower or are they allergic? To flowers so you wouldn’t be love bombing them with a, a gift of flowers if that’s the case. Do they have a favorite scent, you know, for candles and things like that?
This was a big one when we had our businesses back in the day where we had a lot of client meetings in house.
Kris: Mm-hmm.
Don: How do they like their tea or their coffee or what is their favorite beverage? This can extend to clients that you don’t meet with regularly, but find out where’s their favorite coffee shop.
Do they like to have a pastry? Are they gluten free? You know, Things like that. So if you do decide to love, bomb them, you know, through the process. It might be getting hectic or whatever, and you might just want to send them a little coffee voucher and say, treat on me. We are pacing out the last stage of this project and yeah, have a little coffee and a treat on me, and it’s to their favorite coffee shop, you know?
And they’ll be like, wow, you remembered, you know, I mentioned it once and you remembered there’s so much power in
Kris: So much power in that. And the power is your clients are really feeling like you intimately know them without being creepy. Yeah. But it, and it’s just a few little facts and preferences and it’s just really plays up to the fact that people, we love to be heard, we love to be seen, we love to be understood.
Don: Yeah.
Kris: It’s a beautiful way to build love and connection, and it doesn’t take long. Yeah, but you start doing it with intention and you observe.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. Now notice that the majority of the things on the list were all personal, not not about their business. Now you can have business category as well.
You can have their birthday for their business and things like that. But generally, this is about the person. This is the human to human nurture. You know, that’s, that’s what we are looking for here,
Kris: So another thing that we have used to really help nurture our clients is welcome gifts.
Don: Love a welcome gift. Love it so much. You know, welcome gifts at the beginning or the end of a project as a thank you gift. So top or tail, either way or both. If you’re so inclined. They’re a really great way to make clients feel loved and appreciated.
Kris: And it doesn’t have to be expensive. Like it could be like Don mentioned before, it could be as simple as a coffee voucher and you know, like, here’s a coffee on us and thank you.
Or, welcome. Have a welcome cup of tea, whatever it is. And Just some bonus points. If you know what their favorite coffee shop is, you could actually send them straight to there or send a voucher from there. Or get a delivery from there. Like it could be a really fun and you know, it’s like, it’s such a little thing, but it’s really unexpected.
Don: Have fun with it. Like your presentation day, for example, you might order a coffee and a cake from the local bakery and have it delivered just prior to your zoom presentation, and then just say, so sit back, grab your cup.
You know, as long as you know what they, they’re liking to drink and that kind of thing, that’s, that’s what the nurture sheet’s all about. Right? You’ll know. You’ll know exactly what they like, what their preferences are, and it will land. Just before the presentation starts, and it’ll be like you’re servicing them in house. Iit’ll have that beautiful connection.
Kris: Yeah. You could actually go one step further and make it a real part of your process to ask that question. On the brief, What is your favorite beverage? How do you like to have your coffee? We actually have a suggestion on our brief, which is just coffee or tea, but it could be something else, something that’s aligned to your personality.
Don: That’s it. I love that. I love how Kris has mentioned that we like to be conceptual with this. So if you were to deliver a cupcake to their office, you could be, you could be strategic about their brand. Or we could flip it and it’s your brand. So if your brand was a cupcake flavor, what would it be? And you hand that over and that’s a lovely, gorgeous thread that links back to, to who you are.
Kris: Yeah. I love that. It could be just say your, your brand is yellow. You know, the, the icing could be yellow.
Don: Yes.
Kris: Yeah. Who knows? It could be something as simple as that just to align to your brand. Love it. Yeah.
Don: Love that so much. So we also love gifts that include your branding as a consistent reminder of who you are. You know, that little thing that stays there.
Kris: Like it could be a custom branded candle, for example. Coffee mugs. I mean, don’t knock a good coffee mug.
Don: I love a coffee mug. Yeah, absolutely. Just make sure it’s aligned with your brand messaging. So whatever it is, it’s all about you. You’re leaving a little piece of your brand behind.
So it’s your personality, it’s your aesthetics. Like Kris said, it’s your color. You know, if your brand has a gorgeous yellow in, it could be just this gorgeous yellow coffee mug with just a little note on there, messaging note on there about your, your business.
Kris: So it needs to have a twofold appeal there. It needs to reflect you as a business, and it also needs to be in alignment with who your target audience is as well. So you really need to consider them. Who are they? What would they like? It might not be a mug, it might be a water bottle or something.
