Client management allows organizations to provide an amazing experience from client onboarding to client retention. It actually has the success of your business in its hands. And to help you improve your client experience, we have summed up all that you should know about client management into a easy-to-read and easy-to-consume guide. Let's start with the basics.
What is client management?
Client management is the technique of managing all transactions with a client ranging from being a mere query to a paying customer. The aim is to possess the highest quality deliverables and client satisfaction.It is the technique of understanding your clients and developing a concept for communicating with them so that they can be converted and retained for a long period of time. These interactions can be phone call, email, shared dashboards, live chat, video calls, and meetings.
How to manage clients effectively?
Word-of-mouth and referrals are the most powerful drivers of growth for any company. One happy customer with all his expectations fulfilled at times can create a huge word-of-mouth campaign. Below are some hard-and-fast rules to win an ardent fan of your company.1. Be open and honest about work processesEnsure that you keep your client regularly updated about project progress and important decisions taken. Be honest about timelines and open about matters affecting delivery.
2. Set realistic and achievable expectations Avoid making promises that you will not be able to keep. Excellent promises and words often tend to ruin the relationship. Make sure you tell the client what possible returns he can hope for with the money he's about to spend. Value that you're offering should always be higher than the cost implication to the client.
3. Take their feedback and understand their perspective Typically, a client's feedback at the implementation stage could save your team from working down the wrong path. To prevent anything from falling through cracks, get the client to your office.
With SmartTask, you can get them to your virtual office as a guest user with required permissions. Get them on as followers of major tasks or projects and get their feedback in real time.
4. Inform them of the work process
Create a project plan in order to help them understand the delivery path. And if the client also has a dependency it makes them responsible. This allows the turn-around time to be extended and ensures smooth communication between your team and the client.
5. Open a communications channelThe key to facilitating transparency lies in having continuous communication. Indeed, when you invite your client as a guest user in a product such as SmartTask, an auto-created chat channel facilitates the smooth flow of communication and the client feels connected to your team's activity.Discard the reluctance the client harbors while coming to your team-members for specific requests and solutions.
6. Leave a record of everythingEverything must be documented and signed off to avoid conflict and misunderstanding. They must be made easily accessible to both client and manager.On SmartTask, you can also save and share important information and documents through task descriptions and attachments.
7. Proper alignmentShare what is relevant and aligns with what the client requires. Set the agreed project scope as defined. Also, create the key performance indicators they desire and track them on a regular basis. This will also keep them informed of the project's success.
Actionable Tips to Improve Client Management
The first client management improvement tip is to use a tool (more on client management tools here)which enables you to allocate deadlines, share expectations with the clients, and alert them when you are in the process of executing the tasks. The SmartTask is one such tool.Here's a glimpse of some of its features making client management simple:
1. Seamless collaboration:You can share projects, tasks, and groups with your clients on a private basis so that they see only what they ought to.It is also best to include relevant tasks and information that the client can take a reference from. When a customer knows precisely what they are getting, it encourages trust and allows you to hold the customer responsible as well for actions to be performed on their end.
Invite your new clients as guest users and start working with them.
2. Onboarding new client templates:
You will most often be asked to create the same groups, projects, and tasks when onboarded a new client. Instead of replicating the groups, projects, and tasks, you can simply save them as templates!
Get started immediately with our already published templates. You can select from the various templates and insert the one you need directly into your Workspace.
3. Client approval task comments:
Adding prefixes to clients within comments makes comments actionable and impactful. But when working with clients, they are even more suitable for approvals and feedback!
After you've invited your clients to your workspace as visitors, reference them in task comments so they can approve of the work done or being worked on. They will also be able to reply to that comment telling you to keep going or if they have any updates or suggestions.
4. Custom fields to reduce the calls and emails:
SmartTask's custom fields will allow you to keep your clients updated on the status of your work.
You can add extra information to all tasks and track where they are with custom fields. By just looking at the status of the task, your clients will know what is going on, without needing daily calls and messages for updates.
