Latest / Growing a Deeply Rooted Business: Launches, Funnels & Email Marketing with Intention / 5 Ways to Keep Clients Happy Without Doing More or Losing Your Sanity

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5 Ways to Keep Clients Happy Without Doing More or Losing Your Sanity · Growing a Deeply Rooted Business: Launches, Funnels & Email Marketing with Intention

• 0:00
  Rachel: I want you to think about the last client who left you.
• 0:03
  Rachel: Not that one that was a total nightmare, and we were so grateful that they said goodbye, but that good one, the one who sent the, We're gonna pause for now" email, and you had to sit there thinking like,
• 0:15
  Rachel: "Well, what did I do?
• 0:16
  Rachel: The work was good."
• 0:17
  Rachel: And you know the work was really good.
• 0:19
  Rachel: But what I have learned from being on both sides of that email is that the clients almost never leave because the work was bad or there was any real big issues.
• 0:29
  Rachel: They leave because they couldn't see the tangibles.
• 0:33
  Rachel: They didn't know what you were doing week to week and couldn't necessarily explain maybe the impact or the value when that invoice finally comes through.
• 0:43
  Rachel: They couldn't tie it to anything, so they decided that maybe it was okay to cut.
• 0:47
  Rachel: And the flip side of that is true.
• 0:49
  Rachel: I've had clients who have stayed with me for five, six years, since the beginning, and they're constantly referring friends and other businesses my way.
• 0:59
  Rachel: And I will tell you, they're not getting the fanciest deliverables.
• 1:02
  Rachel: They're getting an experience where nothing has been dropped, nothing is a mystery, and they always really know what they're paying for.
• 1:11
  Rachel: So today, in our Life First Series, we're going to be talking about the five moves that are making this happen, and none of them require you to be more available or do more for less of an hourly rate.
• 1:25
  Jessica: But before we get into it, welcome back to Growing a Deeply Rooted Business.
• 1:29
  Jessica: If this is your first time here, hi, I'm Jess, your sustainable growth strategist, and I am here with Rachel, our marketing ecosystem mastermind.
• 1:38
  Jessica: Before we get into this, we always like to do a quick energy check and release before we get into our episodes, because when you hear the word client experience, I know some of you got that tense feeling when
• 1:51
  Jessica: your client sends you a Slack message and says, "Hey, we need to talk about something."
• 1:55
  Jessica: Today is not about faster replies, getting on more calls or being on Slack at your phone at dinner.
• 2:02
  Jessica: Today is gonna be about releasing all of those kind of toxic client service behaviors.
• 2:08
  Jessica: So I want you to take a deep inhale Let that ish go.
• 2:16
  Jessica: All right, because a great client experience isn't about white-knuckling through every single week.
• 2:21
  Jessica: It's about building systems and processes that hold the details so your brain doesn't have to.
• 2:27
  Jessica: So if you are any kind of service provider, whether you're a coach, service provider, email marketer, OBM, any kind of client where you've got clients on an ongoing retainer or multi month package or any type of ongoing way
• 2:42
  Jessica: that you're servicing clients, this episode is for you.
• 2:47
  Jessica: If you are a business whose most of their clients come through referrals, or would probably ideally come through referrals, this is for you.
• 2:56
  Jessica: I want you to stick around because we're going to also help you overcome the one thing that kills scope creep dead in its track without having an awkward conversation.
• 3:06
  Jessica: All right, so let's get into point number one, Rachel.
• 3:08
  Rachel: point number one is never drop a commitment.
• 3:11
  Rachel: And I think that this is a process and a system that I have been, so grateful for.
• 3:17
  Rachel: That after essentially five minutes after my call, I do this one process to close the gap between what I said on that call and what actually gets done.
• 3:26
  Rachel: And we've all have been in client call days, and when I first started my business and I structured my week, it was Tuesdays and Thursdays were just back to back to back.
• 3:36
  Rachel: And it was not with the same client, it was with multiple clients a day.
• 3:40
  Rachel: And so you make way more commitments than you actually realize on these calls where you're strategizing and planning things and breaking things in.
• 3:48
  Rachel: It's whether it means like a, "Oh, I'll send that over to you at the end of this call," or, "Let me take a look at that," or, "Let's check with this person."