Don: Yeah. What would they use?
Kris: What would they like to have in their office?
Don: Are they going to just pop it on a shelf or pop it, you know, in a cupboard? What, what would they actually have out? On their desk that represents your brand. So yeah, be strategic about it.
Kris: Yeah. We want them to be really happy to have this thing permanently in their lives as a constant reminder of who you are.
Don: Like I absolutely loved Kristine’s first business. They did coffee mugs and we got Kristine’s coffee mugs in our design studio. We, we had their coffee mugs in our design studio and we loved them. Had them for years. You know, we had to make sure that we didn’t take them out to client meetings.
Kris: It would’ve been very confusing for your clients.
Don: It’s like what? Competitor mugs? But we love our competitors. They’re not really, they’re our friends. But yeah it was fun. It was a, a really fun branded coffee mug that we had and we, thought of the girls every time we had our cup of tea. It was really, really great and really powerful. And it says a lot that another design firm had another design firm’s coffee mugs in their kitchen.
Kris: Yeah.
Don: They were gorgeous, so, and they were fun. So just remember, think about the audience, think about what they will use, and you know, that’s what happens. They will be thinking about you. When they use that coffee mug or when they burn that candle, or whatever the case may be.
So that’s what we want. We want that lovely connection. So fun. Mm.
Kris: All right. We’re just going to take a quick moment to listen to a testimonial from one of our academy people.
[Testimonial]
Mia: So before I started doing the academy, I feel like I was really in the beginning stages of like, I. Being a designer and having my own business. And so I had not the slightest clue like what I was doing. I am not a good student, so I was a little nervous about spending so much time, like kind of in a, a lecture type thing, but I found that I ended up really enjoying it and paying attention to like every single sentence. Which to me is like, Really shocking and good because it shows that it was not only like engaging and taught really well, but it was content that I actually wanted to learn about. And that was actually so helpful. And I love the q and a sessions because I’m a big, like question asker and a big talker, and I love kind of the conversation aspect of that.
I think it is so worth the time and money because there’s literally so much valuable information. packed into each session that it’s really invaluable. Like I can’t even put a price on it. And also the fact that you make connections with all these other designers, like all around the world in different time zones and everything, it was really valuable to not only be have that like little community of people you can always ask questions to, but I’ve referred people to some of the designers I’ve met in the academy because maybe they’re more local to them, or I know that they would do the job better than me for whatever reason. So I think it’s so worth it.
Kris: Okay, we are back.
Don: Yay. All righty. So another one. We love a client portal. Yes.
Kris: So this is really important in helping clients feel nurtured because it makes them feel part of the process and also makes them feel really safe.
Don: That’s key. That is key right there, that word safe. When a client feels safe and they feel like they really know what’s going on, they feel confident that everything’s being really well managed and that they’re being looked after. They relax. Yeah. They relax and allow flow. And what you want as a creative being is to be able to get into flow and stay in flow.
Kris: Yeah.
Don: You know, we don’t want to be always putting out little fires where clients are panicking or worried or concerned. So it’s our job to make them feel really safe.
Kris: Yeah. We don’t want them feeling like, oh, what’s happening next? Yeah. Because we all just want to feel looked after. You think about when you work with somebody and if you have no contact and there’s no kind of connection between you and them throughout the process, it can feel quite isolating and confusing. So we want everybody to feel safe and sound really secure in the process.
Don: What’s happening next. Exactly. And inside the client portal is also opportunity for love bombing inside the portal. You can have a beautiful welcome. Message in there. We’ll talk a little bit about that further in the podcast. But you could house your welcome message in there. You could house a beautiful welcome guide in there, which is a form of a love bomb.
You could have little gift in there when you, when you send them a little gift, you could have a little note in your, in your client portal. You know, look out something’s on the way,
Kris: Or that little section of the portal could be like the voucher is housed in there, here’s your voucher, and they can click right on and go get their little voucher or whatever it is.
Don: Yeah. Beautiful. So we’ve actually done a podcast all about portals and the power of portals.
So for more information on client portals and and, and how to use them and the power of them, head to podcast episode 60. The real reason your clients are difficult. Yeah. You know, they just don’t feel safe. Yeah. Yeah.
Kris: And the answer to that is a client portal. Yes. A side note.
Don: Yes. And you can grab our free client portal if you haven’t done that already.
