How,Manage,Your,Clients,Today, marketing How to Manage Your Clients

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Today I want to talk toyou about how to manage your clients. Whether you are just starting out or you are atfull practice right now looking to multiply, you must know how to manage yourclients effectively. You might be thinking,“What does this have to do with multiplying my business?” It has everything to do with it becausewhen you have a practice full of clients who are all doing their own things, itcreates a big stress and drain for you and it’s very, very time consuming. When you have each ofyour clients behaving properly, and I know that sounds funny, you create aproblem-free zone.So managing your clients equals a problem-free zone. And when you have aproblem-free zone, you have more time for more clients, more time to market,and more time to make more money in your business. So how do you properlymanage your clients?Again, it doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or if you have a fullpractice. If you’re just starting out, you need to come from full practicementality. Even if you have two clients, you’ve got to pretend that you havethirty-two clients and set up the right systems ahead of time. My number one tiparound that is to be very clear. Start by getting yourself really clear on whatyour standards are for your business. What are the rules that you want yourclients to follow in your business? If you have a telephone-based business,then one of the rules could be that you want them to call on time, you want themto call a particular number and you want them to end on time. Why? Because ifthey don’t, they eat up into other people’s time, etc. If you have anin-person business, maybe it’s even brick and mortar, then you need to getreally clear on what you want them to do when they arrive. There needs to be rules for everything.You might think, “Oh no. Clients are not going to like rules.” I totallydisagree. Clients like to know what the rules are. In fact, I will sharewith you that about a year ago, I hired a practitioner for a healing session. I paid up front and waited for theappointment day to arrive. I never got an email that instructed whether I wasto call or if she would call me. I didn’t get an email that instructing whetherthis was an online session or phone session. I didn’t even know how long oursession was going to be. I didn’t know if I was expected to send something inbeforehand and frankly, I was a little annoyed by it. I like to know what therules are so I can follow them. What I’ve realized overthe years, and I’ve been doing this for a very long time, is the more specificyou are about what you expect of your clients, the more they enthusiastically follow the rules.Then you have a practice full of yummy people who are behaving properly asopposed to saboteur clients who create havoc and messes in your business. So to reiterate, thevery first thing that you want to do is set up these policies and proceduresand communicate your expectations and rules. I have a Policies and Procedures document that Ishare with my clients and the rules are stated with kindness and warmth butalso some sternness so people know that I’m serious about these things. The key is tocommunicate it at the beginning of your working relationship so it’s notsomething that you come back to a few months later when they’re already used tobehaving in a certain way.  Here’s the thing. If you get them to do this andunderstand these at the beginning of your working relationship, even before youget started, you’re likely to never have somebody behave improperly. You caneven have them sign off on, “Yes, I understand these policies and procedures.”Then you have a copy of it, they have a copy of it. It’s all good. But let’s say that inyour working relationship with a client, somebody doesn’t show up for a pre-scheduled callor doesn’t pay on time or just goes against one of your policies andprocedures, it’s important that you uphold your boundaries. Uphold yourstandards and your procedures and you remind them that this was something thatthey agreed to. Again, you have to do it kindly and warmly but the idea is thatyou must remind them so they get back in line. I’m going to leave youwith a final tip.You always want to play the ‘good cop’ role because if you start chasing clientsfor money or scolding them for not following your policies and procedures, it’sgoing to tinge your working relationship. Ideally, you hire an assistant, youhave one of your existing team members or a virtual person do that for you soyou always stay the ‘good cop’ and they become the ‘bad cop’. Your Client AttractionAssignment Define what the rulesfor your business are when it comes to clients. Write them out and be sure to sharethem with your clients. When all of yourclients follow your policies and procedures, rules and expectations, it’ssmooth sailing. Isit smooth sailing 100 percent of the time? It never will be because you’redealing with people and each have their own behaviors and quirks andintricacies. You can make it as smooth as possible though and a smoother rideallows you to have a smoother practice, with more room for more clients, moreroom for marketing and more room to multiply your business.