• 3:55
  Rachel: All of these things get logged as somewhat small promises to your client.
• 4:01
  Rachel: Whether or not you mean that to be or not, they still do hold you accountable.
• 4:05
  Rachel: And you know, everybody has AI note takers now, right?
• 4:08
  Rachel: And so when they get that summary and, you maybe were just saying it pretty low key, that still puts you on the hook for delivering that at the end.
• 4:17
  Rachel: So one of the things that I have done is making sure that those big deliverables don't fall off of my plate.
• 4:24
  Rachel: Here's what I do after every single call.
• 4:27
  Rachel: So I make sure to capture all of the commitments before I close out that meeting tab and move on to the next one.
• 4:33
  Rachel: I'm not relying on my brain to retain that through two or three more meetings for that day.
• 4:40
  Rachel: So this is not a, "Oh, I'll do this later," kind of thing, because I will forget it.
• 4:46
  Rachel: Next is that I send the recap within hour to 24 hours of the call of, "Here's what we decided, here's what's still pending, action items."
• 4:56
  Rachel: And then all of my clients and their project managers and their copywriters, and and I say, "Okay, here in Slack, here's everybody's to-do."
• 5:03
  Rachel: I think this is really where projects fall through.
• 5:06
  Rachel: Everybody's talking about things on calls, but the ownership isn't necessarily the clearest.
• 5:11
  Rachel: And so, after I've sent that recap, we tell them a status update if something is going to then be not on time, right?
• 5:19
  Rachel: So maybe on my call, I go, "I'm gonna send you the updated sequence for this upcoming launch by tomorrow morning."
• 5:26
  Rachel: And then I get bogged down in the next three hours of my calls, and then I have to be offline at 4:00.
• 5:32
  Rachel: And that tomorrow morning comes, and that's not there.
• 5:35
  Rachel: Making sure that you stay proactive to say, "Hey, heads up, it's gonna be an hour or two late," kind of thing.
• 5:41
  Rachel: And then most importantly, before you get on that next call, whether you have reoccurring calls with your clients, which I do, making sure that when you get and walk into that next call, you already know the status of
• 5:53
  Rachel: what did we say last time?
• 5:54
  Rachel: What's overdue?
• 5:55
  Rachel: What's still pending?
• 5:56
  Rachel: And anything that they really are going to inquire about.
• 6:00
  Rachel: So I think this is the really the set system that I've implemented that makes sure people know that my clients understand that maybe they do and it, and I don't know, Jess, you tell me.
• 6:10
  Rachel: I've made the toxic environment where my clients sometimes feel like they're my only clients.
• 6:16
  Rachel: And I have to be like, "No, this is just what quality client experience looks like."
• 6:21
  Rachel: But these steps are crucial to making sure that your client's not asking you constantly, "Hey, what's this?
• 6:27
  Rachel: Hey, what's that?"
• 6:27
  Rachel: Like, what are we doing here?
• 6:29
  Jessica: Yeah, no, I've actually had one of my clients tell me, "I don't even feel that you have other clients," because I implement kind of these same things.
• 6:39
  Jessica: I think that staying true to what you promise on your call or what you say you're gonna do is one of the things that is most important to a client relationship, and really taking ownership of that.
• 6:51
  Jessica: I think that clients understand that For the type of work we do, things may not always perform as we hope for 'cause we're launching, we're tweaking, you know, doing that sort of thing.
• 7:00
  Jessica: But because I've built that trust and that integrity that I'm gonna deliver on the things that I say I'm going to do, they like to work with me long term because they know they can trust me.
• 7:09
  Jessica: They know I'm giving it my all.
• 7:11
  Jessica: People know when you're kinda phoning it in and not really on top of the things.
• 7:14
  Jessica: We're actually working with a consultant for another client that right now and he has, I'm sure, the best intentions.
• 7:20
  Jessica: And we did just hire him to be a pure consultant.
• 7:23
  Jessica: He doesn't really have any executable deliverables, But on multiple calls, he has said, "Oh, you know, I have notes for that," or, "I have a process for that and I'm gonna send that over," and then after, never sent
• 7:33
  Jessica: it over.
• 7:34
  Jessica: And it wasn't something that we were expecting him to do.
• 7:36
  Jessica: It was something actually that was on my to-do list, but if you said you're gonna do it, then do it.