Go to designandprosper.co/free and grab it. It’s there. It’s got some ideas in there for you to play with straightaway.
Kris: Yeah. And while you’re there, download our other goodies as well. ’cause there’s lots of good stuff there. We keep creating things and popping it in there. Yeah. Yeah. Download them all.
Don: Yeah, they’re all yours. That’s our love bomb to you. Right? That was very meta, Kris.
Kris: Oh yeah, there you go.
Don: Nice one.
Kris: Wwe want to make sure you feel loved and nurtured as well.
Don: Yeah, yeah.
Kris: All right. So another one is to have regularly scheduled touchpoints. So this is so important if you have a long drawn out process, which is often the case with graphic design projects because they can go over to, you know, four to six weeks for a big branding package.
And with that, if you have radio silence, With your client from point A to point B. So point A being that big briefing session to point B, being you’re presenting the thing that can be unsettling for the client and they can feel like they’re all left on their own throughout this process and they lose excitement and an enthusiasm for the project.
Don: absolutely. So a little message, a little touch point where there isn’t a requirement that they get back to you, it’s just you love bombing them, just saying, you know, Hey, we are so excited. We’ve started on the research phase of your project and we have, it’s so juicy, we can’t wait to share. Full stop, end of story.
You know, and they don’t have to get back to you other than say, oh, yay. Great. There’s no pressure for them to, to come up with a response. These type of love bombs are just about you giving to them.
Kris: Yeah. And you can do this via your client portal. A little message inside there. You can do it via voice message.
And we love Voxer V O X E R for this. Or you could do a little loom message. Yeah. Even like a little video of like a screen share of this is where we’re at. We’re just about to dive into Pinterest. Like, it doesn’t need to be the big reveal.
Don: Yeah,
Kris: but it can just be like a little extra dimension, a little bit of extra, sensory delight with the, the video and the voice and all that sort of thing. But that is next level. No pressure.
Don: No pressure. But I love that so much. And I think that clients really, really appreciate it. So there’s, there’s two ways you could do it. You could do that where you are speaking to your process, you are speaking to their project, and it’s about the path that you’re taking them on.
Because you’ve paid attention and asked some questions in your client love sheet and you know a little bit about them. Maybe they’re a dedicated yogi and there’s a yogi conference in their city or their town, and you’ve noticed that you could just send them a little message via Voxer saying, Hey, thinking of you.
Having so much fun on this project, but did you know there’s this yoga conference that’s coming your way or. There’s this musician that I know you love. You know, tickets are on sale now for that musician and, and it’s like, wow, you are really thinking about me. Not only are you thinking about my project, but you’re thinking about me, the person and what I love and what lights me up.
And, you know, those, those little touch points can be just, Really, really beautiful so you can systemize them for the business sort of touchpoints. We like them to be regular and systemized, but if anything organically floats in, like, you know, the, their, their favorite musician’s going to be in town, perfect, gorgeous, organically aligned to one of your touchpoints. Wonderful. Let them know.
Kris: Make sure you schedule it in through the process so that you don’t forget to do these touch points. Yeah. It can be scheduled in your calendar in the backend so that you know that you’re going to get a reminder and that Oh, it’s time to touch base.
Don: Yeah. Make them feel loved. That’s right. Now don’t force it if something for them personally doesn’t come up, is what I’m trying to say. Because you can just speak to your process all day long.
Kris: It could be like I’m exploring, typography today. It is so exciting it’s interesting. I think more and more industries are actually doing this now. Just happens that today my car is in for a service and, thank you Don. She and picked me up on the way to the podcast studio.
And the place where I get my car service, they send a little video throughout the day of what’s happening. It’s, it’s so funny. It’s like under the car, like they go under the car with their little camera, their phone or whatever, and then it’s sent via a link to my phone. It’s like, this is what we’re up to.
Don: to. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t know that. I love that.
Kris: And it’s like, okay. And it makes you feel more, cared for. I feel cared for and nurtured that they’re on top of it and they’re talking through it. This is what we’ve done. We’ve changed the water here, we’ve done this.
Don: awesome. I love that so much. That’s gorgeous. And so unexpected in that industry.
Kris: Right? Unexpected.
Don: So unexpected, but delightful. Yeah, love a surprise and delight. Love it. Love it.
