Four Tips to Make Client Services Easier
A job in client services is bound to be quite demanding, and at times difficult to keep up with.
Managing numerous clients at the same time can be tricky, with each having different tasks, requirements and deadlines. However, there are some steps that you can take to improve organisation and efficiency within your role.
If you are struggling to keep on top of the little things, here are four helpful tips that you can follow to make your life as a client service manager that little bit easier:
Break down client projects into separate tasks
Client-facing roles are notorious for being extremely fast-paced.
Client demands are constantly being updated and changed which means that projects need to be flexible. However, this flexibility can lead to problems in accurately estimating the overall costs of a project.
It can also be difficult to see where a particularly large task, with multiple components, is up to if you aren’t closely monitoring it. And if you’re juggling multiple projects, it’s hard to keep an eye on absolutely everything.
A useful way of ensuring all important client deliverables are met, is to split projects into separate, smaller project milestones. By tracking the time of these different components, it’s easy to see which parts of a larger project are complete and which still need attention. If you can structure your pricing this way, it also makes it easier to accurately cost a project.
Incorporate job costing software
There are job costing software options that can help to optimise efficiency in your role.
This includes simplifying the quoting process, to cut down on any minor errors and help you to be as accurate as possible.
As well as this, the project management software will capture all associated costs on any given project. This allows you to easily monitor job progress and profitability, leaving you with more time to spend nurturing your relationship with clients.
Store all data remotely
A huge benefit of keeping all client work in one central location that can be accessed remotely, is that it ensures that both co-workers and yourself are aware of where a project is up to at any given time.
This means that, should someone be unable to make it to the office part way through an important task, the work can still be accessed. Having work readily available from any location will prevent any hindrances and keep tasks on track.
A bonus to remotely accessible work in client services, is that when attending meetings, your documents will be available from whichever device you choose to take. This reduces the risk of leaving important data in a different location and having it unavailable when you need it most.
Ensure all co-workers are filling out a timesheet daily
When working with several different clients, it is important that employees fill out timesheets on a daily basis.
With time being an agencies most important asset, it is essential to have an accurate and complete picture of how long staff have spent servicing your client’s accounts. This will enable you to monitor time spent against what has been billed to the client, so that you can avoid any issues with over-servicing.
Failing to track the time that is being spent on certain clients and projects can have a big impact on an agency’s financial state, as the finance team will not have any data to base their billing on.
Organisation and attention to detail are extremely important in this role, so improving them will make your job much more straightforward and lead to happy parties all round.