The Simple Formula Behind a Client Experience That Keeps Clients Coming Back

What does it actually take to turn a one-time client into a loyal fan who refers you on repeat?

It's not just about the quality of your work and in this episode, I'm breaking down the three foundational elements that separate a good client experience from a genuinely great one.

Whether you're a photographer, business coach, virtual assistant, or any other service provider, your deliverables are only part of what your clients are evaluating. The way they feel throughout the process? That's what keeps them coming back.

I'm walking you through the three-part framework I use inside my own business and when I'm building out client management systems for my clients, so that every single touchpoint in your client journey is working for you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why a great client experience doesn't happen by accident
• The difference between your service offer and your client experience and why mixing them up is costing you referrals
• Three foundational elements you can start applying to your client journey today
• How intentional client management systems create the space to go above and beyond without burning out
• Real examples of what this looks like in practice across different service-based businesses

If you've been wondering why clients aren't referring you or coming back  this episode is your starting point.

🎙️ABOUT THE HOST

Hi, I'm Kenniqua Lewter, Client Experience Systems Strategist, HoneyBook Educator, and the host of the Systems Rehab Podcast. I help service providers create client experience systems that save time, strengthen client relationships, and build a business that runs with ease. 

➡️WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER

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🔗 Ready to get a client experience system that actually works for you? Book a sales call at yoursystemspro.com

🎧 Listen to the Systems Rehab Pod

Systems & Chill is a Monday hangout for service providers who want to simplify their business and finally get their systems under control. Each week we dive into client management, automation, and smart processes to help you work less, book more clients, and run your business with clarity. Plus I’ll share some behind-the-scenes of what I’m working on, answer your questions, and more.

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Transcript

today we're actually talking about what actually goes into a client experience that helps you to be able to create loyal clients, loyal fans and

have them where they're able to go through and refer you, right? There is really a very, very simple formula to getting this done. It is so simple. You can actually go through and do it today. You can start implementing this process into your business today. So just in case you're new here, my name is Kniequil Luthor. I'm a client experience system strategist and HoneyBook strategist.

And I help my clients implement a client management system into their business so they can turn their runtime clients into repeat bookings and referrals using intentional client experience systems. And like I said today, we're going to be talking about just a very simple strategy that I use or foundation, I would pretty much say that I use in my business as well as in my clients businesses when I'm building out their systems.

this is going to be the key to actually having a excellent client experience, So one thing that I do just want you to keep in mind is that client experience, having a good client experience, a great client experience is something that is intentional, It's nothing that just happens.

You just don't have a great client experience. Like your client experience could be great, or excuse me, could be good, but to be great, it's something that you really put some thought into. You really thought about, how are my clients actually experiencing my service and my business, right? So you can be a service provider. Maybe you're offering photography services, maybe you're a virtual assistant, maybe you're...

a business coach or pet concierge, venue owner, it really doesn't matter what you do as the service. Your service is one thing, right? So your service offer, offering you have your packages, you know exactly what those deliverables are for that package and you've priced it accordingly. But how your clients actually go through and interact with you and experience that service is a whole nother thing.

So there's three things that is very simple, but I wanna cover today about how you can actually basically level up your client experience and begin to go through and create clients that actually do love you and then they're ready to go through and refer you. And again, it's not just about the work that you do.

so as I mentioned, the foundational pieces for having a client experience is you have your client journey. And you guys have heard me talk about client journey a lot of times. And a lot of times we're like, OK.

I know what a client journey is, is the, from the time that someone says hello, they inquire about my business to off-boarding. But there's so many other components and strategies that are built into a client journey. Number one of being intentional, right? Being intentional about each step of the process that you're taking your clients through and understanding how the experience that the client.

feels during the process, right? So let me kind of give you an example. So let's say, for example, you go to hotel A, right? You go to a hotel, it's a decent hotel, you know, it's got all the things that you need.

but there's no really like bells or whistles to it, right? You go in, you check in at the room and then that's about it, right? You may call now for room service if you need it. They'll come down if you'll come if you need it, right? So that's hotel A. But then you have hotel B that might be maybe a little bit more in price, right?

