Client Relationship Management:

A business that does not have an organized system of checks and balances can suffer. Without oversight of employee activities, one-time errors can grow to become bad habits that taint the company's reputation or bring on far-reaching consequences. One need look no further than the financial crisis of 2008, when unscrupulous activities of several major banks contributed to a global economic collapse. While I'm not insinuating that failing to...

Entrepreneurs may be more focused on business building than they are employee development, but learning how to manage a team and help individuals grow is at the heart of creating a strong, skilled organization. Conducting periodic performance reviews is a major part of overseeing a group of employees and ensuring they continue to improve and acquire skills. My colleagues have shared tips on how to assess employees' work and offer guidance so they can...

Building a business is a lot like juggling. Small team operations force entrepreneurs to juggle a lot of small items. These may be tasks that are not difficult, but are time consuming and distract the owner from bigger-picture pursuits such as mapping out an infrastructure or setting one-, three- and 10-year goals. As your organization grows and you add support staff who take on the lower-stratum functions and activities, you may find yourself juggling fewer,...

An advisory firm offers valuable services to clients, helping them preserve a stable future, feel secure and plan for major transitions or events in the short and long term. Financial advisors must discuss with clients their immediate needs, what their future plans are and how they want to achieve these through financial strategies and planning. There are many factors that may influence client decisions with regard to savings, retirement, investing and...

Companies that aim to make client relationship management one of their differentiating characteristics may develop grand plans of responding to customer complaints via social media and tracking big data for insights into client needs and demands. However, before these organizations adopt complex service delivery models, they must learn the basic elements of high-quality client relationship management . Regardless of whether you as the business builder will...

Clients, for better or worse, are constantly evolving. They will change their priorities, their preferences and their expectations. Because they develop new demands on your company, you need to adjust to continue providing the value-added service that won their loyalty in the first place. Businesses that fail to be flexible risk losing client capital and falling behind competitors. Don't get caught off-guard by change.  The only reason an...

The client acquisition process is about helping your prospect buy rather than selling them a product or service, but many people in the business of sales tend to forget that. A salesperson's chief responsibility is not to hit his or her quota, but to educate potential clients about how a particular item or service can offer a solution to business problems. By working first educate yourself on the latest developments in your industry and then share that...

Some people may see big brands as out-of-touch with their clients, or think that major corporations are incapable of catering to individual needs. However, it's possible for a firm to enjoy widespread success and still maintain a degree of closeness with the people or companies it serves. By making clients one of the greatest priorities and creating processes that ensure they are treated as such, a business may achieve higher level of popularity. In an age...

If you have happy employees, you're much more likely to have happy clients. This may seem like common knowledge, but it appears to be missing from many managers' and business builders' playbooks. Consider Starbucks for a moment. It is one of the most-recognized brands in the world, and the company prides itself on providing a consistent customer experience. For the most part, it succeeds in this effort because of the culture of client service and...

Many businesses pay lip service to the idea of putting their clients at the center of everything they do. But how many actually follow through with that concept? As a business builder , it is your job to not only dream big and create a company mission that prioritizes client relationship management, but to put the processes in place to achieve that goal. Doing so will require paying attention to the small details, such as whether your team responds to client...

Client relationship management could be likened to baking - without the correct amounts of all the basic ingredients, the final product will be unsatisfactory. In the world of business, even if you have a willing staff who strives to deliver upon client expectations, not having the raw materials for CRM - attitude, training, tools, rules - will doom you before you even begin. Pick people who show promise Certain skills can be learned with training and time,...

Small companies often run on shoestring budgets, and do not have the same client relationship management resources available to multinational corporations. But that does not mean they are doomed to have poorly run service systems and dissatisfied clients. Instilling a client-centric attitude among your team and enabling them to meet customer demands with standardized processes and technology. Creating this kind of system requires collaboration from your clients...

In the past, client relationship management was treated by some companies as a process that was inflicted upon the client, rather than something that involved input from all involved parties. Yet this setup is not a good way to foster closeness or lay the foundation for a long-lasting relationship. It is better for organizations to strive for interactions with clients that represent a two-way dialogue. The old model of businesses dictating to their clients is...

Most entrepreneurs understand that there are (sometimes conflicting) scientific and emotional elements to running a business. Blending the uniform components of running a company - administrative, sales, marketing - with the more artistic, subjective ones - client relationships, engaging prospects - can be a challenge. To strike a balance between the two, it's important to first create a client service scaffolding that ensures the basic parts of running...

Richard Branson, the infamous founder of the Virgin Group,  shared a post on LinkedIn about the dangers of conformity in business. He recounted his interaction with a group of bankers before his address at the BAI conference in Washington, D.C. and explained why the company had gotten involved in banking, "a very un-Virgin industry to be in." Branson said the fact that banking was uncharacteristic for Virgin was part of the reason the company...

Many entrepreneurs want to become business builders as their companies grow from small, one-person operations to organizations with multiple locations and employees. However, that vision is often as far as they get - they have no idea how to advance their firms to the next level. It's tempting to believe that all you need for success is a great marketing message and a team of ambitious sales people. However, those are merely two components of a complex...

In a hyperconnected world, we're in danger of using technology as a crutch and an excuse not to connect with clients in the meaningful ways we once did. At The Covenant Group, we all discuss the importance of delegating to technology - researching online to learn more about prospects,  using software to track client information and send regular communications to clients or prospects . But that is not to suggest that these tools can be used in lieu of...

There are bound to be instances when a client is unhappy with the product, service or experience when interacting with a business. Yet when clients voice their displeasure with your company, that does not mean the relationship is doomed to end entirely or continue with a sour tone. There are a lot of components that make up a client relationship - the marketing and sales work that went into attaining the client, the quality of service you deliver, the potential for...

Like any relationship, the connection between an organization and its clients is enriched by common interests and the differences of the two groups. To foster long-term client relationships, we need to be able to recognize the common interests we share with clients and identify how we can leverage them to deepen our relationship with them. In The Entrepreneurial Journey , Norm Trainor talks about the three types of common interests that will serve as the...

It should be a company goal to strive for ubiquitous client service. There should be a subliminal message that underlies every team member's management of client relationships. I've talked before about how every employee should have "client representative" included in his or her role in the company. It is so essential to demonstrating a genuine and consistent commitment to client service. Taking stock of client-facing elements Make an...