• 7:40
  Jessica: And even though I know he knows what he's talking about, he just isn't showing up as somebody that we would wanna count on long term because he's not, following up on the promises he's making.
• 7:50
  Jessica: And I think that's so important.
• 7:51
  Jessica: He could've been someone that we would've invited into our business on a more ongoing, like, you're gonna execute, you're gonna lead, but because he's kind of lost trust, it's like, well, is he really gonna deliver what he says
• 8:02
  Jessica: he's gonna do?
• 8:03
  Jessica: Are we gonna have to stay on top of him all the time?
• 8:05
  Jessica: Do we really want him anymore?
• 8:06
  Jessica: That is so important.
• 8:08
  Jessica: But also, we know we all have a lot of stuff to do.
• 8:11
  Jessica: I think this is my sixth call today.
• 8:13
  Jessica: So there are a lot of meetings, and before I built this tool that I'm about to share with you, I felt like my whole entire week was either prepping for meetings, being at meetings, or downloading whatever was, happening
• 8:27
  Jessica: or needed to happen after meetings.
• 8:28
  Jessica: And so that's why I built Meeting Maestro Miles.
• 8:32
  Jessica: He's one of our employees in the lab.
• 8:34
  Jessica: And he has helped me out so much.
• 8:36
  Jessica: He has three different modes.
• 8:37
  Jessica: One for prep and one for recapping meetings, and one end of the day wrap.
• 8:43
  Jessica: So what he essentially does is before every meeting, he pulls from my calendar, Past transcripts, the notes from the last meeting, and then he also goes through my Slack, my email, and my Notion project management tool, and kind
• 8:56
  Jessica: of hands me a brief of what I need to prepare or be prepared to discuss about during my next client touch base.
• 9:03
  Jessica: And then after, he will go through my meetings and like those little AI note takers.
• 9:08
  Jessica: He'll not only do a summary of the meeting, find the action items, but then he actually assigns the action items to me or to my team members inside of my project management tools.
• 9:18
  Jessica: And then also, he gives an end-of-the-day recap where you can briefly go through, because by the end of the day, there's like, what exactly happened today, where I can kind of just read, and get a quick download of
• 9:28
  Jessica: here's what's happening.
• 9:29
  Jessica: I know my tasks are there waiting for me.
• 9:31
  Jessica: And let me just tell you not only the time, but the mental load of not trying to have to hold it all and am I dropping the ball on this or forgetting this, has been so amazing.
• 9:39
  Jessica: You have him working in your business as well, Rachel, but he's really been one of my most favorite employees that we've built so far.
• 9:46
  Rachel: Yeah, and it's honestly has, amplified my project management, my scheduling of myself, and This has helped me commit to more, not necessarily willingly, but it's helped me commit to more because I know what I can manage and say
• 10:01
  Rachel: deliver a better experience.
• 10:02
  Rachel: So that five minutes after the call habit of me trying to rush to the next meeting, but still not drop the ball on this other meeting that just happened is a two-click process now, and it's phenomenal.
• 10:14
  Rachel: So yeah.
• 10:15
  Rachel: So I think those are the two things that have really helped.
• 10:17
  Rachel: And then that brings us to step two, which is let them see inside of the work.
• 10:22
  Rachel: So I think what happens is that internal project management process typically shown because a lot of the times it exists in the same way that our internal brains work, where it's a little bit messy and you're like, "I
• 10:34
  Rachel: don't know."
• 10:35
  Rachel: But that is truly a trust-building tool, and so When I have it and brought my clients in, they truly know exactly where to go.
• 10:44
  Rachel: We have a HQ for everything.
• 10:46
  Rachel: We have our call notes and everything, so they see all the stuff that step one does, which is break down all of the deliverables, the recaps, and everything.
• 10:53
  Rachel: They see that where I've sorted it into my project management system.
• 10:57
  Rachel: But now they're able to really understand timelines and things like that.
• 11:01
  Rachel: So some clients I know love that.
• 11:03
  Rachel: Some clients hate that.
• 11:05
  Rachel: And so it really is just for my own sanity, best practice to say, "This is a client-facing project management tool," even if they use it or they don't use it.
• 11:15
  Rachel: You know what I mean?