But when you get there, they have everything kind of laid out for you. They have a little bag, maybe full of like couple of mints, a bag full of water, maybe some mints on the bed. And they leave their card right there next to the phone where you can call them if you need room service, or maybe even they come and check on you every few hours or whatever, right? The experience that you feel

and clients or hotel B is just a little bit more than you do in hotel A, even though they may actually still be offering the same type of things. So one of the things is as service providers, there are a lot of service providers that are offering the pretty much the same thing that we're offering, right? The way you shape your offer may be a little bit different. Like, of course, what you call your offer is going to sound a little bit different.

But the core of what you offer could possibly be the same. Like if you're a photographer, ultimately you may just be providing brand photography, why you offer a subset of deliverables. Maybe you get five edited photos and then maybe you get this gallery or whatever, right? And your competitors may offer the same and then maybe they might offer a couple of more edited photos, right?

But the deliverable itself is not just the only thing that clients actually evaluate when they're actually working with your business. The other thing that they do, and it's not even something that I think we do, I would say as clients, something that we do intentionally, like we're evaluating, like, I wanna see how this service provider makes me feel.

No, I don't think it's something that we consciously say to ourselves. It's just something that just happens when we're getting the service, right? So if you are providing, especially if you're providing a premium service for, you know, four figures and above, or depending on what type of niche you are, could still be premium if maybe your prices are just maybe higher than your competitors, right?

but you have a premium service or you're trying to be more high touch in what exactly it is that you're offering with your clients to help build up those relationships. You have to first think about how do I want my clients to feel as I'm going through and I'm doing the actual service with the client. So giving them the deliverables is one thing. Providing client experience is a whole different thing and it has to be set up intentional.

So there's three foundations that you can easily implement into your business today that can help you elevate your client experience. And this will also help as you go through and you're working with your clients, you're building out your client journey, this is gonna help give you that backbone,

So the foundations that I'm going to go over today, each one, each piece of your client journey is going to be connected to this foundation. Every, every stage. So inquiry stage, booking stage, onboarding, offboarding, nurturing, everything, right? Every touch point, every email.

every form that you send, you're going to have this foundation and think about this foundation as you're going through and you're thinking about how can I simplify my business? How can I automate the things that need to be automated, but still provide that high touch for things that possibly things that cannot? And then how can I go through and support my clients where they feel like they're being heard? They feel like they're being seen. They feel like they're being taken care of. Okay.

So the first thing is being proactive, okay? Being proactive. This means can you anticipate the needs of your clients? So how exactly are you able to be proactive?

if you have a client, let's say for example, I'll just use my business for example, is that if I'm going through and I am onboarding, well actually I'll give you an actual example. recently I had a client, we off-boarded this particular client, so I can tell you a little bit further in the client journey, but this is just one of those examples. And you'll actually hear from one of the clients that actually said this. So.

I recently worked with a client. She was in her 30 days. So I built the system. I do a full client experience system with our clients. I call it the five star CRM, which I use HoneyBook to build this out for my clients. And so at the end of the off boarding, we give our clients 30 days of support, which they get access to a support hub where they can go through. They can enter tickets and ask questions, et cetera.

So one of the clients and I did a podcast episode with her that's going to be dropping soon. It probably will be the beginning of May so that the video will be on here on YouTube and then it will also be on the podcast, the systems rehab podcast. But one of the things that she mentioned in that particular in that particular recording session was that I asked her, how was it going from you getting

your deliverables and saying, OK, your system is complete. You're now in 30 days. having me basically in the passenger side, while, of course, her being in the driver's side to be able to utilize her systems. How was that transition to doing that part? Right. Like you actually going through and taking the will. And one of the things that she mentioned was that, well, you have all your videos.

