the carrier of the dream and vision is the company ' s management and team . As was my case as a consultant , I was to equip the company teams to realise that dream , not carry it as mine . Any extra support I offered outside of contractual stipulations came at a cost . If you don ’ t separate your contractual obligations from your visions for your clients , you are walking down exploitation and underpayment avenues .
Costing and Payment Plans
Unless you are dealing with products for sale , for those in the service industry , I highly recommend you learn to set up rate cards as a guide , but not on display . This is why I say this . Let ’ s say you build corporate websites , and the kind of clientele you have tends to like the standard , obvious templates and generic content . With work like that , you know how long it will take and how many sessions with the client are required for project completion .
What happens when you have a more eclectic client with various templates they want to explore ? Their project might need additional coding and maybe even professional videography and photography . You won ’ t bill it the same , but if you haven ’ t done anything like this before , you will need time to recalculate person-hours for work , additional expertise if you don ’ t have it in-house and levels of client engagement .
Use rate cards as a guide , but not an endall-be-all ; therefore , use them internally , but don ’ t blast them on your company website because they can be perceived as dishonest or plain trickery . If you need to display your rates on your website or social media accounts , indicate a caveat to the rates to manage potential client expectations . Such as “ rates quoted may vary based on the project ’, for example .
Regarding payment plans , for obvious reasons to protect your business ' s cash flow , it is essential to ask for downpayments ; indicate this in your contracts . Your business is not a higher purchase where people deposit what they have when they have it . The longer any project takes , the
higher it costs . Therefore , payments should be within a clarified time frame . If you don ’ t communicate this to your clients , you are the one to blame when you don ’ t have money to pay your bills . You can ’ t hope and trust people will do the right thing . You need to explain the engagement parameters to people so they can respect them . If they don ’ t , you can terminate the business relationship .
Business processes and systems
The previous five areas I have highlighted tend to occur because of the lack of business systems and processes . Ask yourself these questions : Who is my target clientele ? How do they know about me ? When they reach out to me , what is the process of securing their business ? Do you have one or two physical or virtual meetings ? Do you book meetings on a calendar or call them ? Do you explain your mode of operations to your clientele ? Do you engage by email ? Do you have other team members who will work with them ? Do they get weekly updates ?
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What kind of contracts do you sign with them ? When do you invoice them ? Do they wire money to a bank account , an MPESA Paybill or your direct MPESA Line ( This comes off as the least professional )?
Do you provide receipts ? Do you debrief clients after your project to get honest feedback ? Do you write reports ? Submit questionnaires ?
These are just a few questions that can guide you in figuring out what kind of processes you are establishing for your customer journey . This allows you to develop templates and modes of operation that smooth the bumps of managing your delivery , especially for those in the service industry where things tend to be ambiguous without a tangible product .
If you are wondering why you are struggling in your service delivery to clients , I suggest you sit down and take stock of the process of acquiring your clients to the completion of the project and client feedback . That is the customer journey . And once you figure out a formula unique to your business , you are more likely to secure better clients and get repeat business .
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Rose Odengo is seasoned Strategy and Communication Consultant . You can commune with her on this or related matters via email at : Ask @ roseodengo . com .