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Client Relationships
Here at CTC one of our main priorities is being client relationship focused. We continuously strive to improve our client relationships throughout the growth process. We want our clients to feel that we care about their success and that we are a unified team. Below are some of the everyday practices we use to ensure long-lasting relationships with our clients.
Building bonds through problem solving
Our clients are our number one priority in our projects. Even though problems may arise we use them as challenges to help build our client’s trust. Problem-solving shows how we navigate through unexpected situations and how we conquer what’s in front of us.
Yesterday, the team was shooting on location for Native and a production situation came up, as they do. 48 hours before the shoot the team learned they would not get a permit for their location. This could have been a massive issue, but the team rallied together and ended up finding an even better location.
Client relationships are not built on how few issues come up, but on how you address and work through those issues.
Communicating with Clients
Being transparent with our clients is an absolute must. It’s important to have consistent and honest conversations on where our client is currently standing. We aim to understand all processes and always have a plan ready to implement.
One of Ally’s clients recently had a tough run, she was waiting to communicate with them until she understood the root causes. It would have been better to show them that she is in it with them, and that she’s working on the solution, rather than wait to be exactly right. This was a pivotal learning moment for Ally on why open communication is so important.
Another example of this is when RoadID had initially decided to take their creative efforts in-house. Ally reached out to ask why this hadn’t been a point of discussion with her. This kicked off a round of transparent conversation that ended with them not only keeping creative with us, but also adding Google services and boosting the value of the contract. Be direct.
Ask tough questions
Sometimes tough questions need to be asked to have a better understanding of where we can progress in our mission. This is why we conduct a deep dive into every client we have.
Overall, our clients really want to be heard. They want you to have all of the relevant information so they can trust you to make productive decisions. Asking questions, diving deeper, and getting them thinking about all the relevant information is helpful.
Build relational equity
Here at CTC, we believe that blame is rooted in the need to be right. Personal accountability is not the same as self-blame. Being able to distinguish between responsibility and blame is important. When you seek to blame yourself or someone else, ask yourself whether you’ll benefit from trying to be right.
Trent sent over an amazing podcast to Panagiota in an effort to convert her into a Tim Ferris fan. This is very applicable to how we communicate with our clients and with one another. It’s important that we move our relationships out of the transactional space into high-equity relationships built using emotional intelligence.
Make human connections
We are succeeding in this difficult time for a lot of reasons, but one is that we’ve connected with our clients as people which enables them to go on this journey with us. Making real human connections in an online/ internet fueled world shows that we believe authenticity is important. A human connection makes our client’s and consumers feel as though they are part of a humane community.
Prioritizing the relationship
Prioritizing our client relationships is extremely important to us. CTC wants our clients to feel that not only do we want the best for them but that we genuinely care about the success of their company. This is why doing our part to make you happy is of key importance in helping maintain a long-lasting partnership.
This week has been quite emotional for Supply on both sides. We had a big win this morning where we launched an offer earlier in the week where we ran a flash sale based on the delta in Dow prices. That was pretty complicated, so we pivoted to an offer where we are running a free year’s supply of blades with every razor purchase. This completely fixed the funnel; conversion is up almost 50% today.
On the other side, Patrick was under the impression that we would be managing his entire Shopify experience end-to-end. That wasn’t part of his contract and isn’t really something we have the resources to service. So, Kyle put together some options for Patrick based on contractors. This is incredibly poorly timed, since the last thing Patrick wants to do is spend more money. This was a little bit tone-deaf on our part. What we did get out of it was an opportunity to reset expectations. In the end, we elected to provide this relatively low-cost service through a contractor for no additional fee, which is worth it.
Understanding that clients are emotional
We understand that this time is an emotional time for all of us, and that we are all going through this hard time together. Recent world events, including the coronavirus outbreak, have an emotional impact on clients.
In addition to the anxiety involved, people’s businesses are being disrupted in a lot of ways. We’re here to provide a bedrock of confidence and expertise for our clients. We hope to help you regain a sense of control in these uncertain times.
Expectations
All of our clients have certain expectations that need to be met. We believe that we must uphold the standard we believe in. Failure is not a problem we fear, rather it’s the perception that we don’t genuinely care. The one thing we won’t stand for is providing anything less than the best service for our clients.
Bad is Stronger than Good
Always be open to receiving all types of feedback.The way we receive negative information versus positive information is important to pay attention to, especially this time of year. We’re doing amazing work together, let’s keep that front and center.
Check out this article: https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/social-cognition/bad-is-stronger-than-good/.
Taking Ownership
Asking for help is the number one way to build trust in the workplace. Number two is taking ownership. When a deadline gets missed, something gets misplaced, or there’s a break in communication, come forward and own it to build trust with your team.
Don’t Assume, Talk
Never assume anything in a given situation. Make sure you are clear and talk about any questions or ideas that you may have.
We’ve been capturing a little bit more new business than perhaps we were set up to handle. What got missed was communication between the different divisions. AW and Grant have had some great constructive arguments over the course of the past couple of weeks.
What it comes down to is being on the same page and talking to each other as much as possible. Don’t assume, you know what that makes you and me This has allowed us to pace out clients in a constructive way and keep the workflow manageable for opps.
Use Theory in Practice
Grant gets to spend a lot of time moving between theory and practice. He’s been working closely with mandi thinking about every different angle of our Retention offering in theory.
What hit him this week is that the excitement around that helps him think a lot harder about how the business works, and then when practice starts the theory drops off. He has the most momentum when he’s got a little bit of both.
Keep Hope Alive
To keep hope alive be honest with yourself and your managers. Sometimes it can take the edge off to explain our workload and see the situations from others’ perspective.
Chris learned about perspective and the stories we tell ourselves. He was dealing with overwhelm in terms of workload. He voiced that opinion, and everyone in leadership was responsive to find another buyer to work with him, and all the weight dropped away just knowing that. Even without the concrete change in circumstance, knowing that this situation is temporary has helped. We can always tell ourselves a different story.
The other big takeaway here is that our managers and leaders are eager to hear about how you’re doing and support you.