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» Saturday Article: How to handle client contact?

 May 10th, 2008 | Filed in: Articles, Business |

It’s a very vital part of the web designers daily routine and a very important one. It’s all about handeling the client contact in the right way so that you’ll end up scoring the jobs you want and making sure you have happy customers at the end of the day that are willing to refer you to potential new clients, the best free advertising.

You can definitely divide client contact into a couple of different categories. Here I’m going to focus on client contact over the web and internet and not so much over the phone. Why you may ask? Well, mainly because myself, I don’t speak a lot on the phone with my clients because it is easier to portray thoughts etc. through text and images on the computer. The one time I may speak with a customer over the phone etc. may be when they are signing up and we might be discussing the start of a project.

Client Contact on the Computer

Politeness is the key everywhere and over the computer it is very important to stop a moment to think about what you are writing and that everything is correct. However, a word of caution from the start, you may get a good working relationship with your client if you don’t draw up the strict business front each time. Be friendly and care about your client. It’ll take you a long way right from the start.

Now, the first time you’ll probably be e-mailing a client will be when you are responding to a price quote request. This is where we definately need to make the impression of what we are and that we can do the project. Make sure you are using proper wording and that you sound polite and serious.

Also, when talking over email having something like a good preset company signature is a great thing. It may sound really simple but it will up your status quite a bit when someone sees it. It’s all adding to the seriousness.

Now there are also other ways on the computer such as live chat. I do prefer live chat and email at the best but there is nothing like email when it comes to plans. If you are also using live chat or any messenger programs. Make sure to have the logging turned ON! You definitely will need the hard copy of the things you’ve talked about, even though you might think you’ll remember.

Client Contact on the Phone

Only do over the phone contact on initial project talks. Talks that are basically about the main layup of the project which doesn’t really require any ”support”. When you’ve started working on the site and the user perhaps gets an error etc. then is not the time to do over the phone support because chances are that you’ll never solve it in that time nor with the un-detailed information you can provide over the phone.

The same applies however on the phone as on the computer. Be polite and friendly. Make sure your voice and tone sounds like it as well because that’s what is going to make the first impression. How you sound like.

General Tips

• Business Signature: It just makes it all seem so much more professional and serious! Make sure the needed information is included like email, website, position etc.
  
  
• If you know you are going to be talking to a person on the phone, warm up a bit before, read some text aloud or anything that’ll get your mounth moving and warmed up. You’ll sound so much more confident.
  
  
•  Organize emails and logs. Make sure you know what you are saying to the client about their project and don’t mix it up with others.

Generally speaking, thinking about what you are doing and where you are going is a great starter and some of these tips might get you a little bit further into the development. These are things, smaller or larger that I’ve picked up over the years and noticed becoming more and more important.

With the right relationship with your client, you can start getting many different clients, from your clients and so on. It’s really a good free way of advertising for not much more effort per client.

Tags: Article, Business, Client Contact |  Print Post     

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