How can you ensure your clients feel valued and appreciated in IT Consulting?
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As an IT consultant, you know that your clients are the lifeblood of your business. But how do you make sure they feel valued and appreciated, and not just another invoice number? In this article, we'll share some tips on how to build strong relationships with your clients, and how to measure their satisfaction and loyalty.
Communication is key to any successful IT consulting project. You need to keep your clients informed of your progress, challenges, solutions, and expectations. You also need to listen to their feedback, questions, and concerns. Use clear, concise, and jargon-free language, and choose the appropriate channels and frequency for your communication. For example, you might use email for updates, phone calls for clarifications, and video calls for presentations. And don't forget to follow up and confirm any agreements or action items.
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gloria imomoh
Customer Support Representative ll Administrative Virtual Assistant || Passionate about Human Relationships
To ensure clients feel valued in IT consulting, be attentive, responsive, and provide personalized solutions. Communicate transparently, offer proactive support, celebrate successes, and show appreciation. Respect their time, seek feedback, and be consistently reliable. Remember, building strong client relationships is an ongoing process. By consistently demonstrating these qualities, you'll make your clients feel valued and appreciated in your IT consulting practice.
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Jonathan Balkin, CISA, CDPSE, SMC, LSSBB
Director, Intelligent Automation at KPMG | Generative AI - Machine Learning - RPA | Digital & Business Transformation - Technology Strategy - Program Management - Process Excellence
The best way to ensure your clients feel valued and appreciated in IT Consulting to listen. If you are taking the floor more than you are yielding it to your clients, adjust your approach: ask more questions, listen intently, recap points you've heard to confirm your understanding, and ask follow-up questions to clarify or encourage the client to expand further. Empathize with the client's concerns and challenges, and reiterate back to them that you understand the points they've made so they feel heard. Do not be so quick to jump to solutioning but instead establish a solid foundation of trust. Once you've made the client feel heard and comfortable, revisit the concerns and challenges and express how you intend to thoughtfully address them.
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Dr. Prajakta Dhote
Educator||Trainer||Blogger||Motivator||Linux||DBMS||DSA||DAA|| Computer Grapgics||Oracle||Operating System subject Expert
To ensure clients feel valued and appreciated in IT consulting: 1. Active Listening 2. Regular Updates: Keep clients informed about project progress, issues, and milestones. 3. Responsiveness 4. Transparency 5. Tailored Solutions: Customize your recommendations to meet their specific needs and goals. 6. Quality Work 7. Show Gratitude 8. Continuous Improvement and seek feedback. 9. Personal Connection: Build a professional, yet friendly rapport to make them feel comfortable. 10. Post-Project Follow-up: After project completion, follow up to ensure their satisfaction and discuss any additional needs.
Your clients hired you for your expertise and skills, so you need to deliver value and quality in your work. This means meeting the agreed deadlines, budget, and scope, as well as exceeding their expectations whenever possible. You also need to demonstrate how your work adds value to their business goals, challenges, and opportunities. For example, you might use metrics, testimonials, or case studies to show the impact of your work. And don't be afraid to ask for referrals or testimonials from your satisfied clients.
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Priyank Ahuja
Product Leader | Public Speaker (674 Keynotes) | Unstop's Top 10 Unstoppable Education & Career Influencers | GSS Mega Creator of the Year (Personal Branding) | Featured: ET & 𝟐𝐗 New York Times Square | ISB, NUS, SRCC
Keeping your customers happy is not a negotiable part of running a business. A valued customer is the core of your business. Without your customers, you don't have a business. So nurture every single one of them to best of your abilities. It's not even about customer service anymore. It's about building relationships, trust, engagement, and making a point to understand them as people. Not a sale.
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Anthony Geanoules
Digital Transformation|Technology Strategy & Solutions| AI and Machine Learning|Data & Analytics|PMO & SDLC| Low Code/No Code|Business Process Improvement|Change Management
Managing expectations is extremely important to managing your relationship with your stakeholder. Be very clear in what your delivering, when it will be delivered, and what is not in scope. It's very easy to take this for granted, but setting clear expectations at the onset will help reduce the risk of confusion and disappointment at project conclusion. This, of course, is dependent on delivering on your promise, which in my book, is table stakes - if you can't do the work, because you don't have the skills or capacity, don't sign up.
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Suleiman Bashir Sani
Senior Security Supervisor at ThriveAgric
Absolutely, customer satisfaction isn't an optional extra—it's the heartbeat of any successful business. Your customers are the bedrock, the very essence of your enterprise. Treat each one with utmost care and attention. It transcends mere customer service; it's about forging connections, instilling trust, fostering engagement, and recognizing them as individuals, not just transactions. Building relationships is the true currency of business success.
Your clients want to feel that you care about them and their success, not just the money they pay you. So you need to show appreciation and recognition for their trust, collaboration, and feedback. You can do this in various ways, such as sending thank-you notes, gifts, or discounts, celebrating milestones or achievements, or offering additional support or advice. You can also personalize your communication and appreciation by using their names, remembering their preferences, or acknowledging their interests.
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Priyank Ahuja
Product Leader | Public Speaker (674 Keynotes) | Unstop's Top 10 Unstoppable Education & Career Influencers | GSS Mega Creator of the Year (Personal Branding) | Featured: ET & 𝟐𝐗 New York Times Square | ISB, NUS, SRCC
There's nothing worse than trying to reach a company and having to wait days (or even longer) to get an answer to your questions. I get it. You're busy. But your customers are the livelihood of your business. So this isn't something you can ignore or put off. Whether you're an entrepreneur with zero staff or a large-sized corporation with hundred of employees - you can respond to your client's inquiries in a timely manner.
