6 CLIENT MANAGEMENT SKILLS THAT YOUR BUSINESS CAN BENEFIT FROM

What is Client Management?

Client management is the process of overseeing and coordinating an organisation’s interactions with its clients and potential clients. In client management, the ultimate goal is to build and maintain good client relationships, so a company can retain more of its customers and ensure ongoing success.

Client management also involves all the steps that need to be taken to ensure that a client has as little stress as possible while interacting with your business. You have to evaluate, optimise and simplify your processes and transaction systems to ensure that your client is as comfortable as possible, while at the same time maintaining the highest standards of service delivery. When it comes to running a business, it’s not enough to expend resources on marketing, branding and advertising. Significant attention must be paid to client management, too.

Customers have a short-term relationship with the business; they purchase products or engage services on a one-time basis. Clients, on the other hand, usually relate with businesses on a long-term basis. The services they demand are more specialised, so it is important that they be prioritised and treated specially, even when it seems that they are difficult to handle.

The Essence of Client Management Systems

In navigating a business, it is extremely important to operate a client management system that is deliberate, effective and well-drawn out. A client management system is the structure and processes that an organisation adopts to work with clients. The system might include project management or customer relationship management software, as well as document-sharing applications like Google Docs. A client management system helps you understand your clients’ needs and what they want before they come to you. It helps to improve the business relations with a  customer through retention and acquisition. Because this system is all about the client, it helps create successful client relationships.

A client management system not only helps you with your client, but also helps with managing vendor relationships, coordinating marketing teams and sales activities, and tracking sales performance.

Benefits of operating an effective client management system include:

–       Better data organisation

–       Enhanced communication

–       Enhanced customer loyalty

–       Increased customer revenue

–       Improved brand reputation

Management Skills That Every Business Could Benefit From

To ensure that client management is done properly, there are a number of principles that every business should abide by, and a number of skills that should be applied in the process. These, among others, include:

1. Be Honest and Transparent: Be up front about timelines and any issues with a client’s project. If your team encounters issues related to a client’s project, let them know. Don’t sugarcoat the realities.
   
2. Communicate Well: Communicate regularly with clients, keeping in mind their preferences on frequency and mode of communication. Be accessible; respond quickly when they want to communicate.
   
3. Trust: Having the trust of your customer is a big deal. You can achieve this by showing genuine concern about them. Clients should see that you’re more interested in solving their problems than you are in getting their money. Encourage them to call you when they have a problem. If you’re the first person they turn to with their problems, you’re doing a great job. Stay aligned with their goals.
   
4. Set Realistic Expectations: Client management is about beating the expectations of your client, yes, but it is not about offering what is not on the table. When a customer comes to you making outrageous demands, don’t be in a hurry to welcome them and say you can do it. Don’t be in a hurry also to say you can’t handle it and let them go. You should instead work out a reasonable deal with them and help them see the benefits so they buy into it.
   
5. Learn Your Client’s Industry: When you research the client’s background, they’ll be impressed that you took the time to understand their business and the challenges they face. This insight can help you grasp their needs and your work together.
   
6. Know your strengths and weaknesses: One of the best client management skills is to know where your strength lies and be realistic. It’s normal not to be an expert in everything. Hence, if you find difficulties completing a particular task or your client’s asking for something beyond your capability, say so. Find another professional who can show you how to manage it by yourself or hire subcontractors if it’s more complicated than you expected. Don’t be afraid to admit that something is out of your scope. 

How Paga Gets Around To Running An Efficient Client Management System

Paga, the leading payment solutions provider in Nigeria, has committed itself to simplifying financial transactions for millions of Nigerians. Thanks to the platform, it’s a lot easier to send money, receive money, pay bills, invest and even schedule payments with just a touch of the button.

With recurring payments, Paga allows you to set up your account in a manner that it will be debited a specific amount at a specified time of the month for a particular service. It’s like a bank’s standing instructions, but for e-wallets. For instance, you can have your account debited for the sum of N10,000 on the 26th day of each month for electricity bills.

A recurring payment is designed to take away the burden of initiating a regular payment while ensuring you do not miss the payment. It is simple to set up. To do this:

• Log into your Paga account
• Select “recurring payments” from the list of services
• Create a new recurring payment
• Select the service you want to create a recurring payment for
• Fill out the details of the recipient/beneficiary
• Set up the schedule and fill all required fields
• Review the details and confirm the transaction.

Conclusion

Improving the quality of your interactions with clients will make your business grow, regardless of the scale at which you operate. Good client management is key to making your business reach the level you want it to. How long your business will last depends significantly on the extent to which you can keep your clients happy.