The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Communicating to your clients

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Communicating to your clients

Communicating with clients is one of the most important parts of running a successful business. However, there’s more to communicating than just sending out an email every now and then. We want you to know how to communicate the good and the bad to your clients in an appropriate and professional way.

Why Communication Matters

Having a clear means of conversation allows your clients to not only feel included, but valued. They’ll know that you want them to be a part of your business in more ways than just contributing to your sales revenue. Here are 5 ways to make sure your communication methods are up to par:

Share the Whole Message

Your clients don’t need to know the ins and outs of your business on a daily basis, but they should know about the information that affects them – whether it's in a good or a bad way. When you need to share bad news with a client or partner, make sure you mention how you’re planning on addressing the issue and reassure them that you have measures in place to cope.  

Tailor Your Information

Your clients don’t need to know that same information as your executive partners or your staff. Tailor the information that you send so that your audience only needs to read about what directly affects them and what they need to do about it. This also lets them know that you care enough to tailor a message specifically for them instead of just sending out a massive document that they need to sift through to find what applies to them.

Create A Dialogue

Communication is about more than just sending a message out – it's about creating a conversation, a dialogue, between you and your audience. Your clients might not be able to all sit down with you and talk about certain things, but they should be able to reach out to you if they have any questions, complaints or recommendations. Take the information your clients give you and apply it where you can – it’s the best source of feedback you’ll receive to improve your business’s customer service.

Be Professional

Just because you might need to share sensitive or negative information doesn’t mean that professionalism is any less important. Make sure that whatever information you share from your brand to your audience (whether it's your partners, clients or employees) is professional, concise, polite and, most importantly, accurate.

Be Honest

The worst thing that you could do when communicating with your audience is to lie – and yes, lying by omission is just as harmful. Being dishonest about the severity of a situation or about the current state of your business could harm your business beyond repair of your audience had to find out. It's better to be honest and transparent, even if it might not be what you think your clients want to hear.