Customer experience is what makes your business rock.
You might say it is money or cash flow, but I think I’ll still stand my ground on it being experience :).
What kind of experience am I referring to?
The experience a website visitor has when he first comes to your website.
The experience your leads have while you nurture them via email or social media.
The experience your clients have while working with you.
The experience you have as you build your business.
In case you’re still not convinced, let me break it down for you…
If a first time visitor to your site has a terrible experience, he will not…
- Convert to become a lead
- Come back to your site ever again.
If your leads are bored to hell with your email messages or social media engagement, they will…
- Not become your clients.
- Fill up space on your email list and take all the free stuff you offer.
- Unsubscribe
If you don’t serve your clients in the best way possible, they will either
- Cancel the contract or
- Not hire you again (no recurring benefits).
Most importantly, if you’re tired of your business, you’ll most likely just quit and go do something else.
So, if this is what happens in your business, where’s the money or cash flow?
It’s non-existent.
But you can deliver the best experience ever, to the extent that everyone will want more. You just need to know how to do it.
Here’s the secret sauce (with no pepper in it).
How To Use This Guide
This post is divided into four parts, each part treating an important part of an online service business. And the good thing is it’s broken down step by step. So you can start from the top and work your way to the bottom.
Why did I develop this guide?
We all want clients, and most of all make a lot of money doing what we do best. Because of this, we tend to follow and try to implement tons of tactics, forgetting that in business, the authenticity of human relationship is what drives success. This post was written to simply help you retain that human factor, while implementing all the tactics you want.
So, let’s get to it.
Website Experience 101: Grab Your Visitors By The Neck…Then Pull Them In
Image source: dailycannon.com
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to delivering a good website experience, but at least, there are a few things that always work. Delivering optimum web experience is not a onetime task. You have to continually tweak, adjust, modify, test and test again.
I did some “leg work” online to get you some of the best ways to deliver good web experience for your visitors from the word “go”.
1. Hone In On Your Message
Your client acquisition process starts from the first time they come as strangers to your website. And most of the time, they won’t land on your about page first, it’s almost always the homepage. That means whatever content you put on your homepage has to count.
You homepage content must answer the question, “Why am I here?” according to this article on BlogHer.
The answer to this question is what most of us get wrong. You shouldn’t be telling them why your business rocks, but what you can do for them. If a visitor lands your site and asks himself that question, your response should be, “I help you to…”
Get it?
2. Don’t Make Me Think
I have a million and one things to do with my time than to stay hooked on your website wondering what to do next. You have to tell me what to do next, says the guys at Name.com.
In other words, give me a call to action.
You’ve grabbed your visitor by the neck by telling him how you’re there to help. But you can’t stop there — you need to drag him in further down the rabbit hole. Get him to do something you want him to do. This could be signing up for your email list, watching a video, or just reading the next page.
3. Package Your Content With Good Responsive Design
Some websites look good on desktop but terrible on mobile. For some, buttons on the mobile version don’t work. This entirely depends on how the website was designed in the first place.
I design with WordPress, I use it for clients and I recommend it to people who ask. But WordPress is just the backbone. There are still a lot of terribly designed WordPress sites. What differentiates you and what makes your content more presentable is the theme you use.
In my completely biased review of StudioPress themes for WordPress, I state why I think it rocks for service professionals who want leads online. But I also state how responsive it is for mobile.
That’s because according to Marketing Land, 60% of internet access is mostly mobile. You don’t want to leave them out, do you? If your potential client has no “design obstacles” when interacting with your website, he’ll willingly join you on that jolly ride down your funnel.
Make Your Leads Feel Guilty
Image source: youtube.com
Have you ever felt guilty about not buying something from someone you like and trust? I have, and that’s exactly how you should make your potential clients feel.
Make them feel guilty about saying no to your paid service. Make them feel guilty about only asking for free advice every time. Make them feel guilty about not replying that email.
Turning this around, make them see every reason to become your clients.
How do you do this?
