Be Your Client's Best Friend

How do you keep established clients from defecting to cheaper firms? Simple: Become the essential partner your clients can't live without. A veteran designer and management consultant offers eight tips on staying connected.

by Pat Matson Knapp

You may hate to admit it, says management consultant Hugh Hochberg, but there are many creative firms out there providing the same services as you, at the same level of quality. So what makes clients pick you—and stick with you?

Simple compatibility—in personality and in values—is what attracts clients to you, says Hochberg, a partner in The Coxe Group in Seattle. And nurturing personal relationships with them is the best way to maintain that connection. Even when clients suspend a business relationship for economic reasons, the personal relationship always has the potential to reunite you professionally later. "You can dismiss a business relationship, but not a personal one," Hochberg says. "That's why it's so important to maintain close ties to the clients you're not doing business with right now."

To keep the ones you are working with, continue providing increased value, Hochberg says. "You should always add to their feeling that partnering with you is good for their business." Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Keep it personal. Design firms' tendency to choose indirect communication with clients over direct contact is one of the problems that's currently hurting the design field, Hochberg says. "If you only have a certain amount of money and you have to make tough choices about your marketing dollars, don't spend them mailing out a glossy promotional piece," he says. "Call or visit your clients instead. Use that time and money to stay personally connected."

2. Add perspective. Your value increases proportionately with your depth of knowledge about your client's business objectives, competition, emerging trends and challenges. At the same time, you add perspective as an outsider not fully immersed in his day-to-day business. "The more you know, the more your client sees you not just as a consultant, but as an integral part of [the company] and where it's going—a strategic partner," Hochberg says. "Your goal is to help clients see more clearly where they're going and to help them shape their strategy."

3. Seek out other specialists. Designers often feel threatened when a client brings in additional expertise to contribute to a project. Not only should you not feel threatened by other consultants, but you should actually seek them out. Be a leader in introducing new services and technologies to your client. Understanding the resources they need to devote to a project only increases your value as a strategic partner.

4. Be incredibly easy to work with. Deepen your client relationships with simple tools that make working with you a dream. Create a directory that gives clients the names and contact information for the staffers working on their accounts, and use a post-project evaluation form to gauge how well you met their expectations and needs. More ...

This article originally appeared in the How Magazine and is reproduced here with their permission. Pat Matson Knapp is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer and frequent HOW contributor. She's the author of Designers in Handcuffs.

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The Day Group

A Brand New Day with TimeFox

A growing Marketing Firm, The Day Group was struggling with a cumbersome manual billing system. They realized they needed to track time and productivity more accurately. Their wish list was long, but TimeFox easily delivered it all.

The Day Group is a marketing firm assisting clients in graphic design, media production & placement, marketing and public relations. Based in Baton Rouge, LA, this growing agency realized the need to focus on becoming more billable with their time.

"Before TimeFox, we were tracking our time by hand," explains David Day, President of The Day Group. "At the end of the month, we would work tirelessly to produce reports and then have to go back and do additional research. This added up to a lot of unbillable time."

The Day Group identified their need: a system that would eliminate duplication of time entry from Mac to PC and from detail form to summary form. The system also had to document billable and non-billable time.

They quickly discovered that TimeFox delivered all of this... and more.

"As soon as I tried it, I was instantly hooked!" says The Day Group's Business Manager Lori Storer. "TimeFox was very easy to learn. We didn't even have to train our employees – they picked up on it right away." More...

If you would like your company to be featured in a TimeFox newsletter, on our website or in our promotional package, please send your request to corina@functionfox.com.

For more articles and resources, see www.functionfox.com/resources.html.

In our last FoxPoll we asked our newsletter readers what area of their business they would most like to improve for the year 2005. 42% of respondents would like to improve their billing efficiency, while 34% felt that client relationships was an area that needed attention. 21% would like to improve their staff's productivity, and 4% of respondents were not sure.

At your firm how much of your time is getting billed? Not how much is recorded, but how much is actually getting charged to clients. To be profitable, with a normal client mix, it should be 65% of all the available hours at your firm.

At FunctionFox our mission is helping small creative companies improve their business. If you are curious about how efficient your firm's current billing practices are, please take a moment and use our billing efficiency calculator. We want 2005 to be your most successful year yet! Our resource section contains articles and industry recommendations focused on improving your firm's bottom line.

Two-Day Seminar on Managing Creatives and Creativity

Being an Effective and Confident Creative Director
Thur & Fri, Feb 10&11, 8:30am to 4:30pm, Nashville Downtown Marriott Courtyard

This two-day session is especially for creative directors in design firms and advertising agencies, and is designed to cover everything about being an effective and satisfied creative director. Anyone who manages the creative process will find it to be a must attend seminar, whether that person is a principal, creative director, design director, art director, or just someone soon to be promoted to a role that includes managing people or the creative process.

Presenters: David C. Baker - ReCourses; Bryn Mooth - editor of HOW magazine; John Ranalletta - consultant, speaker, and writer.

Complete Brochure and Registration Information:
http://www.recourses.com/pdfs/SEMCREAT.PDF

Enter to win a free ticket ($995.00US value). Sign up for a demo at www.functionfox.com/demo/ before January 23rd and enter in offer code 'MCCWIN'. Winner to be drawn on January 24th.

If you refer someone to FunctionFox, and they purchase a TimeFox subscription, we'll give you a month's subscription to TimeFox FREE! Refer 12 new customers, you'll get a whole year's subscription FREE!

Don't miss this chance to pass the word and realize considerable savings!

Here's how: Ask the person you refer to enter your name/company under 'Referral (Client or Friend)' when they sign up for a free demo at www.functionfox.com/demo or tell a friend at www.functionfox.com/referral_program.

FoxPoll

How often does your design firm enter award contests:

More than once a year

About once a year

Once every two years

Rarely, if ever. We don't have the time!

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