If there’s one thing businesses have in common, no matter the industry: it’s the importance of client experience!

This means not only finding new clients and signing them on, but making their whole experience enjoyable so they come back for more at a later stage AND recommend you to their fellow business owners (hello referrals!).

Take a second to think about it: How much of your time goes to taking care of your clients (especially as a service-based entrepreneur)? If your answer was A LOT, then you already know the importance of making this experience enjoyable for them! 

So, how exactly do you do this?  

1. Map out your workflow 

Running a business requires a lot of moving parts! If you’re not organised in your own processes and functions, you won’t be able to offer the best client experience possible! This is why focusing on your brand and business is a major step for client relationships. 

Think about all the parts involved in your client experience: attracting clients, onboarding them, working with them, finishing the work, the aftermath. How do you deal with all these processes? Do you know what they all entail? Are you managing them efficiently? 

Once you’ve mapped out your workflow – your overall experience will be far less stressful and your client will feel like they’re well taken care of. That’s definitely a win-win situation.

2. Upfront expectations 

Be real with yourself – when you sign a contract, and all of a sudden there are “hidden costs” or “conditions”, you get annoyed, right? This is why laying it all on the table from the get go is so important in your client relationship and experience! 

Make sure you always set expectations so you and your clients are always on the same page. What does this mean? Well, since the completion of a project or job is a two-way street, it’s important that you set expectations that cover both sides! Lay out what your clients can expect from you and what you expect from them in return to make sure you can deliver your best work in the allocated time period. 

If you don’t know how to begin, remember that communication truly is key – it helps increase both confidence and rapport and will make the entire work relationship more enjoyable for both sides.

3. Welcome packs!

In addition to laying out all expectations, welcome packs are a great way to give your clients information they will require throughout the process of working with you. Customised welcome packs with your branding make it easy for you to maintain a level of consistency and make your client feel really special – that’s a definite plus to increasing your client experience! 

To take it a step further, you can add a goodbye pack, so your client has all the information needed once they finish working with you. If they feel that they were treated well throughout the WHOLE process (even the goodbye), they’re more likely to return for your services in future. This also allows you to provide helpful information they will need and how to get support going forward.  

People buy into relationships and having welcome (and goodbye) packs makes it pretty easy for you to maintain great relationships whilst not doing an enormous amount of work (once you’ve set these up of course).

4. Remember that feedback is not the enemy.

Just because you like something or think it’s great, doesn’t mean your client will (I know, this can be frustrating). This is why feedback is such an important part of your client experience – let your clients in on your process (as much as possible of course) and ask them for feedback on work sent over. Ask them what they think works or doesn’t work, ask them what they think could be done better, ask them if there’s any way you can increase their experience in working with you. It will do wonders for your client relationship too. 

Ultimately, this will not only allow you to get accurate information about where your clients are at – but it will let them know that their voice is important and you’re there for them, which is basically what your clients want!

5. Send your client FAQs 

Your clients have hired YOU for a reason. You’re offering something that they need and they think you’re best suited for the job (how exciting!). Since it’s not their area of expertise, they may not understand the in’s and out’s of everything and might be confused about some terminology – which is understandable. There’s one of two ways this is most likely to end up going: either they are going to suffer in silence (no!) because they don’t want to seem “silly” or “annoying”; or they’re going to ask you exactly what they’re confused about, in which case you’ll probably be answering the question you’ve answered a few times before!

To avoid this uncomfortable situation and increase your client experience – send them FAQs that you’ve received with your answers. It will make your clients feel truly understood, and will take away that awkwardness of not wanting to ask but also wanting to know! Plus, it’s a great way for you to not have to answer the same questions over and over. 

So there you have it – 5 ways to make your client experience amazing – in other words, 5 ways to increase your clients happiness and ultimately make you a happier business owner! Don’t ever underestimate the importance of experience in your business interactions, just as branding is not just about a logo, running a business is definitely not just about money. 

This process came about when a photography client of mine needed a referral program set up on Dubsado. She needed to have her client provide the referral’s name, and then immediately send out a ‘voucher’ type of thing to the client to share with the referral for them to redeem with a code. Thus came about this mostly automated referral system. My amazing client, Dana from Dana Monticelli Photography has allowed me to use the forms that I created for her as examples for this post!

Having an automated referral program on Dubsado not only saves you time, but it also smoothes out your marketing strategy!

Create your own “refer a friend” custom mapped fields:

→ Once you’re logged into your business’ Dubsado brand, click into your brand settings (the cogwheel icon next to the brand menu). Select the custom-mapped fields tab. This is where your custom-mapped fields will be stored.

→ Create two custom-mapped fields called “friend’s name” and “friend’s email.” Make sure that both custom-mapped fields are categorised as ‘short answer.’

Create your “refer a friend” discount:

→  Exit your settings menu and open up ‘Packages,’ which is stored under your ‘Templates’ dropdown. Select the ‘Discounts’ tab to create your custom discount which will be added to the voucher and invoice later. 