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Anthony Geanoules
Digital Transformation|Technology Strategy & Solutions| AI and Machine Learning|Data & Analytics|PMO & SDLC| Low Code/No Code|Business Process Improvement|Change Management
This must be a tenet of your culture. Celebrate successes, together with your stakeholder and be sure to recognize the hard work of your team. Call out key team members who may have gone above and beyond and sacrificed to deliver on time and on budget for the client. I also believe that sharing meals with your stakeholders, sending personalized notes and recognizing important events, really helps to build a personal relationship. This can be a huge differentiator vs. the other firm that is transactional and only picks up the phone to ask for business. We do business with people we trust and that we like.
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Suleiman Bashir Sani
Senior Security Supervisor at ThriveAgric
Absolutely, celebrating successes and acknowledging hard work is not just a practice but a cultural tenet. Recognizing the dedication of team members, especially those who go above and beyond, is paramount in fostering a positive work environment. Building personal relationships, whether through shared meals, personalized notes, or commemorating important events, is a powerful differentiator. It goes beyond transactions and transforms business interactions into trusted relationships. After all, we choose to do business with those we trust and genuinely like.
One of the best ways to ensure your clients feel valued and appreciated is to ask for their feedback and act on it. Feedback helps you understand what your clients like, dislike, need, or expect from you. It also helps you identify areas of improvement, innovation, or differentiation. You can solicit feedback through surveys, interviews, reviews, or ratings. And you need to act on it by acknowledging it, thanking it, analyzing it, and implementing it. You also need to follow up and show how you have improved or changed based on their feedback.
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Priyank Ahuja
Product Leader | Public Speaker (674 Keynotes) | Unstop's Top 10 Unstoppable Education & Career Influencers | GSS Mega Creator of the Year (Personal Branding) | Featured: ET & 𝟐𝐗 New York Times Square | ISB, NUS, SRCC
On the invoice or contract In an automatic email A written note A follow-up phone call We as humans adore praise. A simple compliment or ''thank you'' can make all the difference This is just another way to ensure you're creating a trusting relationship with your valued customer. Not only that, but you're actually making more money by thanking customers. Who knew!
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Anthony Geanoules
Digital Transformation|Technology Strategy & Solutions| AI and Machine Learning|Data & Analytics|PMO & SDLC| Low Code/No Code|Business Process Improvement|Change Management
Asking for feedback is a hugely underrated activity. It's impossible to improve who we are or how we perform without understanding what/where our improvement areas are. Honest and transparent discussions in this regard are also good ways to improve your relationship with your stakeholder as this generally builds on the trust you've established.
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Suleiman Bashir Sani
Senior Security Supervisor at ThriveAgric
Indeed, soliciting feedback is a valuable step, but the true magic lies in actively incorporating that feedback into your strategies and actions. It's not just about listening but also about evolving and adapting based on the valuable insights you receive. That iterative process of soliciting and acting on feedback is a key driver of continuous improvement and success.
Finally, you need to measure your clients' satisfaction and loyalty to see how well you are doing and how loyal they are to you. Satisfaction is how happy your clients are with your work, while loyalty is how likely they are to continue working with you or recommend you to others. You can measure satisfaction and loyalty through various methods, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), or Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). These methods help you quantify and benchmark your performance and relationships with your clients.
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Priyank Ahuja
Product Leader | Public Speaker (674 Keynotes) | Unstop's Top 10 Unstoppable Education & Career Influencers | GSS Mega Creator of the Year (Personal Branding) | Featured: ET & 𝟐𝐗 New York Times Square | ISB, NUS, SRCC
Respond to comments on your blog Participate in conversations on social media Retweet their tweets Engage them in conversations and keep it going Of course, boundaries in the way of business hours are necessary. But if you want to blow your competition out of the water, respond to requests, inquiries, and questions promptly. Most companies take 24-48 hours to reply to emails from their customers. So if you want a leg up on your competition, make a point to respond to those emails on a daily basis. Even as an entrepreneur you can hire an affordable virtual assistant to do this for you. The bottom line: You must humanize your brand. This means putting your face out there and engaging in every way possible!
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Suleiman Bashir Sani
Senior Security Supervisor at ThriveAgric
Precisely, measuring satisfaction and loyalty is akin to taking the pulse of your relationship with clients. Utilize surveys, metrics, and ongoing communication to gauge satisfaction levels. The insights garnered not only reveal areas for improvement but also provide a barometer for the strength of client loyalty. It's a crucial feedback loop to ensure your services align with their expectations and foster enduring partnerships.
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Priyank Ahuja
Product Leader | Public Speaker (674 Keynotes) | Unstop's Top 10 Unstoppable Education & Career Influencers | GSS Mega Creator of the Year (Personal Branding) | Featured: ET & 𝟐𝐗 New York Times Square | ISB, NUS, SRCC
Expressing gratitude and acknowledging customer loyalty is a simple yet effective way to show appreciation. Whether it's through a personalized thank you note, a special offer, or just a friendly phone call, these gestures show your customers that their loyalty is appreciated and valued.
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Akash Deep Nair
Senior Consultant @ EY | Helping CxOs & Technocrats in Building a Better Working World
What I can think of is a personalized solution that can help you tailor your IT solutions to meet your client's specific requirements and objectives. It shows that you have taken the time to understand their business and industry and offer recommendations that align with their goals.
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Christine Stevens
Helping Clients Achieve Seamless Accounting and Data Integration and Operational Efficiency through Strategic insights
I always begin my client calls with asking how they’re doing. It’s a simple gesture that goes so far. We’re all busy with our day-to-day and self-serving behaviors that we forget to check in with each other sometimes. Also, you never know what someone is dealing with outside of client interactions. Always be kind and if someone is being grumpy, rude, and nasty, try not to take it personally. 90% of the time it’s not about but whatever they got going on in their work environment or personal life.