Maybe you’re wondering why your clients aren’t paying you on time. Or maybe you can’t figure out why you get all kinds of business, except for repeat business.
Your problem may lie with communication or, rather, the lack of it. Failing to communicate regularly with clients can lead to problems with everything from getting people to pay their bills to maintaining a healthy client base. Successful client communication, however, can create surpluses of goodwill that resonate throughout your firm. Continue reading below to find out how stellar client communication can help your small firm succeed.
Timely Bill Payment
Getting clients to pay on time can be a significant challenge. Even when you rely on prepayment into a trust account you still need to actually get the client to transfer the money on a timely basis before you can start working on the matter.
It’s a mistake to rely simply on a single phone conversation or meeting to prompt a client to pay his or her bill. Instead, consider automating your payment reminders or invoices using email list software like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. You can even set up email reminders within Quickbooks.
If you like, you can also create a small incentive to pay early by way of instituting a small discount. Combine that with a small disincentive to pay late by imposing a small late payment fee and you’ll be twice as likely to get that client to pay their tab. Just be sure to make these terms extremely clear on the invoice and in your discussions with the client.
Repeat Customers
Continuing a relationship with the client after their matter has been dealt with is a key component of ensuring those same clients come back with future business. This can be as easy as sending them an email once per month or once per quarter with a quick update.
In order to make it more likely that they’ll actually read the update and refrain from unsubscribing, do your best to personalize the email and make it relevant to their industry. So, for example, try segmenting your clients into industries or fields and sending each segment a custom email that they’ll find interesting.
Higher Lifetime Value Clients
In addition to encouraging more repeat business, continual customer communication allows you to increase the lifetime value (LTV) of your clients. By reminding them that you exist, and gently prompting them with ideas about where they might need the assistance of counsel, you can increase the number of times that your clients return to you for further matters.
Final Thoughts
Client communication isn’t about bombarding your clients with emails the minute they’ve left the office. It’s about leveraging technology and the psychology of nudging to encourage clients to engage in behaviors that are beneficial to your firm, whether that’s paying their bills on time or coming back to you for repeat business. Learning the ins and outs of productive client engagement will pay significant dividends in the long run and is well worth the effort.