Once that we have talked about how to reach a first client and sell your services, I wanted to talked about how to keep your clients happy so they want to keep buying from you. It seems very easy, right? You just have to fulfil every single requirement of the assignment and that is it. Well, I am afraid that I am about to demystify this concept. Here you have some ideas to offer the best user experience to your client within your business.

1. Do not miss a deadline

Of course, one of the aspects you have to take care of is fulfilling every single requirement that you agreed with your client. Missing a deadline may be a sign of unreliability, and cam make your clients doubt about going for you next time. Sometimes I even send some assignments a day or a couple of days before the deadline. Why? To impress my clients and avoid IT problems that may arise the last day. Obviously, I only do this if I know I can finish the project a couple of days before without risking the output quality.

2. Offer more than your clients expect

Do not get me wrong. You can offer “something else” only if that will not make you work on something that you clients have not paid for. For example, if you are working for a bilingual legal consultant office and you are translating a substantial contract for them, you are probably creating your own glossary as you go through the project. At the end of the translation, you will end up with a good glossary of terms. Then, you will be able to provide a short list with some key words that will facilitate your clients communication with their clients. They will appreciate that and will bear you in mind for next projects. 

Sometimes you just have to send a thank you letter for their loyalty and for the excellent relationship that you both have kept for X years. Just think about something that your client would appreciate and some other translators out there would not provide.

3. Ask for feedback

The opinion of your clients is one of the most valuable things for your business. Listen carefully to what they have to tell you and act accordingly. If you receive positive feedback, you know that you are doing great and have to keep that client experience. If you receive negative feedback or your clients remark that there is something that could be improved, do not panic, tell them that you are going to bear that in mind for future projects and you are going to pay special attention to it. At the end of the day, we are all humans, right?

4. Follow-up

If you do not want your clients to forget your business, you do not have to forget them. That is why a good follow-up strategy is needed.

Think about offering new services. For example, if you are translating a website for a law firm, maybe they are interested in some market research, key words analysis within the industry or SEO positioning service. Maybe you should consider add any of these services to your business and discuss with your client if they are interested in this added value.

Maybe you have recently signed up for a webinar on contractual law which may be of interest of a previous client. Do not hesitate to get back to them and let them know that, somehow, your business is offering X service that may be useful for their businesses or that your business is specialising in X area of expertise that would add new value to their businesses.

What about you? What techniques do you use in your post-purchase phase of an assignment?