Communication is fundamental for building our client relationships and essential for managing projects together successfully.
With clients based all over the country, this meant a limited number of office visits interspersed with phone calls, until 2020 when we all adapted to a new way of working.
The way to connect has now shifted. We are at home, we are online, and we are actually having more face-to-face meetings than we were before.
Moving online we not only can offer more facetime with our clients we also a more personal relationship being developed. First point of call is now video, across all meetings: from weekly catch-ups to a quick chat.
At SLG we have discovered that working together this way has created a more collaborative atmosphere to our client relationships. It is also a welcome social element to home-working.
Without the face-to-face introduction, office tours or site visits it can be an adjustment to build the blocks to understand a new client business and develop close client contact.
Like everything else this is just another challenge SLG has adapted to.
We worked to tailor our onboarding process so we can still learn everything there is to know about our clients. We joined in webinars, CPD training sessions, attended virtual tours, set up video introductions to name a few.
SLG has also embraced the routine that 2020 has brought, each week ensuring there is a scheduled meeting for clients.
These all help us in building our client knowledge and developing consistent and trustful relationships.
It’s now second nature to start the day connecting with the team on screen and meeting clients through video conferencing.
What is now the norm has brought us easier ways to collaborate with our clients, with the click of a button we can instantly screen share.
This ability to immediately share visuals enables us to deliver a problem-solving approach, keeping everyone on the same page and allowing for clear interpretation.
What is now impromptu, previously would be something pre-planned with a client to ensure tech was available. This accompanied, by a round-up after each call, is one of the successful outcomes we have seen from moving online.
The journey from the past year has laid the foundation for new ways of talking to clients new ways of building relationships and new ways of working together through a project.
We have entered 2021 with the same constraints – but we are embracing the online shift and building even stronger relationships.
