How To Be Everything To Your Client

Customers want service that works for them. As a business, you need to think about their needs and deliver exceptional customer service to maintain loyal customers who will refer your company. However, What if we stopped thinking about providing our customers what they want and instead thought of everything that can help them, then made that a reality? I have applied this model to my business for the last 12 years, and It is a game-changer! In sharing it with you, feel free to adopt it if you find it valuable so that your clients will be positively impacted.

My favourite part of the design process is brainstorming with clients. However, I’ve been told that it can seem like a daunting task to start from scratch, so you might want to try my technique for starting out pretending you are your client and asking yourself what they truly need, then sprinkling in some desires as well.

Step number one, do a five-minute brainstorm.

What are the most common items that business owners wish they had? Here is a list of 32 ideas that I could write out in a five-minute sprint.

1. ?A great team
2. ?The right tools
3. ?Good marketing
4. ?Passionate customers
5. ?Enough time to do it all
6. ?A team member who can do anything
7. ?Unlimited funds to hire the best employees
8. ?The ability to work on a project for as long as they want without any interruptions
9. ?Someone else to take care of all their responsibilities so that they have more time and energy for themselves?
10. ?All the clients or customers they could ever need
11. ?A customer-centric product or service
12. ?An effective marketing plan
13. ?Happy customers and employees
14. ?A flexible work environment that fosters creativity and innovation
15. ?Financial stability to weather the ups and downs of business cycles?
16. ?Strong leadership at every level of the organization
17. ?A clear understanding of the company's goals
18. ?The right people are in place to achieve those goals
19. ?An environment where employees can be productive and happy
20. ?The resources needed to get the job done (equipment, money)?
21. ?A plan for what happens when things go wrong or when success is achieved
22. ?A clear, well-defined strategy for the future
23. ?An understanding of your strengths and weaknesses
24. ?A supportive team
25. ?Customer loyalty
26. ?Satisfied shareholders?
27. ?Knowledge of what you are doing
28. ?A solid and sustainable business model
29. ?Employees that are engaged in the company's success
30. ?Customers who are loyal to your brand?
31. ?Partners who share your values and vision?
32. ?Access to capital, resources, and talent when you need them most

Step number two, the follow-up exercise, is to take a highlighter to the items that can deliver exceptional value to your customers while being within your scope of capabilities.

Let us pretend our capabilities have been narrowed down in the highlighting expertise to only five items on the previous list:

• ?A clear, well-defined plan for the future
• ?Financial stability to weather the ups and downs of business cycles?
• The right tools
• Satisfied shareholders?
• Access to capital, resources, and talent when you need them most

My next step (Step Three) is to research and compile as much information on these topics as possible. I do this by Googling the subjects and saving all articles for each topic into separate folders on my browser. Then, I will take it a step further and connect with the content writers and interview them. Finally, I ask them the big question: how they would position the importance of the above topic and take it from theory to practice with a business.

Stealing best practices is a great business model :)

Once you have a firm understanding of the practical application, you can take it to market, turn it into a defined product offering and introduce it to your current clients. Then, take it a step forward and present it to people that look like your clients, who are not yet your clients.

Pro Tip: If you can combine all five desired needs into one solution, you are cooking with gas.

An example I can tie in how my product/service Dryrun can deliver on all five above needs.

1. Cash management and financial modelling software is the right tool to create a well-defined plan for your future. Growing businesses will eventually require access to capital, resources, talent - which means you need an interactive approach that satisfies current and future shareholders too. Dryrun gives you this power with tools like their cash management solution: it's simple on the one hand and provides complex functionality as needed. So whether it’s budgeting or consolidating scenarios in different currencies from around the world, we can handle it quickly.

2. Dryrun’s financial modelling software and process help businesses weather the ups and downs by providing a well-defined plan for their future. To handle capital, resources, or talent shortages as they arise is essential to keep shareholders satisfied.

By understanding your client’s challenges and pain points, you can anticipate the problems they will have. Pretending that you are them for a moment will help you narrow down which ones of these challenges or pain points feel familiar to you personally. Then, when it comes time to communicate how we can help, there won’t be any confusion about what services we offer because we know exactly where their needs lie.?

As always, reach out if this process might interest you; I would love to chat with someone passionate about helping others overcome obstacles!