So many agencies have a set way of doing things and can’t adapt when a client needs their experience personalized. That’s one of the great things about those of us who work solo: We have the flexibility to create more personalization.

Does this mean we bend over backwards and do whatever the client wants? Heck no. But we can better create situations that suit what a client needs. The line is of course drawn when those situations negate our profitability and life-work balance, but even with that line, we have loads more flexibility than most agencies.

So what does that look like and how can you provide that to your clients?

Client Questionnaire

One of the best ways to start personalizing your client’s experience is by using your onboarding questionnaire to get to the heart of what is important to them.

Ask about their business goals, so you have it in writing what it is exactly that they are trying to achieve. Then ask them about their goals for social media. In most cases, they will not choose the right goals, despite clients getting savvier and savvier. This will tell you a lot about what kind of education they may need, as well as what you need to include on their reports.

Other questions you can include are about how they work. When is the best time to approve content? Do they want to approve content in weekly chunks or do they prefer it to be smaller? When would be the best time to schedule meetings? And much more. Get as much of a feel of their working style as possible, so you can set up your systems around those preferences.

Will they be completely truthful about what works for them? Well, they’ll be as truthful as they possibly can be. But you can be sure things change.

Flexibility

You can ask all the questions in the world, but as your working relationship develops, you will find issues pop up.

I had a client who always wanted to approve content on Fridays. We quickly realized their schedule would fill up on Fridays, so as much as they had told me that was what would work for them, in reality it wasn’t working at all. So we changed approval dates.

Part of personalizing a client experience is watching what is actually happening in comparison to what your client has told you, and then move things into the direction of what will work for both of you. Sometimes it’s as clear cut as my example of moving the approvals date. Sometimes it’s a bit of a gray area and you have to decide if the personalization is worth it. It’s always okay to say no when it requires too much.

Content approvals

As much as I wish this were not true, the quick turnarounds most people who work solo can deliver on tends to get us taken advantage in the content approval process.

Do I have some clients who just want me to post whatever and don’t care to see what it is ahead of time? Yes. I still offer content approvals to them. It’s up to them what they do with that offer. I’d prefer they take a quick look, but I can’t make anyone do that.

And then on the other end, there are the clients who want to obsess over every single comma. I personally think that wastes a lot of time, especially since perfection in any form is not attainable on social media. But I understand brands want to put their best foot forward at the same time.

For these reasons and more, you really have to personalize the content approvals process to adjust to the time it takes to get approvals and the amount of effort a client wants to put into it. I figure out what is the absolute last moment I can comfortably get content approved so it can be scheduled. I build in some buffer time based on my experience with the client and give a deadline. And then I build back from there based on where they fall on the spectrum of hands off to too hands on. That is my deadline for getting them content.

I then put this process into action and see what happens. If I get content regularly by my deadline, then I don’t do anything different. If it’s regularly late, I then look at what is breaking down. I make adjustments there until I start getting it on time. To me, this is the hardest thing to personalize, but once it’s figured out, both sides are so much happier.

Listening

Figuring out if you are personalizing your service enough for your clients isn’t as easy as looking at analytics. You have to listen, and it has to be proactive.

Make time in your meetings to talk through processes and see if there is anything you can do to make them run smoother for your client. Little check-ins like this can make a big difference as to whether this client sticks around for the long-term.

You should listen between the lines of what your client is saying. I’ve had clients get very comfortable with me and tell me about their pain points in their job. They didn’t expect I’d be able to do anything to make them less painful. But there were several cases where I could without creating any kind of scope creep. So I did. And it made me look like a superstar who would go out of my way for my clients, even if it was just something that really didn’t add to my workload.

And in the end, these tiny personalizations will make you look like a superstar. When you’re working solo, it is really something that can make you stand out. So stop trying to bring your clients into a system that only works for you. Go towards them with systems that also work for them, and you will find that your clients are extremely happy.

How are you personalizing your systems for your clients?