Anytime I had a question, you were there to answer my question. But even before I had questions, you already had a video in the client portal for that. And that is just an example of anticipating being proactive and anticipating needs. If I am building out your system, each one of the systems that I build for clients inside of HoneyBook, they're

technically all unique, right? Because I build it based off of my client's journey. So we go through, we map out a full client journey, we spend 90 minutes during a strategy session getting this done, which makes this process unique to the client. How are they working? How are their clients coming into their world? How are they doing and moving throughout the process? And again, adding in those touch points. But based off of that,

the deliverables and what I'm doing as far as trainings, they're, they're custom to the client. Some clients I have to record 10 videos for some. might only have to record three because I'm being proactive to anticipate their need because I know based off of their client journey, I know they're to need to see a video about that. Right. If, if I have a client that they have a service where the service itself has tax

But like I recently had a client where the service required tax, but the add on to it, which wasn't an add on, it was a requirement, the shipping fee for it or the delivery fee for that I could not have tax. Of course I have to record a video on that. Do I need to do that for every single scenario, every single client? Absolutely not.

But we want to go through and have that standard where we are being proactive. How can I ask you questions upfront that I know that I'm going to need, but then also anticipate what it is that you're going to need, right? And thinking about having that as like a non-negotiable. I am going to be proactive during this process. From start to finish, I'm gonna be proactive.

Now, one of the key things is, and actually I'll wait till the end of telling you how you can actually do that, but I'll go through each one of the phases here. So it's three. And these are things, like I said, that you're gonna add and have in the back of your mind for every single part of your process when you're thinking about client experience. How can I be proactive? The second one is going to be, how can I be responsive? Being responsive.

So when I'm building out the client journey for my clients and we're doing this, and this is a collaborative effort, we're doing this during our strategy call, when we're mapping this out and we're going through like, hey, we need an email here, we need to ask questions here, we need to have maybe them book a call here, we're thinking about how can we put in responses to every single thing that the client does. So I believe that

If you acknowledge everything the client does throughout your process, this is going to cut down on confusion. This is going to cut down over of the overwhelm on the client side, right? This is going to cut down on them asking you a whole bunch of questions, right? So like proactive also helps them stop asking so much questions because you're proactively telling them the stuff, right? You're proactively telling them, Hey, this is where you find your

client has, or this is where you find this is our business hours, these are our communication, you're being proactive about this. The more proactive that you can be in your process, the more that you can be able to get back some of that time, because a lot of times service providers, we spend a lot of time in the inbox asking questions that we could have already asked already, or we could have already answered already. So that's the proactive part. The responsive part, again, is,

Being responsive to everything that they do. If you go through and you send out a document to a client and you say, hey, fill out this, I need to get these questions answered before our next call, be responsive. Being responsive means when they fill out that form, at least acknowledging that you received the form. Acknowledging that you did receive the form.

responding back to emails in a certain amount of time, right? Even if it's just, even if for emails, even if you just have an auto responder that's turned on where it's like, hey, I'm gonna get back to your response within 24, 48 hours, setting those expectations upfront, it helps increase the client experience because the client knows what to expect. Again, when we're talking about client experience,

That's one of the things that again, if it's not intentional, it's something that can silently kill what you got going on with your business. Because if you're solely focused on, I'm just gonna go through and provide this service and I don't think about, because people, I don't think about how people feel, then there's ways that you can just lose the client. You can lose them and have provided them great deliverables in the process.

because we were not thinking about how they feel, but yet feelings drive so many different things. I have gotten and worked with people before where I have gotten a really good deliverable, like the product I received, the service that I received was good, but yet the experience of how we actually got there, not so much, right? And so we really wanna go through and do that. So be proactive, be responsive and the last thing,

is going through and going beyond, going beyond as your standard to client experience. What I mean by going beyond, this does not mean adding in additional services or adding in something that you know the client doesn't need or doing more work or doing something that's gonna cause you more. That does not mean that.

That means that you actually are going through and you're thinking about ultimately what do I need to do in order to make sure that my client is successful in what we have or what they have going on next. Right. And so this can look a lot of different ways, right? This can look a lot of different ways. And again, it may going beyond doesn't always necessarily result.

in additional revenue. may not, it results in additional revenue for you, at least at that time, at that moment. But if you have and you provide additional resources for a client or go beyond the actual, I'm not gonna say scope of work because it's not necessarily about you doing more work. Actually, let me give you an example of this. So.