• 11:16
  Jessica: Well, and I still think even if they're not necessarily visiting it every day, having it all laid out like that makes the deadlines that they have to turn stuff in for you even more apparent.
• 11:26
  Jessica: And it's easier for you to collect, to do your boundaries, 'cause I know that we've all had these one-month project commitments that stretch out to, four and six months because the client is taking forever to get back with
• 11:37
  Jessica: you.
• 11:38
  Jessica: And I think by laying it out ahead of time and letting them know, like, "Do you think that this is feasible on your end?"
• 11:43
  Jessica: So that you can kind of make those adjustments and those expectations ahead of time because not every client is gonna come in with the same level of operational prowess that maybe, you know, we are.
• 11:56
  Rachel: Yeah, and the things that you can amplify using conversations from calls, action items, things like that is sending a weekly update.
• 12:05
  Rachel: So I send mine on Fridays and especially with launching clients, when we're in ramp-up mode, it's like, "Hey, we've gotten this percentage to goal from our opt-in goal.
• 12:14
  Rachel: Here's what's been done.
• 12:16
  Rachel: Here's what's actionable from the next week."
• 12:18
  Rachel: All of those various things, that is reliant on you having a system of getting those action items out of the calls and into a place that is not a paper handwritten note on your desk of things like that.
• 12:31
  Rachel: That's one thing.
• 12:32
  Rachel: Repeating the pending items every single week.
• 12:35
  Rachel: Although it feels redundant to you...
• 12:36
  Rachel: for me, I'll just use myself as example, like uploading monthly newsletters.
• 12:41
  Rachel: That's something that is gonna happen automatically regardless of if my client reminds me or not, doesn't remind me.
• 12:47
  Rachel: But having that as a bullet point of saying, "Hey, here's what's happening," kinda keeps it in mind even during slow periods, we're still actionable, we're still doing things, we're still moving progress along.
• 12:58
  Rachel: Because that repetitive process, those repetitive works, even though it's on autopilot to your client, still keeps you top of mind to them that you're moving and grooving inside of their strategy and all of that.
• 13:10
  Rachel: And then the next one is flag what you're waiting on them for.
• 13:13
  Rachel: I love this.
• 13:15
  Rachel: I'm always like, "Hey, We're still pending review on this."
• 13:18
  Rachel: I think it's important, especially when you're building that rapport for your client, you don't wanna be that annoying project manager, but still being accountable so that it removes that invisible labor from them to be like, "Well, what is
• 13:30
  Rachel: the status of this?"
• 13:31
  Rachel: Like, "Oh, it's still on my list," kind of thing.
• 13:33
  Rachel: So it just puts a little bit more of the control in your hands, and that you are all working from a shared timeline.
• 13:40
  Rachel: And then the last thing that I always do is include a what's coming up, all of the ideas that were in the project parking lot.
• 13:46
  Rachel: Some of my clients were already building November and December newsletter topics for.
• 13:51
  Rachel: And while that still feels so far away for some people, it is still active asset development and active things that are happening now to keep it handy, keep it top of mind here, so that people can kinda see
• 14:04
  Rachel: top of mind.
• 14:05
  Rachel: I know that if I'm doing this, my client's staying with me until December 'cause who's gonna load those newsletters?
• 14:10
  Rachel: You know what I mean?
• 14:11
  Rachel: So it's just really important to over-communicate.
• 14:15
  Rachel: That's essentially what this is, is just over-communication.
• 14:18
  Jessica: Yeah, and this is something that could definitely be automated.
• 14:21
  Jessica: Right now as when we're going through them, like, oh, we could definitely automate this as well.
• 14:25
  Jessica: Or AI it to where they're pulling what got done, what's blocked, here's what the next two weeks look like.
• 14:31
  Jessica: And I think that proactive communication to the client helps them keep on track.
• 14:35
  Jessica: I've actually had a client say, "You're more on top of me than my EA sometimes," with getting me your stuff because I have that automated system that I'm going through with them.
• 14:45
  Jessica: It definitely is appreciated with them.
• 14:48
  Jessica: And I think with clients, especially when we're doing, remote work with them and we may not be seeing them, it's really important to still have those touch points.
• 14:55
  Jessica: I do try to touch my clients and...
• 14:58
  Jessica: Not touch them, touch a part of their business.
