Do you have a repeatable process to get new clients? And do your existing clients rave about you and tell everyone who asks how great you are?
If not then you are doing something very wrong!
The Problem
Without a repeatable way to get the right clients you cannot build a sustainable business. And without a way to turn clients into raving fans you will always struggle to scale your business.
We all know that getting a new client is so much harder than hanging onto an existing one. And yet over 80% of SMEs in the UK are unhappy with their accountant. If those are your clients then they will not rave about you, will be looking to move if they can find an easy way to do it and will eventually become difficult clients to work with.
Why do all the hard work of getting a new client only to have them slowly turn unhappy?
The problem is that most business owners do not have a consistent way to turn prospects into raving fans. They do not have a detailed process to bring clients in and make them very happy – so business is a little ad hoc and harder than it should be.
The Solution
All businesses need a carefully constructed Customer Journey. This is the journey a prospective client takes from initial awareness of your business, through to conversion into a paying client and on into becoming a raving fan.
Even though you run a service based business it is important to consider this as a customer journey and your services as products. By productise your services and starting to think of your client like a customer buying a product you will more easily be able to map out the journey and build the process you need.
It is important to have an end to end process as people want products they understand and they want to be happy with what they are paying for. They have lots of options and the internet means they can look at all their options in seconds.
The Optimal Value Process
We teach our clients the Optimal Value Process – our method for creating an end to end Customer Journey. We use it to help our clients create exceptional value for their clients and grow strong sustainable businesses.
There are two parts to a Customer Journey – before they sign up with you and after they sign up with you.
We all want great quality, good price, special service and a top notch experience. All that takes time and effort for a business to get right so many businesses focus on only getting part of the equation right.
If you want to convert prospective clients into paying clients and then into raving fans then you need to build each step of the process carefully to ensure nothing is missed.
If you get the whole process right your business will stand out and become known as the best in your area or niche..
The Elements
The Optimal Value Process is broken into the following elements:
- Initial Awareness – where they first come across you.
- Engagement –when and how they engage with you.
- Connection – you connect with them and start a conversation online or offline.
- Meeting or call – you talk face to face or in a call and start your sales process.
- Conversion – from first meeting/call via a mutli touch process they buy into your product and business and make a purchase
- Upsell – you have identified what they need so you can genuinely and honestly sell additional products/service to ensure they get what they truly need.
- On-boarding – a straightforward system to bring a client on board, complete all processes and teach them the best way to make the most of working with you. Show them what you need, when you need it and how you need it so you can provide the best service possible.
- Service/product delivery – you deliver on the promise implicit in your marketing and sales process and give them the best product/service and the best customer experience. First class delivery and first class customer service at all times!
- Raving Fan – by giving service above and beyond what they expect and following up with amazing ongoing customer experience you are turning them into raving fans. Time for reviews, recommendations, referrals and testimonials.
This is the Optimal Value Process flow:
Create Exceptional Value
These are the top level elements and each one will have sub elements. For example let’s consider the Conversion element – converting people requires you to have easy to understand services that you have productised, a clear pitch, answers to questions and a repeatable sales process to take people through – along with a few other sub elements. You can see the logic flow here.
Each element and its sub elements are designed and created to deliver a smooth Customer Journey and exceptional Customer Experience. (The Customer Experience process will be detailed in a follow up article)
Next Step
Audit your marketing, sales, on-boarding, client processes and your customer service using the elements listed above. First determine what you are doing and what you are not doing.
If you look at your processes and see that you are not doing something then you can start to build that in to your Customer Journey.
If you look at steps you are doing and find that you are losing people consistently at one point in your current Customer Journey then this will highlight where the process needs more work.
You will also see that if you have some of the early steps missing then that is probably the gap that prospects are falling through and why you are not speaking to enough of the right people.
Each step counts. Do them all consistently to a high level and you will attract, convert and keep the right clients. And turn prospects into raving fans!
Have a great day.
Angus
We help the owners scale up, build a more profitable and sustainable businesses and get more free time. We provide Business Coaching, Advice and Training to help you get clear on the route forward, create the plan and develop the systems to take your business to the next level now. With Clarity, Certainty and Confidence.