How to Provide the Red-Carpet Treatment to Clients Who Visit

 

Wowing clients can be a matter of a well-crafted phone call, or it might require all the stops and red-carpet treatment. It depends entirely on the client, and more importantly the size of their investment. If the client knows how important their custom would be for your company, they will likely have greater expectations in place than a client who is only using you to perform a service once.

 

For the big-ticket clients that know exactly how important they are, it can be challenging to please them. It can also be stressful and place both you and your team under a lot of pressure. How do you wow a client who has been courted by your biggest competitors? How do you provide them with a different, but still luxurious experience?


At the end of the day, every single client will be different. They will have different tastes and different preferences. Being down-to-earth, taking them to a little league baseball game and showing them top local haunts in your community can be a great way to impress a client who isn’t used to it. It could also be a complete failure. You need to create a custom plan for the individual, and make the visit about them, and not so much about your company.


Befriend them first, then sell your service to them.

 

Get to Know Them In Advance

 

Individuality and personalization are key here. The more you know about them, the easier it will be to woo them. Visiting a new place can be exciting, but more often than not there will be a bit of a cultural barrier. Even if they are open to trying new foods or are familiar with your culture, small touches will make all the difference.

 

If you have been in contact with this client for a while, you can use what you personally know of them to help you do this, if not, try contacting their secretary, assistant, or another employee to find out tips on how to make their trip as comfortable as possible.

 

Create a Schedule

 

You never want pleasure to outweigh business, and the same can be said for the vice versa. You want your client to feel at ease, enjoy themselves, and all the while move forward with business processions.

 

Provide a Gift

 

A personal gift that is in line with their interests, but represents your home or your business is a great move. If they love it, they might even display it in a key area in their office, and ideally, remember you every time they look at it. For example, if they collect signed sports memorabilia, you can invest in a signed baseball from the top player in your area.

 

Let Restaurants Know of Allergies in Advance

 

If there are any allergies that your client has, let both the caterers you will be using and the restaurants you will be visiting know in advance. Some allergies are difficult to accommodate on the night, and giving the restaurant or caterer a heads up can help you learn

 

  • If they can do it
  • What the options are

 

Some restaurants just won’t be a good fit, and asking in advance can help you find one that is.

 

Hire A Driver

 

Hiring a professional driver is a great way to start any trip. Not only does it show your client that you are there for them from the moment they step off of the plane, but it also puts them at ease. Hiring a car or a taxi can be stressful, especially if they are not familiar with the local language. By hiring a vehicle and professional driver for them, you can put them at ease and show how much their custom would mean to your company. You will want to learn more about the company in question before you hire them, however, to ensure that they are the right ones for the job.

 

Get Out of The Office

 

Wowing clients who visit your office is great, but to really bond with your client, you will want to leave the office. Taking them out to dinner or lunch is obvious, yes, but you want to do more than wine and dine.

 

If your company has a warehouse or base of operations near your head office, take your client to visit them. Be transparent in your business and show them exactly how the wheels turn behind the scenes.

 

Give Them A Rounded Experience

 

When deciding on activities to do you will want to round out their experience. Give your client a good sense of who you are, a good sense of what your company is and its values are, and of course, show them around town. Your client should be wowed and enchanted by the time they leave.

 

How to Follow Up

 

Once you have rolled out the red carpet and given them a great time, you will want to follow up. Following up is a critical part of any client acquisition process. It is how you forge a strong relationship with your client. Ideally, you will have several points to call back on, especially if the client, in general, agreed to work out a deal with your company.

 

With A Phone Call

 

The phone call is the first and most important method of following up. It can be strange to go from in person to a follow-up call because whereas the visit was a mixture of business and pleasure, the phone call is often entirely business. Aim to call during a suitable time in their hours, or inform their assistant when they can expect a phone meeting with you.

 

Plan Another Visit

 

A great way to ease the formality of the call is to plan another visit. Perhaps it will be you who visits your client’s company instead of the other way around. This way you can talk business while still easing into more pleasurable aspects of huge client acquisition, and can then springboard business talks from there.

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