1. Create A Personal Connection
Coming out of long lasting friendships can be difficult, especially when you share a lot in common and have had fun times together. That’s what you should be doing with your leads; show them you have a lot in common and then have some fun times together.
In order to know what you have in common with your leads, you first need to know who they are. You need to know their troubles, their experiences, the things they struggle with. A lot of marketing experts would advise you to do a ton of market research to know this information. But to me, there’s nothing as simple as sending a single email that has the following text,
“I’d love to know more about you. Here’s a little about me…”
This has worked for me several times, especially in my welcome email for fresh leads on my list. Sometimes, the replies are long essays, at other times, they’re as short as two lines. But the important thing is that the initial interaction gets the process going.
2. Give Some Value First
We always have a “What’s in it for me?” approach to most things in life, especially when something is required of us. Well, for your service business, you’re the last person to have that approach. But bear in mind that your potential clients will. And you must deliver.
Everyone loves free information, and your leads aren’t exempted. You have to give them tons of free information that you could have otherwise sold for some bucks. But just how much free information should you give? Well, when you start to give in-depth step by step guidance that’s tailored to solve a specific problem, for an exclusive group of people, then you should sell that.
While the rule “give free stuff first, and you’ll get something in return” doesn’t always work, it opens up your leads to you and shows them that you’re out to help. Example of such value could be in the form of a lead magnet in exchange for their email addresses. It could be free training via email. Or perhaps links to sources for more information. Even free one-on-one consulting is enough value.
3. Remember Your Conversations
Subscribers often have the belief that you’re so busy, you probably won’t remember or notice who they are. Shock them! How? By actually remembering.
You’ll interact with some leads multiple times. If in some of your messages, you could refer to something previously discussed in a previous email or via social media, refer to it. This shows that you care. It makes them feel loved. If you asked for their birthdays, actually remember to send them an e-card on that special day.
If they told you they’re experiencing emotional issues due to the illness of a loved one, in a future email, ask about their wellbeing. It’s always shocking to see someone as busy as you remember them like that.
One more thing: as much as you want to help them, remain as professional as possible. Getting too personal has its downsides because you’ll also feel guilty selling to them at one point. The goal is to make your potential clients feel guilty, not you.
4. Sell To Them
This is the part that actually brings you the clients, but the part most people avoid due to their fear or objections of selling.
If you don’t sell to your already nurtured leads, then you can’t make them feel guilty for anything. Now in the real sense, you’re not actually selling, but showing them a solution to a problem they must have previously shared with you. The difference is, they’ll have to pay for it this time.
A much better way to make them feel guilty is to offer trial periods or discounted offers for a limited time. Copyblogger does this well by always offering discounts of new products to their existing customer base. It almost makes you feel left out if you’re not a subscriber.
Don’t Just Offer Services, Sell Your Personality
Image source: www.dailyhaha.com
You’re most likely not the best at what you do. There are definitely other people who are better than you in your craft. And your potential client knows this.
So why should they hire you in the first place?
You’re not just out to show them that you can get them the results they need. While that’s equally important, you also need to show them that they can trust you with their problems. Because of this, they need to be sure they’re working with a human and not some robot out to steal their money or take advantage of them.
You need to show them that not only can you take them from point A to point B, but that the journey in between would be unforgettable. Show them that they’ll enjoy working with you. How?
1. Use Client Testimonials
In order to sell your personality and not just the results you get, your client testimonials have to be a little different.
Testimonials of past clients should show three things: where they were before they met you, the results they got after they met you, and the experience they had while working with you. Not many testimonials have that last part.
When you ask past clients for testimonials, don’t let them give you something generic, especially if you worked with the client for a while. You could ask them to answer the following three questions in the testimonial:
- Before hiring me, what problem did you have that you wanted solved?
- How did I help you solve that problem?
- What did you find striking about our working relationship?
You can get creative with the questions, just ensure they tell about the experience.
