Setting the Stage for an Elevated Client Experience with Lisette Harrington – PODCAST EPISODE 54

In today’s episode, Lisette and Taylor cover how to create an elevated client experience – and what that means for you as a business owner. Lisette shares her secrets on how to set expectations without icing out your client, what goes into a client welcome guide, and what project management software she recommends. Lisette is an incredible web designer/developer and works closely with her clients (and the clients of her clients!) to create the best experience possible. You can find her HERE.

Setting the Stage for an Elevated Client Experience with Lisette Harrington

Lisette Harrington is a brand strategist and web designer that helps creative entrepreneurs transform an off-key online presence into an elegant and refined brand persona that resonates with their dream audience. She specializes in brand strategy, to help small businesses define and infuse that “know, like, and trust” factor into their brand persona, which also helps in designing gorgeous websites that convert. In the industry since 2013, she’s built countless personal blogs, business websites, e-commerce sites and more, while ensuring the customer experience ends on a high note.

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BULLET POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• What does hustle like a mother mean to you?
  • I’ve always said that moms are superheroes without capes. Moms that have businesses are like super-duper superheroes. I just, I don’t know how they do it all. And not just doing it all, but thriving in itself is an amazing feat. So I hope to one day be able to see that I hustled like a mother because when I reached that status, I think I can call myself a superhero.
• Let’s start with this ideal client experience. First of all, what does that even mean? Second of all, how do you even begin to create something like this? What does that look like for the business owner and what does that look like for the client?
  • Let’s start off with the client. This is going to depend on what you offer in your business. In the point of view of the client, you just made this big investment and you’re thinking, oh crap, did I do the right thing? Can I trust this person with my business? If they don’t have their things together, how do I know that they are actually going to do what it is that I hired them to do?
  • As a business owner,  you need to create that seamless onboarding experience, really setting the stage for the client, getting to know you as a service provider, and knowing that they’re in good hands. Because at the end of the day, that is what’s going to make everything go smoothly as if they know that they can trust you. So any suggestions that you make, they’re now going to come from a place of respected authority, because they know that you have your crap together.
  • Mapping out the client experience and using a project management system (will help) to really streamline things and make things easier. Then being able to look at what your client goes through and what you go through from Point A (to Z), from the initial inquiry to the absolute final step of the process, whether that’s a final invoice or a final service provided – whatever that looks like, being able to map that out and then put your client in the spots where they need touchpoints, makes it so much easier to create a client experience that’s memorable.
  • Having a system in place is not just beneficial for the client experience, but also for your bottom line.
• So how do we set these expectations and boundaries without making a client feel like they are, you know, a last thought or last resort?
  • Whatever you’re going to tell them, you have to stick to it. Try to stay away from breaking your own rules, because if you don’t follow your own rules, then what incentive do they have to follow their own rules?
  • You have to tell them what the boundaries are and you have to kindly remind them (of those boundaries). It’s going to be easier to prevent that situation that you’re referring to, where you felt like the client was running the project. And if that happens, it may not be apparent in their minds, but you lose your authority, you lose the status of being the expert. That is crucial to your business.
• You’re like the queen of the client welcome guide. So walk us through this process. What does this look like and what is included in a client welcome guide?
  • Here is what my client welcome guide includes:
    1. Communication and Timelines – an overview of my hours and how we’ll keep the project on track
    2. Project Management Instructions – an overview of how my CRM works and how we’ll use it to organize your project
    3. Client Checklist – the checklist of things I need (the client) to complete before the project starts
    4. Client Feedback – feedback guidelines and what helpful feedback looks like
  • Not only do they have something where the important details are in one spot, right. So they can always refer back to it. It elevates your business and elevates their client experience.
  • It doesn’t matter what business you have, your client experience is hugely important to not only the health of your brand but also having people refer your service or recommend your product.