Let's say, for example, you are a I'm going to kind of stick with the photographer one, because I feel like a lot of times that's really easy because it's really black and white as far as like deliverables. But let's say you are a photographer, right? You're a photographer. You go through, you provide and you give the photos to your clients. Right. So you deliver the photos and boom. And the photos are beautiful. The client absolutely loves it. But going beyond.

something that won't cost anymore is telling the client, giving them some examples of how they can use said photos, right? How they can use said photos, because that is something that is not something everyone does. Some people just go through, they deliver it and it's done. The same thing like if you were doing branding.

If you were doing branding, you can simply go through, you can do branding, provide a logo, provide brand images, and then boom, you provided a beautiful product. And again, the clients are happy with the product that you provide, but they aren't really too sure of how to go through and use it. So what can you put along your offer that you have that can just take it up a notch?

So it can either be a going beyond can be like, okay, what is that next thing that I know that my client will need? Whether this is going to be something that's gonna give me revenue now or something that is just gonna help the client to put them in best position to utilize the thing that we did together. Or this also could look like something of who can I put them in connection with, Who can I put them in connection with?

that is then going to again help them with their growth and their success. When you do these three things together, when you are proactive, when you are responsive, and when you go beyond, this creates the formula for a premium client experience. This creates the formula for your clients coming back to you because they now know that you weren't just, it just wasn't about.

you delivering the service, getting paid and just ghosting them. They know that during this process, they feel that you cared and thus they eventually will come back to you when they need to go through and to get that next thing from you. They need to work with you again. They need to update something. They maybe need to update their systems. They need to.

update their photos, they need to update their logos, right? When they need those things, they're going to be on top of mind. You're to be top of mind because you were the one that really did go and cared about the experience that you were creating. And so when you go through, and again, that's one of the things that we go through when we map out the client journeys for our clients and we build out these systems for our clients, they are very intentional. The systems that I build out for our clients,

They have two things in mind that well, three things in mind that I want my clients to be able to do is number one, to be able to manage our clients much easier. They're taking hours off of their plate each and every week because they're no longer doing all of the admin work when they're going and being proactive. It's not them literally going through and like, I have to send out this email manually to be proactive. No, this is putting stuff in place.

systems in place, automation in place where needed for repetitive tasks to then go through and be proactive. Being responsive doesn't mean being manual. Okay. Being responsive doesn't mean you have to do it manually. It doesn't mean that you have to be tied to your computer, tied to your laptop in order to be able to be responsive. This again is having a system in place.

in order to be able to then have that taken off of your shoulders as the service provider and allowing your systems and your client management system to do the work for you. And the same with going beyond. Going beyond requires you to have these other things in place because once you kind of have your systems in place, you have a client management in place, you have automation in place, what this does,

is it allows you the space that you need, the space, the capacity, the time that you need in order to then be able to go through and go beyond, to be able to do those extra things that you might want to do, to be able to send that handwritten note, to be able to add those little things that maybe are personal touches.

that you can't necessarily automate or you don't want to even delegate, you now have the space and capacity to be able to do that because now you've actually implemented a system in place in order to be able to do that. So like I mentioned, that is the thing that we do with our clients is that we put the strategy behind the systems. We don't build out systems blindly. We don't build out software blindly. We go through and we implement a strategy.

We map out the client journey to make sure that every single touch point that your clients are going to go through with your business, that they are going to feel seen. They are going to feel heard and it's going to take off so much off of your plate.

So the next time that you are thinking about how can I go through and how can I increase my client experience? I want you to think back on this video and I want you to think back on these things. How can I be proactive? How can I be responsive? And how can I go beyond? And in order for me to be able to create these things without me being tied to my laptop, that I do need systems in place to be able to do that.

All right, so if you need support with getting that done, you can head on over to your systems pro dot com.

So if you go to your systems pro dot com, book a call with me. I would love to know more about your business. I would love to know more about what it is that you do. I would like to know about your goals and how you're currently managing your clients and how I can help you to go through and take hours off of your plate and help you to be able to show up as a premium brand. You already have premium offers and most of my clients, they're already premium,

They just want the back end system to actually match what they already are. And so if that sounds like you go to your systems pro dot com again, you can book a call with me and I'll be happy to go through and chat with you.

Until next time, I will see you in another video. Bye.