It’s not your imagination. Clients grow more demanding and fickle by the year. They clamor for new means of interacting with firms, for more contact from those firms’ representatives, from individualised attention at every turn (whether their counterparts are capable of providing that attention or not).

It’s a lot to keep up with. But ignoring client demands is not an option for firms that wish to maintain market share and outcompete peers that happily serve clients’ every whim.

Successfully managing client demands and expectations is much more manageable with an effective client engagement strategy. Or strategies, as the case may be. These five proven client engagement strategies should help your organisation address, and perhaps exceed, even the most demanding clients’ expectations.

1. Develop a Map of Your Customer Journey (With As Much Variation As Needed)

The customer journey is the path your prospects take to become paying customers of your firm (and, it’s hoped, to stay that way). While each customer journey is unique in some ways, it is possible to “map” the general pathways taken by particular groups of prospects and to segment these journeys by such factors as lead generation method, product or service vertical, and buying behaviors. Early on in your engagement campaign, focus on developing a detailed map of your customer journeys with as much variation as needed to account for your unique client population.

2. Use LinkedIn to Connect With Clients When You’re Not Taking Their Calls

Social media helps firms of every size scale their outreach and engagement efforts, multiplying the efforts of sales, business development, and account management staffs that may be too small to engage directly with every client, every day. 

LinkedIn is a particularly useful engagement medium for B2B enterprises. The LinkedIn page for Asiaciti Trust, which provides fiduciary services throughout the Asia-Pacific region, showcases its potential to sharpen users’ authority (thought leadership) and expand their visibility online.

3. Make an Excellent First Impression

You don’t get a second opportunity to make a first impression. Make the most of the one chance you get by perfecting your lead funnel’s entry points and sharpening your firm’s brand image. This work encompasses everything from creating a visually appealing logo to building a portfolio of thought leader content that’s visible to the prospects you want to become clients.

4. Visually Activate Your Customers and Prospects

Whether they’re already loyal clients or still making a buying decision, visually appealing content will keep them engaged with your brand. Allocate resources to developing infographics, short videos, and even memes (yes, memes) internally. Package them in larger formats (case studies, white papers) or distribute them piecemeal (via social media or email).

5. Request and Act on Customer Feedback

Clients are more likely to be engaged when they feel that they are valued. And the best way to make clients feel valued is to request and act on feedback from them. Your social media messaging and email marketing should both invite comment and insights, and you should make a show of updating products, services, or other aspects of your brand around the best feedback you receive.

Engaged Clients Are Happy Clients

You may know the old saying: “The customer is always right.”

Dare we ask how you feel about it? You know, of course, that it is not the literal truth. Customers can be wrong, and often are, just like everyone else.

Unfortunately, we can’t let them know that. Not if we want to keep their business.

These effective client engagement strategies will help you keep your clients engaged with your enterprise and satisfied with the products or services it provides. But you must also be sure to abide by the “golden rule” of doing business: that you exist to serve your clients, not the reverse. To do so, you must keep your ego in check and ensure that, whatever happens, the customer is always right.