5. Real-time updates through project dashboards:
With SmartTask's project dashboards, you can keep your clients in real-time. This implies they don't have to keep wondering or asking you what's going on and how much longer will it take to get to their destination.
6. A complete CRM:
SmartTask does not only help you create tasks but also enables you to follow up with leads. It also enables you to monitor the journey of a client through a number of stages of the sales pipeline.
Whenever an assignment is assigned with a contact, it is also published to the activity feed of the contact so that you can look at them later on. Sometimes we tend to forget what went down with a contact last meeting and that is where the activity feed comes in handy.
7. Customer activity tracker:
You can also track a customer's behavior - use, buys, and interactions with your team. That would help you to decide when to ask for an upgrade from a customer for services, sell a low use, or share a coupon code. At times having a record of interaction also helps in delivering quality interaction and eventually leads to good relations, retention, and revenue growth.
8. Branded client portals:
In today's competitive market having a way to provide your clients with a method to work together, place orders, and see the progress report is a big business benefit. Impress your clients with a perfect white-labeled client portal.
1. How do you build trust with clients?
Building trust with your clients is purely one of the most important things any company can do. This is how they turn prospects into clients and keep existing clients happy and for the long term. The following are some tips on how to get your client's trust:
Be mindful of their time: Everyone's time is precious. It is really important to respect their time, schedule, plans, requirements, etc. Respond promptly. Log in to a scheduled call in advance so that they do not have to and wait, keep the meetings short, uncomplicated, and efficient.Discover how they operate: When you are building a project for them, they should be able to trust you with their work. So do your homework, discover more about them inside and out and you will already be in a position to impress your clients.
Hear them out: If you hear them out thoroughly and listen to the root core issue, you may be able to find ways to make your client's life easier. And that's just one way that you can show your commitment and gain some credibility. For example, look for the holes and weaknesses in your client's process and improve them.
Do some street-level work: Clients sometimes can define the issues they wish to address. Other times, they simply have an idea of what outcomes they desire. Get closer to meeting client expectations by asking them for a comprehensive project brief; talk about projects they consider to have succeeded and, conversely, projects that have failed. This will give you a better understanding of the client's perspective and definition of project success.
Surprise them: If at all, have a little bit of sweetness for your customers. This is where you can turn their "nice to have" into real life. Or even delivering a project with greater than estimated quality and timelines, can surprise them and win their confidence.
FAQs:
1. What is client management?Client management is the art of building strong customer relationships via effective communication, meeting expectations, solving problems, and regular value provision.
2. Why is client management important in 2025?
With more competition, increased client demands, and the rising potential of AI-driven automation, businesses need successful client management to keep clients, build loyalty, and make more money.
3. What are the skills needed for client management?
Core competencies include communication, empathy, problem-solving, negotiation, time management, and the ability to make use of sophisticated CRM and automation tools.
4. What are client management tools?
Popular tools include HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM (for client tracking), Asana and ClickUp (for project management), and Slack or Zoom (for communication).
5. How can I improve my client onboarding process?
Have a clear kick-off meeting, send a welcome package, define communication rules, and have quick early wins to quickly build trust.
6. How do I manage difficult clients?
Be professional, listen actively, record interactions, set clear boundaries, and walk away from a toxic relationship if needed.
7. How can AI support client management?
AI can automate mundane tasks, deliver predictive insights to forecast client needs, deliver 24/7 chatbot service, and track customer sentiment in real-time.
8. What are the most important metrics I should track to measure success?
The most important metrics are Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), Client Retention Rate, Average Response Time, and Upsell/Cross-sell Rate.
9. How often should I stay connected with clients?
It depends on the project, but ongoing updates at agreed-upon frequency (monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly) maintains trust and transparency.
10. How can I make clients feel valued?
Make it personal, remember anniversaries and birthdays, celebrate milestones, and go beyond transactions to create an actual relationship.