20 Ways to Keep Clients Coming Back For More

Whether you're a freelancer or a 500-person development shop, client retention matters. With every new client, you have to explain your service offering, spend time discussing their project, and enlighten them on the possibilities of their project -- essentially, put resources into winning the client. Client turnover is especially high in the web service industry, where it is just about impossible to compete on price.

Now, wouldn't it be great if all your clients were repeat customers, and you could spend more time actually managing projects? In this article, I'll identify 20 ways to improve your client retention rates and keep clients coming back for more.

The importance of client retention

Client retention is a topic that Brendon Sinclair drills home in SitePoint's Web Design Business Kit (Psst: you can buy two kits for the price of one up until the end of April! --Ed.). Here's my take on it:

The best clients are your existing clients. When you're operating a business, even as a freelance provider, one of the best ways you can ensure you have a supply of ongoing work is to keep existing clients instead of finding new ones. You might be pleasantly surprised by the amount of work your existing clients can give you, and even if they don't have any future work for you, if they're happy, they're still likely to recommend you to a friend or business partner. Unfortunately, you can't take such recommendations for granted -- especially if you freelance.

I once did some consulting for a web development shop building simple web applications. Their work wasn't terribly innovative, but it did the job and the clients were happy with the output. Business was booming, and the work kept coming in, but there was one problem -- the company was constantly on the lookout for new clients. When I contacted a few past customers, most were happy with the work and had since had other projects, but they'd given them to the company's competitors. Why? One comment summed it up: “We wanted to try someone else."

Client turnover can be a serious problem, but there's a simple solution: invest in keeping your existing clients! If your clients are happy with the work you've done for them in the past, it's only logical that they will consider coming to you in the future. But it isn't enough for them just to be happy -- they have to be really impressed. To manage that, you have to carefully control your project -- a challenge to which there's quite a science.

20 Tips to Keep Them Coming Back

Let's look at the tactics you can use to boost your client retention rate. I've split these tips into three key areas -- tips around dealing with the clients themselves, tips around project management, and tips relating to the business side of the equation.

The client

When you're managing your business and dealing with all the work that's coming in, it's easy to lose sight of the actual clients. Here are some techniques for managing your clients and their satisfaction levels.

1. Pick your best bets.

This could be one of the best business decisions you make all year. As you stay in business over time, you'll find that 80% of your work comes from 20% of your clients. So take a broader look at your operations, work out which clients comprise that 20%, and focus on them. Don't neglect your other clients, of course, but concentrate your efforts on monitoring projects for this 20%, and make sure everything's running smoothly.

2. Drop the jargon.

When you're communicating with clients via email, instant messages, over the phone or in person, drop the jargon. Leave technicalities out of communications unless the client has specifically requested technical details. Using technical terms alienates the client, and can create misunderstandings that result in a breakdown in communication. I once spoke with a client who thought AJAX referred to the animated pulsing icons commonly used on Web 2.0-style sites (ajaxload.info, anyone?). Dropping the jargon puts you and your client on the same page, so you can communicate clearly and effectively.

3. Show that you've done your homework.

When you're building a web application for your client, chances are that the application relates to their field of expertise, not yours. They may be the expert on the area, and you could learn the background from them, but you'll really impress them if you do your homework. Research the area a little before your first meeting; Wikipedia is always a good place to start, while online articles can give you a good idea of the state of the industry. Interviewing existing customers is a great source of direction. By conducting these basic investigations, your client will appreciate that you're coming to the table with experience in the field, and will be more likely to trust you with further work in the area.

4. Involve them.

Even once you've done your homework, you'll need to use your client as your point of reference. You aren't an expert in the field; they are. And when you're planning your application, the best way to learn more about what the field involves is by talking to your client. Any non-technical project planning stage should involve your client significantly; briefly run drafts past them, fire off questions via email, and meet regularly to ensure you're on track.

5. Know your client.

It can really pay to get to know your client. I'm not talking about their business or industry (although that helps too), but the clients themselves. Find out a bit about them -- they might have an online biography, or maybe you can just tell what they're into. Sweetening their self-interest can go a long way, and by getting to know your client you can identify how to best appeal to them personally. For example, if they're into horse racing, maybe you can schedule a meeting with them at the local racecourse. Your thoughtfulness will leave a lasting impression, and they'll be glad of it.

6. Get feedback.

Your clients will constantly be forming opinions about your progress, your general performance, the quality of your service, and so on. So why not take advantage of those opinions? Next time you meet with a client, finish up by asking them what they think of your work on the project so far. It's a reasonable, non-threatening way to get some feedback from them, and it can help you to hone in on the areas that matter.

7. Make it fun.

At the end of the day, the best way to get results from your clients is to make sure they have fun. Make a meeting interesting and enjoyable. Humour always helps. Setting your clients at ease will help you to gain more insightful comments and useful feedback from them. Once your clients genuinely enjoy attending your meetings and discussing the project, you can really get moving.

The Project

There are a lot of project management methodologies in the world. Each suits different situations, management styles, and people. I say, if you want results, forget them all and work out what's best for you -- try out some of these ideas.

8. Overdocument the project

I can't stress this enough. Whatever you do in your project, overdocument it. Actually, there's no such thing as overdocumenting -- you can never have enough useful documentation. Don't keep churning out pages and pages for their own sake, but if something comes up in the project -- a major design decision is being taken, for instance -- record it in the documentation, and some kind of concise project log. Finally, give your client and staff access to this documentation and encourage them to use it. Your client will appreciate having access to this knowledge about their project, and you can avoid quite a few common problems when everyone involved knows where the project stands.

9. Stick to constraints.

There's a golden rule to project scheduling: you can only have two of “Good", “Fast" and “Cheap". I regard these as the three constraints on any project, and the key to successful scheduling (and happy clients) is working out what your client's constraints are. For example, a major multinational corporation might want a project done well and quickly, with budget blowouts kept manageable, whereas an individual might simply want the project delivered quickly and within budget.

Chances are you will be pushing one of these constraints by the end of the project, and smoothing things over with your clients is much easier when they can afford to be flexible in that area. Most can handle a slight delay in project completion, while some would rather pay to hire some freelancers and get the job done on time. Either way, you avoid pushing clients to their limits in ways that hurt them.

10. Secluded planning.

Project planning is tricky. If multiple people will contribute to the final product, avoid allowing them to discuss the project planning with each other. Everyone's opinion counts, but the moment your developers start discussing a project, their opinion will start to drift towards the collective opinion. Different developers have different ideas; some may be good, some may be bad, but they all count. Have your team members plan separately, then approach them individually to discuss their thoughts so that you can pick out the best ideas.