• 15:01
  Jessica: Virtually touch them every single day, whether it's sending the recap on Fridays, meeting with them on Tuesdays, hopping into their Slack and just interacting.
• 15:11
  Jessica: Sometimes, I'll have clients that'll share client wins in there, so just making sure I'm thumbs-upping it and high-fiving it.
• 15:16
  Jessica: Like, she's still around, I'm paying her for something.
• 15:20
  Jessica: And it doesn't become a lot when you kind of have these systems in place.
• 15:24
  Jessica: It's not busy work because this is saving me from them freaking out later and like, "What is she actually doing?"
• 15:30
  Jessica: They always know what I'm doing because they have access to my project management.
• 15:33
  Jessica: I'm doing consistent updates, and now with AI you can do crazy things.
• 15:38
  Jessica: I haven't even told Rachel about this yet, but we're in the middle of launch week for one of my biggest launch clients right now, and I basically had Claude build out an artifact of a dashboard for their launch,
• 15:47
  Jessica: and every morning he goes through and pulls from their Meta Ads account and then from their email service provider and updates the numbers automatically for me.
• 15:55
  Jessica: And then all I have to say is "Here's your numbers update, client."
• 15:57
  Jessica: I'm sure I could even automate that further, but it's one of those things where they know that, you're on top of it.
• 16:03
  Jessica: And we're using AI in a way that is assisting us and not replacing us.
• 16:08
  Rachel: if not a service provider you live more in the course world, this is something you can easily do from a retention marketing side for students in your program, with onboarding emails and check in emails and things like that.
• 16:22
  Rachel: Like, "Hey, did you know that you have access to this template inside of the program that you built?"
• 16:27
  Rachel: These are all things that are very easy to automate when you think client first.
• 16:33
  Rachel: Retention is the name of the game, right?
• 16:35
  Rachel: I have talked so many times about customer lifetime value and how getting a new lead is more expensive than just retaining an existing lead.
• 16:44
  Rachel: So, whether you are a service provider or whether you are a course creator in digital product side, it is important to emphasize the customer journey and the client experience on both sides of this.
• 16:56
  Rachel: So, this isn't just siloed for service providers.
• 17:00
  Jessica: All right, step number three, and this might have been a two-point part episode, but we're dropping lots of valuable things here.
• 17:06
  Jessica: You wanna point out opportunities for the client.
• 17:09
  Jessica: I think this is maybe my toxic trait.
• 17:11
  Jessica: I will see opportunities, but just assume that my client doesn't wanna pay for anything else.
• 17:16
  Jessica: That they're already maxed out.
• 17:18
  Jessica: But I think if you see an opportunity, to make sure that you are pointing out like, "Oh, I noticed this, and, you know, it's not part of my scope, but it is something that I help people with if
• 17:28
  Jessica: you wanna tackle this."
• 17:29
  Jessica: Or if even if it's pieces that are part of your scope, but maybe it's a way that we've always been doing some things, the way we write our newsletter, the way we roll out this.
• 17:37
  Jessica: I noticed that this is not working anymore, and I saw this strategy from this person, and I'd like to do that, you know?
• 17:43
  Jessica: And make sure that you're tying it to what your goals are.
• 17:47
  Jessica: But definitely, if it's not part of your current scope, highlighting, that you can help them with that if you wanted to do.
• 17:52
  Jessica: And then they can kind of decide, let's do it now, or let's table that for later.
• 17:56
  Jessica: But I think it's really important, especially when you're trying to establish yourself as somebody who is not only implementing, but offering strategy, to make sure that you are staying on top of what opportunities they have and not waiting
• 18:08
  Jessica: to be asked and falling into that partner position, that partner that's noticing first.
• 18:14
  Rachel: I actually call this getting as sticky as possible in your client's environment.
• 18:19
  Rachel: When you're talking about revenue generating for a business, it always doesn't mean you have to get a new client.
• 18:25
  Rachel: Sometimes that means you can upgrade existing retainers and doing things like this.
• 18:29
  Rachel: And so this is one of those opportunities that, one, keeps you creating future work for yourself, but also helps you just maintain a relationship that keeps you looking like a partner and all of that.
• 18:41
  Rachel: So moving on to step four, which is the retainer rhythm.
