I often say that the best way to develop and strengthen a relationship with a client is to meet with them in person -- at their office, in a restaurant, at a professional meeting, at a conference -- anyplace where you can have a face-to-face visit. What I actually say is:
You have to put your butt-print in your client's guest chair!
Email is a wonderful invention. Nothing else lets you distribute information so quickly to a group of people than email. Other communications platforms -- websites, FTP capabilities, Twitter, Facebook and others -- all lack the immediate contact of an email.
If you put something on your firm's website or a project website, your client has to be told the item is there, and he/she won't see it until they stop what they're doing and look.
If you put something into your client's FTP system, you still have to email them that the information has been posted, and there is still no guarantee that they will look right away.
Facebook is not the appropriate place for a technical document, even to let the client know you have posted information elsewhere. Not everyone has set up to receive emails about every posting on their page. That means they have to two Facebook and then elsewhere to get the information.
Twitter is the same. Pretty much all you can do in 140 characters is direct your client to a landing page to see the information. Again, this assumes they are watching every feed, every day, all day long, and will see you message and click through immediately.
But when you compose an email and attach files, the information reaches the recipient(s) within just a few seconds of clicking the "send" box. Still, they might not open it right away.
So the email may go unopened and the information will remain unread for a time.
I have learned that one of the reasons a client opens my email and attachments is the relationship we have built over time, and building strong relationships takes personal -- meaning "in person" or on the phone -- interaction.
First, consider the factor of time. Let's assume that resolving an issue involves questions that need to be answered, with each answer possibly resulting in a new line of questioning. Given the way many people look at emails (start of the day, lunch, end of the day, less frequently when they are on a deadline), this "conversation can take all day. But in person, or on the phone, the issue might be resolved in 5 minutes!
On the phone, via email or other platforms, it is too easy for someone to tell you what they think you want to hear just to end the conversation, and it is easy for someone to say something that is not true. You don't have the clues of body language and facial expression to help you.
But in person, you bring all your listening and interpretive skills to bear, and can tell whether the answer is true or not, complete or not, and when you have to probe for more information.
Finally, a visit to your client's office tells you a lot about what is important to that person. For example, if there is a picture of the client and a teen ager in a football uniform holding a trophy, you now have a subject for conversation, something that helps you make a friend of that client. You can send a congratulatory note when their child's team wins a game or a championship, which helps strengthen the relationship.
On the other hand, if the pictures on the wall are the client with the mayor or governor, you can watch for political news in which your client might have an interest, and send a link or scan of an article when you find one.
But how would you find out about those things if you never visited the client in his/her own office ("put your butt-print in the client's guest chair")?
Over the years, in addition to office visits, I have met my clients at a number of professional events and other locations, including:
- American Water Works Association - Texas Section Conference
- American Institute of Architects - Ventura County and Austin chapter meetings
- Society of American Military Engineers meetings
- SMPS meetings - sessions of 10+ chapters, multiple national and regional conferences
- SDA National Conference
- Conferences sponsored by ZweigWhite, Cosential and Deltek
Meetings like these are much more likely to show my contact (generally, a marketer or a project manager) that we have a common interest. If I am the speaker, as is often the case, the impact of a face-to-face meeting can be even greater because it presents me as an expert and provides an opportunity to establish or strengthen a client perception of my expertise and ability to help them.
In the almost 10 years of The Siben Consult, LLC, I have managed to meet each of my clients in person at least once; often, the venue was a professional meeting or conference. But my strongest relationships are with those clients I see occasionally and speak with often on the phone.
Even with my picture embedded in my email format, a picture is only worth 1,000 words, and that's not enough to establish, cement and grow a solid relationship. My willingness to drive across town or across the state to visit a client in his/her office is also a measure of the esteem in which I hold them and a recognition of their importance to my success.