Kris: All right, onto the final suggestion we have for you today. And as we mentioned earlier, this is not a complete list. There’s lots of other things that you can do, but something we really wanted to talk about is, and, and this is actually linked to the previous one, it’s a major touch point that we recommend prior to presenting the final solution, and that is to have a brand strategy, board presentation or a mood board presentation. Whatever you call it. We call it brand strategy board.
Don: Yeah.
Kris: Yeah. And what this does is it makes the design process really fun and collaborative and it’s really, it makes the client feel like they are actually collaborating with you on the project.
Don: Yeah. That’s right. You are inviting them in because remember, they’re living and breathing this business. Right. Yeah, they’ve handed over the reins to you to create a visual representation of their verbal brief, and it’s a visual representation of basically their heart pumping on a desk most times.
So it really does fire them up in such a beautiful way when you share this process with them and we make it a very systemized, formal part of our process where we get signatory on that. We get approval to proceed to the next stage for that because we want to make sure that that is the direction that we go in and that the client is on the same page as us, and often so many times.
Almost a hundred percent the answer is in the brand strategy board. Yeah. To whatever we’re working on that there are clues in there that are so profound and whenever we get lost, whenever we lose our way in that next creative phase of, of branding or, or any creative process, really, we go, okay. Back to the brand strategy board. The answers are there.
Kris: Yeah. You may not have heard of an inspiration board being referred to as a brand strategy board before, but that’s our, what we call it, it’s our process, and it is very systemized. It’s highly, highly conceptual, and it is a beautiful way to start a branding project. Any project really, but a first client project and.
That’s something that we cover in the academy. We cover it over two modules actually. It’s that important. It is a big one. And it’s a really, really fun way for designers to do brand strategy without all the brain strain, reports and all the things. It’s detailed, but it’s so fun for a designer to do. And really fun for a client to receive.
Don: It’s strategic. Yeah. It’s intellectual and creative and strategic. Hence why we call it brand strategy board. So there’s lots of strategy in there, but it doesn’t have that dry heavy nature that can sometimes be expected in that type of process. So we are really excited about it, but from a love bombing and nurturing perspective involving the client in this part of the process, we can’t stress enough. How beautiful it is to get them fully on board and it takes them one step closer to that full body yes. Which is what you are after.
Kris: Yeah. It gives them a chance to have real input without it being a big burden for you. And a big pain in the bum.
Don: Yeah. I mean, you’re going to do this anyway, right? Yeah. We would’ve been doing this part of the process anyway, so to actually invite the clients in and share that with them while being strategic about it and really quite articulate about our choices inside, then they get to be a part of it as well.
Because why not? We want them to. We want them to be that one next level up, committed to our process.
Kris: Yeah, it, it gets ’em really excited for what’s to come next.
Don: Absolutely.
Kris: All right. That brings us to the end of our key things that you need to ensure your clients feel loved and nurtured, and we’d love to hear from you. What do you implement? Maybe there’s something that you love to do that we haven’t mentioned and we love, we love to hear your thoughts and ideas around any of our podcasts.
Don: There’ll be so much because this is a, such a short and sweet little list. There’d be so many ways that you can love your clients up. Just be creative about it and think about how your messaging fits in with the loving up and making sure that you are seen and heard as well.
Kris: Yeah, Actually, you mentioning messaging, again, that’s a bonus point. That is really important for clients to feel seen. Your messaging needs to be worded in a way that makes them feel like, okay, this person has totally got me. I, I feel like these, this is the only designer I can work with because they see me.
Don: absolutely.
Kris: So making sure your messaging is. Absolutely on point as well. So important.
Don: Yeah. Nice little bonus point
Kris: Yeah.
Don: All right, lovely. If you have any questions whatsoever, we would love you to ask them via our website, design and prosper.co/podcast. There’s a little spot there where you can leave an audio question for us, which we love, love, love. So please do that. Otherwise, you can type it. You can be anonymous. You can introduce yourself, you know. Up to you. Whatever you’d like to do. But we would love to hear from you.
Kris: Yes. And also, if you have a moment to spare, and if you are enjoying the podcast, we have so many people reach out to us to say thank you.
Thank you, thank you for what you share on the podcast. Well, it would really help us if you leave us a review and subscribe to our channel on whatever you are listening to us on. And. Yeah, we, would really, really appreciate that. Yeah. So thank you.
Don: We would love it. Thank you.
Kris: We read everyone, so thank you for the people who have already done it.
Don: Yes, we love it. Yeah. Thanks so much. Okay. Until next time. Bye. Bye.
Kris: Bye!
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