• 18:47
  Rachel: This is essentially, gives you and your client a shared plan so that when you start working with somebody and a year goes by, two years goes by, scope creep happens, right?
• 18:58
  Rachel: I have a client who her contract has been a hundred different things because it's just constantly evolving or fluctuating in busy seasons and not.
• 19:08
  Rachel: And so if you have repla-retainer clients, you should be sitting down every single quarter and doing a reset with them.
• 19:15
  Rachel: This is something that, we've kinda just set up every, reoccurring meeting on our calendar, 'cause I know we're gonna be working together for this time period, is an extra thirty minutes on top of our monthly meeting anyways.
• 19:27
  Rachel: And so it has a set agenda where we say, you know what?
• 19:31
  Rachel: Here's our goals from our annual plan.
• 19:33
  Rachel: Here's our metrics and numbers.
• 19:35
  Rachel: Here's our analytics dashboards.
• 19:37
  Rachel: What are our priorities?
• 19:38
  Rachel: And then how do we break this down even further?
• 19:40
  Rachel: This again builds that partnership with your client so that you're not necessarily feeling threatened every time, they have a bad month, they know that there's a plan going forward to it.
• 19:50
  Rachel: And so this is one of those that, again, you can build a system for.
• 19:55
  Rachel: A set agenda and set, meeting notes and then having meeting miles go in and say, "Here's the plan for the future."
• 20:02
  Rachel: Honestly, it's not necessarily part of my scope for my client, but I use our project management, Paula, to help amplify ideas if that's just nobody's best skill, sometimes you just kinda have to say, "Okay, well great, let's take
• 20:16
  Rachel: this," and then we put it in and amplify it outwards.
• 20:18
  Rachel: So it's just one of those things that helps you stay sticky, helps you build that partnership, and really change the conversation from just dull month-over-month tasks and to-dos to refreshing things and helping you build those testimonials and client
• 20:34
  Rachel: experience.
• 20:35
  Jessica: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Jessica: This is one of those things that, doesn't feel like you're doing a lot when you're doing it, but when we skip it, I can definitely feel this with my clients.
• 20:44
  Jessica: And they can feel it too because it gets to a point, just like you have to reset your business where priorities shift and things move, and this didn't work out the way you thought it would, and this one
• 20:54
  Jessica: did.
• 20:55
  Jessica: And now Everybody's kinda looking like, "What am I doing again?"
• 20:57
  Jessica: Where you kind of feel you're a little bit out of control.
• 20:59
  Jessica: I actually did this with a client recently and I'm like, "Let's just go ahead and schedule the next year so that we have these on the calendar."
• 21:05
  Jessica: They're protected because every time, things kind of start to get a little bit eh, it's because we didn't do a quarterly reset.
• 21:11
  Jessica: We didn't set our initiatives."
• 21:13
  Jessica: So this is super important just to not only take a minute pause.
• 21:16
  Jessica: And if you're just doing it one-on-one with a client, this is a great time where they can give you feedback on how you can do better.
• 21:22
  Jessica: You can give them feedback on how they can work with you better.
• 21:25
  Jessica: And it's just kind of like a good palate cleanser rather than just kind of letting frustration and tension if things may not be going as well in certain areas kinda creep up.
• 21:33
  Jessica: So then moving into step number five is you want to make sure that you are turning your results into receipts.
• 21:41
  Jessica: And really highlighting to your client that they are getting an ROI from investing in you or your services.
• 21:48
  Jessica: This is really how you create that kind of referral pipeline.
• 21:52
  Jessica: Even if you're on Yelp or whatever, and you read through the reviews, when people have a complaint, they write stuff.
• 21:57
  Jessica: But, when it's something goes good, unless it's very exceptional out of the norm, they're not necessarily looking at it.
• 22:04
  Jessica: But by having, And I like to kind of work this into my quarterly recap, is going through your quarterly recap and picking different metrics and reporting on them in a rhythm so that they can constantly see the metrics
• 22:16
  Jessica: that you are approaching.
• 22:17
  Jessica: That way, when they're talking to their industry peers, they can be like, "Oh, yeah, this month we increased our email open rate by 10%."
• 22:24
  Jessica: "Oh, who did that for you?
• 22:25
  Jessica: I need my email open rate increased."
• 22:27
  Jessica: But they're not gonna naturally notice that unless you tell them.
