Client Relationships have changed. There’s a new way forward.
Business relationships have changed. During a single week in 2020, many client facing professionals went from meeting in person for every meeting to 100% remote. That shocked most expectations around delivering client meetings. And, it’s created a huge opportunity to wow clients with a new way forward!
We all struggled at first. Finding the right corner of our homes to share with the outside world. Setting expectation with those we share our homes with. Managing to find ways (physical notepads to digital tools) to conduct our virtual meetings. We did it, found we like it & want to keep working remotely with clients.
Many client facing professionals have realised there’s a gap in meeting tools’ offerings. We need digital tools that drive the most important components of relationship development — delivery, transparency, flexibility and consistency. Not just facilitating a video call.
Where I’m coming from
I started my professional career in the financial services industry before entering software. The constant that carried me between the two was a focus on all things clients. From delivering on client needs to providing feedback internally on product or services, I’ve truly enjoyed building on relationships with clients across industries and this has brought me to Connect4.
Between flights and tube rides to visit clients, I found my own best practices to work with them and build relationships. I had my own templates (digital & mental) to set agendas, deliver meetings and share post meeting notes as well as tasks. In managing projects and client objectives, I’d start off speaking with colleagues, reading notes in systems and adding my own inputs into organisational systems for my wider team to know the health of my client portfolio.
The full picture of a client’s relationship frequently slipped through the cracks. Through a client’s buying journey, CRMs and account management tools are used to capture meeting notes and coordinate contact details. Because these tools are primarily internal facing, it can be challenging to capture external actions in motion efficiently. As a result, external information that really progressed relationships developed through client meetings can be lost on individual team member’s note pads, inboxes or task lists.
Where we’re going
I joined Connect4 in early April 2021 because of the need to find a new way forward. With Connect4’s unique “pod approach” client facing professionals tap into the workflows of meetings from agenda setting to delivery and post meeting accountability. Offering a consistent pod aids in developing valuable relationships around the advice clients need to thrive!
Every client comes to a business relationship with different needs and expectations — merging those with the internal expectations of an organisation is a dance for any client facing professional to achieve. The current shift in business relationships towards digital interactions has been happening over the past 10 years and COVID has established the permanence of this new reality — particularly with video first interactions — as a must-have in meeting the expectation of clients.
I’m excited to be founding member of Connect4 to meet the changing needs of client facing professionals building productive business relationships. We’re tapping into the needs of their meetings — pre, during & post — and using our unique pod system to allow these professionals to deliver for clients in our hybrid working environments.