→ You can call the discount whatever you like and adjust the amount to your specific business needs. 

→ Remember to choose your discount code wisely because this will be showing up on your new lead’s/referral’s gift voucher. 

→ You can place your new discount into a category to make your filing a little easier and your reporting a little faster. It’s also possible to set a number of uses and an expiry date.

Design you “refer a friend” client form

→ Next, select ‘Forms’ under the ‘Templates’ menu on the left of your screen. Click the small plus sign next to ‘Questionnaire’ to create your client’s “refer a friend” form.

→ It’s always helpful to add your business’ logo, a description of the purpose of the form, photos, your details, and other custom elements. I usually code certain elements into the questionnaire’s that I design.

→ The function of this form is to collect your new lead’s/referral name and email address. Here is how you do it. 

→ Add two columns to your form. In each column drag and drop a ‘Short Answer’ question box. Click on the question boxes to edit them and map them to the custom-mapped fields that you created earlier (Friend’s name and friend’s email). Name the questions as “Friend’s Name” and “Friend’s Email.”

→ The function of this form is to collect your new lead’s/referral name and email address. Here is how you do it. 

→ Add two columns to your form. In each column drag and drop a ‘Short Answer’ question box. Click on the question boxes to edit them and map them to the custom-mapped fields that you created earlier (Friend’s name and friend’s email). Name the questions as “Friend’s Name” and “Friend’s Email.”

Design your “refer a friend” ‘voucher’ FORM

→  Click back into your forms page. Add another questionnaire and call it “Refer a Friend – Voucher.”

→ Notice that there is a download PDF button at the top of the voucher. This makes it easy for a new lead/referral to redeem the voucher (see image above). Again, I used Alice’s code to style the button.

→ Remember to add a description and anything else that will make your voucher appear more attractive to your new lead/referral. Include a space for the voucher code that your new lead/referral will use to redeem the voucher. 

→  The voucher automatically populates the mapped field that we made earlier and collected through our client’s “Refer a friend – Questionnaire.” 

→ You automate this by dragging and dropping a text box into the questionnaire. Click into the text box to edit it and create a 2X2 table. You can drag the divider closer to the left to make the table neater. 

→ On the left of the table type in “For my friend” and “Referred by.” On the top right, add the smart field ‘Friend’s Name’ which you will find under the ‘Project’ tab. On the bottom right, add the smart field ‘Client’s Name,’ which you will find under the ‘Client’ tab.

Create an automated “refer a friend” workflow

→ Save your new voucher template and enter your ‘Workflow’ page. 

→ The workflow that I have created has four steps to it:

→  Send “Refer a friend” questionnaire

→  Change status to “Referral Email Sent” (You can make project statues under projects, customize)

→  Send “Refer a friend” questionnaire

→ Change status to “Referral Code Sent”

→ Both Forms that are sent with this workflow should have custom canned emails sent with them. Here are the two emails that I used as examples:

Email #1 – Request referral

SUBJECT: Thank you!

BODY: Hi {{client.firstName}},

Thank you for our session yesterday, it was so much fun! I will be in touch with you in the next few days after I work on your photos!

If you’ve had as much fun as I’ve had, would you be keen to refer a friend to my photography services? How it works is if your friend books a session with me, they get (AMOUNT) off their total, and SO DO YOU! It’s a win-win and my way of saying thank you.

All you have to do is fill out the quick form below with your friend’s details, and I will send back a voucher you can download and send to them. Once they book a session with the code, I will send a unique code your way and you can book your next session with me!

Please note that the voucher is not valid with (SESSION TYPES). 

{{form | formLink}}

{{brand.emailTemplate.signature}}

Email #2 – Send Voucher

SUBJECT: Refer a Friend Voucher

BODY:

Hi {{client.firstName}},

Thank you so much for referring a friend and putting their details in the form.

You will find the voucher below. Please note that you need to ‘DOWNLOAD PDF’ at the top of the form, and send the download to them.

{{form | formLink}}

Please will you only share this PDF with {{job.mappedFields.friends_name.value}}.

Thank you again, and I will email you to let you know as soon as {{job.mappedFields.friends_name.value}} has booked a session and include your code for your next session.

{{brand.emailTemplate.signature}}

→ You can automate this further by using your previous workflow to trigger this one. In the previous workflow add the “Start a Workflow” option. Then, select the “Refer a Friend” workflow. 

→ Remember that you will still need to make a unique voucher code for your original client (once their friend has used the referral code).

→ To put some extra oil in this automated machine, create a proposal with an invoice in it and put it on your website. Through the invoice, they can enter their voucher codes when booking their session.

YOU WILL NOW NEED TO ALLOW THE PROPOSAL TO ACCEPT THE CODE YOU WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO USE THE CODE ON:

→ Go to settings in the proposal

→ Select the code you created

NOTE: You will need to do this to all of the proposals you would like the referrer to have a discount on (once you make their unique code once their friend uses the generic code you made).

I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow and that I have helped you to create your very own referral program on Dubsado. Let me know which part of this tutorial was most helpful in the comments!