• 22:30
  Jessica: 'Cause I promise you, the majority of your clients hired you for that specific reason, because that's your zone of genius, and it's not something that they're naturally gonna kinda be looking at.
• 22:40
  Jessica: So it's really important to not only track the metrics, highlight the metrics, report them on a ongoing rhythm but translate it into what it actually means for them and their business and how it's impacting them.
• 22:51
  Jessica: And then once they're like, "Oh, that's great," you're like, "Yeah, I know.
• 22:54
  Jessica: Can I use this as my case study?"
• 22:56
  Jessica: Or, "Would you mind writing a little testimonial so that you can include it?"
• 22:59
  Jessica: And that makes it a really easy way to get testimonials.
• 23:02
  Jessica: 'Cause I feel like getting testimonials is one of the harder things, even if you are an amazing service provider, to get from your clients, just because they're busy people.
• 23:10
  Jessica: So you have to really be proactive about highlighting that for yourself.
• 23:13
  Rachel: Yeah, and especially if you're not in a super numbers heavy service, I don't love promoting my clients' revenue wins on anything, but this still applies internally, right?
• 23:28
  Rachel: The client does wanna see that and stuff like that.
• 23:30
  Rachel: So your hours that you're saving them, they matter.
• 23:34
  Rachel: The launch times and the pivots built in and all of the revenue that took.
• 23:39
  Rachel: That helps them.
• 23:40
  Rachel: Them being able to be like, "Oh, I can go on vacation, and I know my OBM is gonna take care of everything."
• 23:46
  Rachel: All of this stuff is super beneficial to the experience.
• 23:50
  Rachel: So let's go ahead and tie this all together 'cause this is one of our longer episodes here.
• 23:54
  Rachel: Five steps that you can do to come back to one idea, which is making the work more visible.
• 24:00
  Rachel: Number one is never dropping a commitment.
• 24:03
  Rachel: Capture every single one of those little small promises that you say, "Hey, I'll send that over before you do this, before the meeting ends," and then send that recap within twenty-four hours, so that they understand too what their
• 24:16
  Rachel: action items are as well.
• 24:17
  Rachel: Number two is let them see inside of the work, whether that is one weekly update, what's done, what's pending, what's coming up, or actually letting them inside of your project management tool.
• 24:27
  Rachel: all of that is extra visibility and just open lines of communication.
• 24:31
  Rachel: Number three is point out opportunities.
• 24:34
  Rachel: Be a partner in your business, whether that is just once a month tied to the goals that you're actively working on, helping them see that you're paying attention.
• 24:44
  Rachel: Four is the retainer rhythm, whether that is like a yearly contract with somebody.
• 24:49
  Rachel: Every single quarter, you're resetting and sharing monthly initiatives.
• 24:54
  Rachel: New ideas get swapped.
• 24:56
  Rachel: You can put things in the parking lot instead of feeling the pressure to squeeze them in and really overload yourself.
• 25:02
  Rachel: And then number five is helping you with the retention and marketing that is lowest hanging fruit, which is turning your results into receipts.
• 25:10
  Rachel: I Always do an audit right before you start with your client so that you have the ongoing year over year, month over month progress that you're making.
• 25:19
  Rachel: And then asking them for testimonials that the next time that you're kind of like, "Hey, this is amazing.
• 25:24
  Rachel: We should share this."
• 25:25
  Rachel: You do not have to do all five of these.
• 25:27
  Rachel: I think picking one or two is really gonna help with Really building out a client experience that helps you help them, without having you do everything.
• 25:37
  Rachel: So if you want step one handled for you, that's meeting Maestro Miles.
• 25:44
  Rachel: He is our AI assistant.
• 25:46
  Rachel: We've separated him from the Lab.
• 25:48
  Rachel: You can join the Lab too, but if you want him separately, you can grab him.
• 25:52
  Rachel: He's only $14, and he helps you prep every single meeting.
• 25:56
  Rachel: He sends you the recap after, pulls the transcript himself, and wraps your day so nothing you've committed to is stuck sitting in your head or worrying you right before you go to bed.
• 26:06
  Rachel: So, if you liked this episode and it hit home, send it to your business bestie.
• 26:13
  Rachel: And until next week, we're
• 26:16
  Jessica: rooting for you.