Are you constantly feeling bogged down by the never-ending barrage of emails, onboarding tasks, and scheduling back-and-forth with your clients? One of the biggest challenges I see many service providers like my clients face is how mentally draining it is to keep track of all their client communication.
Ways to Automate Client Communications
Here are 4 simple automations that will streamline your customer management so you can focus on actually serving your clients:
1. Streamline Your Scheduling & Booking
One of my clients, who’s a photographer was spending a lot of time sending back-and-forth emails with inquiring families looking to book a session. Trying to coordinate calendars and then remember to send those confirmation emails was just one more task on her plate that was draining her time and energy.
To streamline the scheduling process with clients, you can use tools like Calendly or Acuity. These platforms allow you to handle all the back-and-forth of scheduling directly, without you having to be involved. Clients can simply select the available time slots that work for them and complete the booking themselves. This eliminates any back-and-forth, and ensures they get that confirmation email and calendar invite.
You can also embed your calendar directly on your website, so clients can self-book appointments without ever leaving your site. This creates a really convenient, frictionless booking experience for your clients.
In my client's case, we were able to set up a scheduling page through her CRM, Moxie, which we then embedded on her website. Now, her clients can browse her availability and book photography sessions directly from her site. This has saved my client so much time on the administrative side, while also providing a better experience for her clients.
2. Automate Onboarding Sequences
But then, even after the session was booked, my client still found herself spending way too much time sending onboarding emails, which included emails to sign the contract, gather client info, collect the retainer, and send some important information leading up to the date of the session.
If you send emails to clients as part of your onboarding or booking process, I recommend setting up automated email sequences in your CRM to welcome new clients, provide resources, and gather all the necessary information. That way, you can have these touchpoints happening automatically without you having to remember to manually send each one.
And if your CRM doesn't have built-in email automation capabilities, you can integrate your CRM with an email marketing tool like Mailchimp or Convertkit, or use an automation tool like Zapier to connect them. This will allow you to trigger those onboarding sequences to fire as soon as a new client signs your contract or gets added to your CRM.
For my photographer client, I helped set up a series of automated emails in her CRM, Moxie, to handle the onboarding process. When a new client books a session, they immediately receive a confirmation email. Then 24 hours later, they get a welcome email that includes a style guide and other important information. And one week before the session, a "Tips & Tricks" email goes out.
Automating these onboarding touchpoints has saved my client so much time, while also ensuring a consistent, high-touch experience for all her new clients. They get the information they need without her having to manually remember to send each piece, and she can focus her energy on shooting and editing her photos.
What's a task you're currently spending too much time on in your client onboarding process? Let me know in the comments!
3. Automate Feedback Collection
For my client, after she completed a photo session and delivered the gallery to the client, she had to remember to send them a link to leave a Google review. She wanted to time this a week after delivering the gallery, to give the clients time to really look through the photos and be thrilled with the results before asking for feedback.
But keeping track of all those review requests was yet another manual task that was easy to let slip through the cracks. So we set up an automated system to streamline this process.
If you have a feedback collection process like this, I recommend setting up automated surveys or questionnaires to gather ongoing feedback from your clients. This can just be a simple form you set up in Google Forms or Airtable.
Then, you can integrate submissions of this form with your CRM or a database tool like Airtable. That way, all the responses get centrally logged, and you can analyze the data to identify areas for improvement in your processes and client experience.
For my client's photography business, we set up an automated email to go out one week after she delivered each client's gallery, contains a link for them to leave a Google review. This has been so valuable for my client because she's able to consistently gather those important reviews that boost the ratings of her photography business online while providing insights to improve her services for her clients.
4. Schedule Client Check-ins
I know how easy it is to let regular check-ins with clients fall through the cracks when you're busy. You might have tried setting calendar reminders, but then you still have to remember to actually send those emails and follow through.
To make sure these important touchpoints don't get lost, I recommend setting up automated, scheduled client check-in emails. These can be used to regularly touch base with clients, gather feedback, and identify any issues that may be coming up.
The key is to use calendar integrations to trigger these check-in emails to go out automatically, based on the client's start date or their last interaction with you. That way, you don't have to manually keep track of when each check-in is due.
Automating these check-ins does two important things. First, it ensures you're consistently nurturing those client relationships and staying top-of-mind. And second, it gives you an idea of how your clients are feeling over time, so you can address any concerns or problems before they escalate.
So rather than hoping you'll remember to send those important check-in emails, set up an automated system to do it for you. It's a simple way to strengthen your client relationships and ensure no client gets forgotten.
Final Thoughts
If you're looking for more ways to automate your client communications and free up more time in your business, make sure to subscribe to my blog or my YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on all my automation tips to streamline your business.
And if you want to hear more about the automations I set up for the client I referenced, be sure to check out her case study.
And don't forget to share your biggest client communication challenge in the comments below. I'll be sure to respond with some helpful suggestions!
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