Trust is an essential building block when it comes to forming a stable foundation with your clients. Without trust, you can’t build your brand, and without branding, your company is likely to stagnate. It all begins and ends with your clients, and how you treat them over the long haul will make or break your success.
It’s not enough anymore to have a great product or a shiny new website or a catchy slogan. With so much information at their fingertips, consumers demand and deserve to know not only about the product they’re purchasing but about the company that’s selling it to them. According to Inc., 73 percent of consumers say transparency is more important than price, and about 40 percent say they would switch from their preferred brand to one that places an emphasis on transparency.
A Competitive Landscape
Client relationships aren’t always easy to build. Consumers are a fickle bunch. They may like you today but not tomorrow. Consistency is the key here, forming a baseline for trust over many years, not just for one transaction.
As the industry and consumer marketplace evolves and becomes more complex, many more challenges and concerns are directly impacting trust between agencies and their clients.
It’s important to remember that clients have numerous digital agencies and partners to choose to work with. To say it’s a competitive landscape is putting it mildly. Standing out from the crowd by building trust is one way to get their attention. That’s just one of the ways Single Origin distinguishes itself from the rest with its high level of client service. Our digital agency strives to be a marketing extension for our clients, but this takes work and it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to commit to a trust-building strategy with your clients.
Tips We Live By at Single Origin
Here are some tips to help guide you along the way:
1. Always strive for the personal touch.
Account managers are often immersed in data, campaign Q/A, and creative assets and copy. Sometimes the human connection and relationship-building aspects are overlooked or taken for granted. Don’t completely rely on your project management tools because not everything can be automated. It takes work to stay connected with the client, building the relationship and always looking for that personal touch.
2. Stay the course
Agencies get renewals and long-term contracts when they build relationships with clients and gain their trust. The performance will have ups and downs which is why working on the client relationship (and maintaining it) is essential in account management.
3. Really get to know how your clients work.
Onboard yourself in everything related to the brand and campaign, but also to the clients themselves, including their communication style.
#4: Be a good communicator:
Constantly work on your communication, whether that’s having perfect grammar/spelling, making sure your emails are more direct and concise, or frequently checking in to ensure consistency. These regular check-ins can take place every few days or every couple of weeks, but they are great opportunities to stay organized with your client and respect one another’s time.
5. Create accountability with your deliverables and your clients.
When you say you’re going to do something, do it. Deliver the project on time and on budget. Set timelines and strategies that both sides agree are manageable and realistic for the respective workloads.
6. Embrace your role as the expert.
Confidence is key. YOU are the subject matter expert. YOU are there to make their company grow. Make sure they know your role and that you will bring them results.
7. Be yourself.
Focusing on all-business, all-the-time is not what makes you human. People trust other people, so show them that you can do more than just make projections and create a pretty website. This can be as simple as offering a recommendation on places to visit for their upcoming vacation and then checking in later to see how it went.
Closing
We’ll leave you with this quote:
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” —Stephen R. Covey
Contact Single Origin
Building trust starts with a well-designed website and continues with ongoing digital marketing expertise. Client success depends on the ability to anticipate needs and solve problems. We do all that and more here at Single Origin. Contact us today to learn how we can help you foster trust with your customers at 925-289-8879.