Suz Chadwick [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the Brand Builders Lab podcast.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:02]:
I'm your host, Suze Chadwick, certified business and mindset coach, author and speaker. Each week we'll be talking about simple but powerful business and mindset strategies that will help you build a lean, clean and profitable business so you can learn to get out of your own way and pay yourself more for get average. It's time to level up. Hey. Hey, lovely. Welcome back to the podcast. Awesome to have you here. Today we're diving into a topic that I've been chatting with quite a few clients about on our coaching calls and in my one on ones.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:38]:
And it's really about your customer experience and also great tech tools that can not only help you give your customers a great experience, but can help you make more money. So we love that, don't we? Anyway, I'm excited to dive into this topic. Hopefully you can also watch it on YouTube. I'm gonna be honest with you, getting into the process of podcasting with a video is taking so much more time, so we're definitely gonna have to work out our processes with it so that it doesn't become something that is a huge deal within the business. But anyway, you know something, it takes time to get better at a particular skill, so we're just gonna. We're just gonna roll with it. We're just gon. But listen, without further ado, let's just dive into this week's episode.

Suz Chadwick [00:01:31]:
If you're a coach, consultant or service provider, then creating a really great brand experience through managing your clients well, onboarding them well, managing the project well, as well as offboarding, et cetera, all matters. And so one of the things that I've been speaking to quite a few clients about recently is how they are managing their clients and the pros and cons of. Of having a really great CRM system that your clients can obviously be working with you through. If we've not met, I'm Suze Chadwick. I am a personal brand and business coach. I come from a consulting background where I used to work for one of the big four in the uk and I've also run my own brand strategy agency, amongst other things. So when I first started working with clients in the consulting space, I was using a product called 17 Hat. This was quite a while ago and so there are a lot of new CRMs that have obviously come into the space, but I just really wanted to talk you through the process and what you can be thinking about when you are quoting and managing clients.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:40]:
So the first thing is that by having a great CRM, the platform that I was using, really gave me a great workflow. And I think that when you've got a really good workflow, it not only makes life a lot easier for you, it also gives your client that's just decided to work with you a lot of confidence. Because the onboarding, the quoting process, the invoicing, the contract, et cetera, is done with ease in an automated way and just feels really good for them. So, for example, I would have a client that would come to me, tell me what their problem was. We would then create a quote for them that outlined if they were looking to do a brand project, then these are the different options that you've got. We can do the strategy, we can do the web design, the photography, the videography, the messaging, the delivery, the project management of it all, et cetera. And so when we delivered that to them as a quote within the CRM system, they were then able to pick which ones they wanted. So we could either do a package price or they could decide, yes, we want you to do the strategy, we want you to do the photography, videography, but we've got our own website developers or whatever else they can do themselves, themselves.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:54]:
And so by giving them that choice, they were then able to select it and they would get a price based on that. Once that price was decided and they accepted that quote, then the system would automatically send them a contract and an invoice. And the great thing was that with the system, we were able to decide what the percentage of invoice would be given to them at that stage of the project. So they would accept, accept the quote, they would get the contract and they could automatically sign that online, which would then obviously be housed in the CRM so that they could get access to that as and when they needed. And then based on the invoice, we'd say 50% paid up front and then 25% paid three quarters of the way through the project, and then obviously the final amount paid just before delivery at the very end. And so it gave us a lot of control and it gave the client a lot of transparency over the way that the process works, worked the contract information and terms, as well as what else we could potentially do for them, which I'll get back to in a second. So they would get all of that automatically. Then we would start to look at the project plan and what we were going to do for them.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:07]:
And I have to tell you, there were so many times that clients came back to me and said, suze, what system are you using? This is so great, it's automated, it's so professional, it makes life so much easier for us because we can just log into our portal and we've got all of our information there. And so, right, right from the word go, the client is like impressed. The client is having a great experience. And I think that when you are working, especially with high ticket clients, where it's into the several thousands, tens of thousands, having that experience at the beginning just reinforces that they made the right decision by working with you and choosing you. So I just want you to understand why this element is such an important element when you're taking on new clients. So that is the beginning of it. So now you've got your CRM, you've set up the automated workflow and you've got all the bits and pieces that make it really easy for you to now sign clients and onboard them. The next part is that within the CRM as well, we were then sending emails to the client, getting responses and all of that was being tracked so that there was never looking for emails.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:16]:
You know when you're like, oh, I know I sent that email, where is it? That just wasn't something that happened. When we were project managing clients, everything was in the CRM, they were able to refer back to it as well. And the other great thing is that with some CRMs, you can obviously add other people. So if we had contractors that were doing videography, photography, they were delivering things, then they would send it through and it would once again be housed in that client's portal so that we could then see it, the client could see it, et cetera, and you could manage some of the permissions so that you would let the client say whatever you wanted them to see and maybe not things that were not ready yet. Once the project was finished, we would then wrap it all up and we would close that project off and then the system would automatically send that client a survey. So we would usually do a check in midway through the project and just be like, how's everything going? Are we on track? Are we on budget? Is there anything else that we need to be discussing at this point in time? But then at the end of the project, we would have that survey that would automatically go to them so that we could make sure that, yes, we delivered on the project, they were happy with it. We got a testimonial, ideally a video one if possible. And so once again, that was automated and it meant that we were getting regular feedback, testimonials, videos, et cetera, from clients.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:37]:
So it was A great end to end process. So one of the other benefits that you may not think about is that we actually had clients where we had worked with them, we delivered the project and then say three, six, 12 months later, they would come back to us, they would have logged into their portal again because they've got access to it and they come back and they say, suze, you know how we did the project. But there were two or three things that we decided not to go to you for. We're actually keen to do more of that work, so how can we now do that? And so at the beginning of the project, it may have been budget constraints, they may have had in house, whatever the reason was, but now, six 12 months later, they're coming back and saying, actually, we do want to do that. So what we would do is that we would take those elements that they hadn't selected, create that into a new quote, and they would just accept that and we would then continue on with the new part of the project. And I found that really interesting that even just by suggesting all the things that we could do with the client, even if they were only going to choose a couple of things, it just meant that there were several times they came back and they did the additional work, which was amazing. And so just having this one system, this one CRM, whatever it is that you choose, there's ones like Pipedrive, Dubsado, 17 Hats, et cetera, there's lots of CRMs out there that you can use. Finding the one that fits your price, that does what it is that you need it to do, I think is just really critical if you are a coach, consultant or service provider that does end to end projects with your clients.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:11]:
Now, for me as a coach, I currently use Heartbeat. I was on Kajabi, I now use Heartbeat because I wanted everything to be in one place. And so with coaching clients, they're able to purchase their coaching package and then they're able to come into their own private client portal and it's just me and them in there, they've got all of their links that they need, et cetera, and then we've basically got each of their coaching calls. So each call or each section has the date, the notes, the recording as well. And so they can then come back to that, and I leave that there until we feel like it's a time where we might want to then get rid of that, but then the client can go and download their videos, copy their notes, etc, and so just having systems in your business that really allow for great customer Experiences. And an easy way for you to manage clients, I think is so important. And sitting down and working that out so that you're like, this is how we do it every single time. It's not different every time, but this is the way that we manage our clients.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:15]:
And really getting that system in place just means that they're going to have a more seamless experience. And even this year, one of the things that we're going to be doing is really going through all of our products and services and revisiting what that customer experience is. Because I know one of the really big trends this year is personalization. It's making sure that we are taking notice of the way in which we are bringing people into the business. We are managing them, connecting with them, and really helping them to have a great experience. So that is something we're going to be focusing on a lot more as well. And just surprise and delight. I'm a big surprise and delight girl.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:52]:
How do we give our customers a better experience? How do we, you know, surprise them with things that we know that they'll love? How do we kind of love on them a little bit more? Because, remember, your brand isn't just about what you do. It's about how you make people feel. And so we really want to be able to inject the feeling of professionalism, ease, organized person that they're working with, and also, like, just joy and happiness, not only for the results that we get our clients, but also for the additional little things that we love to send them to make them feel seen and special as well. So. So that is one thing that I would love you to really think about, is how are you managing your clients? How are you creating really seamless and amazing experiences through the onboarding, project, delivery, and offboarding? And what are some of the things that you can be doing that could really help you to stand out and make your clients feel amazing when they work with you? Let me know in the comments what it is that you're doing. Any of the CRMs that you've used that you really rate and think are amazing and have helped you run your business seamlessly and effortlessly, I would love to hear, and I hope that this.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:08]:
Podcast episode has given you some food for thought. You know, if it's something that you're really looking to do, I think that it's definitely worth doing a bit of a review of so that you can make sure that it's an asset in your business and not a liability as well. But listen, thanks so much for being here. Always love, love and appreciate you listening. I obviously would love you to leave a review if you haven't done one recently and share this with your community so that we can continue to grow our audience and continue to help amazing women in business like you to build a brand that sells for you. I'll see you next week.