2. Write A Client Case Study
Case studies are often extremely detailed testimonials. They show the nitty-gritty of work done and results achieved. However, apart from showing results, again, you should also show how you carried out the project.
How did the client feel during the project? How did you deliver? What did you do that other professionals don’t?
In other words, differentiate yourself.
Now after you must have done the above, how do you ensure an unforgettable experience for present clients?
3. Ask Them
There’s nothing simpler than asking. But most of us often overlook it and try to go the harder route.
A simple question you could ask is, “Apart from the results we’ll get in this project, how can I make it your best experience ever?” Not only would this make clients wonder, it’ll make them smile too because they don’t get asked such a question every time.
Some might say, “Always keep in touch”, or “I’d like to know how you make progress”. Whatever it may be, just do as they say, and add some extra.
4. Do What You Say You Will Do
It’s just that simple. If you say you’ll help double your clients’ personal income, then do it. If you say you’ll help them get their dream jobs, do it! It really can’t get any simpler than that.
Work On Your Own Terms, You’re The Boss
Image source: xcitefun.net
“Growing means learning to work on your business, not in it.”
– Forbes
For budding entrepreneurs, overwhelm tends to be the order of the day. From client demands to personal responsibilities, we’re practically employees of ourselves.
That’s definitely not the same thing as being the boss.
Clients are different. While some respect your time as a professional, other don’t. And the moment you give them the hint that you also don’t respect your own time, they won’t either.
Apart from building a business out of your passion and what you love doing, you also need to work with the right people and work on the right projects.
1. Don’t Put Your Clients On The Pedestal
Ben settle on his Antipreneur show, always yaps about this — Never make your client the boss; don’t kiss their “bootays” (as he puts it).
What this means in plain English is set your own deadlines, set your working hours, dictate how you want to implement the project (if they knew how to do it, they won’t come to you in the first place).
Sometimes all it takes to work on your terms is audacity. Be audacious enough to say this is how I want this project to go. Or this is how much I want to get paid. Yes you’ll lose a few clients, but you’ll keep the best of the bunch.
2. Build Systems And Automate
Sometimes, the best thing is to just take yourself out of the equation. But as a service professional, that’s almost impossible. Except you can trust a group of people to carry out tasks like you, you’ll have to do that work yourself.
However, you can choose to only concentrate on tasks that bring in the money, like doing the actual client work, while every other thing like social media, content marketing or updating your blog could be delegated to someone else on your team.
Sam Carpenter, author of “Work the System” (you should get that book by the way) advises on automating your business by creating procedures and systems that team members can follow. This way, they carry out tasks at a standard level.
Danny Iny has been able to achieve this by actually building a team to manage Firepole Marketing while he focuses on creating result-driven products for his audience.
3. Give Yourself A Break
This is one thing I still need to learn to do. Being the workaholic that I am, giving myself long breaks makes me feel guilty. But experts go on breaks/vacations and always advice it, so I’ll include it anyway.
If you’re a beginner professional who is just starting out to generate your first few leads online, you probably can’t afford this luxury. I can’t afford the luxury either.
However, here’s how I take breaks — I watch movies :D.
I’m an introvert, so I’m the “stay indoors with a laptop” kinda guy. I do enjoy going out, but only once in a while. So when I choose not to work, I either read something, watch a movie or just relax with some music…for hours too.
But this is not the kind of break I’m talking about here.
In Michael Hyatt’s “Best Year Ever” ebook that was released early this year (2015), some of the experts he interviewed take one week breaks and sometimes long vacations. So I believe, if you want to build the best business ever, take breaks. I’ll take a cue from this too.
What to do next
Ask yourself the question, “How do you want clients to feel after interacting with your business?” This could be with your website, on your email list or working with you.
The key is to not get too involved in the tactics of generating leads. Make it personal — add your personality to every process. Let your visitors feel they’re part of one big family and not one big machine. Only then will clients come back for more.
What steps have you made to ensure you’re building a business you and your clients love? Share your thoughts in the comments below.