Conventional business wisdom tells us that it’s a lot easier to retain an existing client than to find a new one. Retaining clients (as opposed to finding new ones) allows you to amortize the time you put into finding the client in the first place, the time and effort you put into learning a new client’s style preferences, terminology and payment procedures, and so on. In scanning a few articles before writing this post, I found that large corporations estimate that it costs up to five times as much to land a new client than to hold onto an existing one.
Long-term clients are also more likely to make you a true part of their team, which is always satisfying. In my mind, the only exception to the client retention rule relates to rates. If you have a salaried job and you want a 25% raise, it’s unlikely that your current job will provide that, but a new job might. Likewise, as a freelancer, you don’t want to be tied forever to the rates that your legacy clients pay; when you want to make a big income leap, you need to move on.
But let’s say that you’re mostly interested in retaining clients: other than providing them with excellent translations, here are some tips to holding onto them once you’ve landed them.
- Send a handwritten thank-you note after you receive their payment for the first project. It doesn’t have to be gushy; just “Thank you so much for the opportunity to work together on your recent (annual report, press release, patent, etc.). I really enjoyed it, and look forward to working with you again in the future.”
- Ask for feedback on every single job, and explain why it’s important to you. “My goal is to develop a long-term relationship with you; in order to do that, I really welcome your feedback on every translation. This is an important part of my quality process, and any feedback, even if negative, is a huge help in tailoring my translations to your needs and expectations.” Send that with the first job. Then, after every subsequent job, refer to it. “As I’ve mentioned, your feedback is always welcome and appreciated; please let me know if you have any comments on the translation.” I’ve also seen at least one freelancer who includes a link to a short, anonymous “satisfaction survey” on every invoice.
- Send something for the winter holidays. I send a handwritten New Year’s card (you be the judge of what’s appropriate for your clients’ cultures: some may expect/welcome a “Christmas” card, others may not) to every client for whom I did even one project over the course of the past year. I send my A-list clients a tangible gift: sometimes a wreath (again, judge the cultural appropriateness), or some food that’s associated with where I live (Colorado-roasted coffee, Colorado honey, etc.).
- Send them news items that might be of interest. This could be as simple as, “I noticed this article about changes in the US patent filing procedure and thought it might be of interest.” Or, if you want to go the whole nine yards, set up Google Alerts on your A-list clients’ names (especially if they don’t speak your target language and thus won’t notice press items that you might notice), then send them the mentions if they seem interesting.
- Don’t nickle and dime them. This is a personal preference and applies primarily to direct clients. Personally, I prefer to charge a higher rate overall and do really small jobs for free, rather than impose a minimum charge on a client who needs 10 words translated. In general, I do not do minimum charges for direct clients if the job is under about 200 words; I just translate it for free, surmising that in the course of what the client pays me in a year, it all evens out.
- Ask about the impact of your work. Again, this applies mainly to direct clients, but it’s a good tip for everyone. When I translate something that is intended for a specific impact or goal (university applying for international accreditation or recruiting students for a summer program, international development entity applying for a big grant, etc.), I always follow up with the client and ask about the result. Did they get the accreditation? Did the summer program fill up? Did they win the grant? This shows the client that a) I care and b) I want the translation to have the desired impact. These types of clients are investing in translation to improve something, not to maintain the status quo, so I want to know if that happened.
- Pick up the phone. I don’t love the phone, and many of my big clients are in Europe, so the time difference is a factor. But, I find that with a client who I’ve never met in person, just being able to put a voice with an e-mail address is a huge help in personalizing the relationship. Likewise, if there is ever anything even minorly tricky that I have to work out with a client (what did they mean by “a more formal tone”?), I always call instead of e-mailing, because a sticky situation can very quickly escalate via e-mail.
Readers, any other client retention strategies to share?
Great post, as always! About two years ago I went to a conference abroad and sent postcards to a few client. I love postcards and getting (nice) surprises in the mail, so I thought this would be a good way to let them know they’re still on my mind.
Thank you Corinne for another great post. I also try to meet the best clients in person if at all possible. When I travel to Sweden I try to set up a meeting or pop in to the office and I usually meet a few at the ATA Conference every year. It makes the relationship more personal.
To keep myself top of mind I send a message a few times a year with recent projects I have done (without mentioning any names) that can be of interest to the client, plus inform them of upcoming vacations or unavailability.
Very relevant article showcasing some interesting tips to retain clients.
First we need to take a closer look at the conventional wisdom, I think.
For example, where conventional wisdom says it’s easier to keep old clients than win the new, it only works as long as well, as long as it does work. The moment it’s more trouble to retain your existing clients than enlist new ones, it’s time to switch to the new ones.
Next, I would question that being a part of their team is always satisfying. With all due respect, it is what they want you to believe. This falls under non-monetary incentives that tend to fall on the cheap side of non-monetary.
In fact, being part of their team tends to mean having to babysit their business to a greater or lesser extent, including responsibility (de facto, if not under law) for all sorts of business issues you shouldn’t normally need to concern yourself with, as you are not their nanny. Nor are you a spare pair of hands available whenever there’s a shortage on the deck. And that’s what ‘part of the team’ tends to mean.
Some of the problems of the industry right now might well have been caused by agencies’ desire to keep their clients or rather to not lose them — which is the crux of the problem. That loss aversion leads people to accepting demands that should never have been accepted — demands that set you on a slippery slope for more demands that you don’t want to accept, and yet you do.
Therefore the fear of loss and the cosy sense of belonging is something we need to keep in check.
Regarding the specific tips:
1. I believe in saying thank you — for contacting me, for your order, for being co-operative or reasonable. Or for prompt payment. Just not for actually paying. That part is not optional. Some clients and some translators act like payment, or full payment, is discretionary. Well, it’s not, and we’d do well to remember that and make sure others do as well.
2. The asking for feedback sounds a bit like carpet selling. Next and worse, it positions the translator as everyone’s apprentice. The client usually is not qualified to give feedback on the quality of translation, and we betray, I repeat: we betray, our art and our profession when we allow ourselves, and I repeat: allow ourselves, to forget it. It has more in it of betrayal than of forgetfulness anyway. There is a certain dignity in our profession, and by acting like a puppy looking for confirmation in the eyes of its master that it’s being a good puppy we don’t serve that dignity well. At most the client is qualified to give some feedback on the quality of service, but that’s it. We are professionals, we are not in the generic services industry, let alone concierge services; we don’t live by client service. Not any more than a lawyer or doctor does, both of whom are, not so incidentally, big on client (or patient) *care*.
3. Christmas and other notes are a good thing for keeping in touch and establishing and keeping some human contact. A lot of people work with various translators as they don’t really see the difference or simply don’t have the attention span to keep who’s who in mind. Notes help it sink in.
4. Yes, don’t nickle and dime them. The billable word is a metaphor, a pars pro toto. We don’t sell freaking words by the dozen. We translate, and the word is a fallible measure of the volume of the text, which is a fallible measure of more or less how much work there is to be done. In any case, someone who bills additionally for minutiae is someone who lives off of selling such minutiae. Translators don’t make a living scanning this or faxing that. And five or ten words are not worth the bother of writing an invoice.
5. The impact part is interesting. I’d submit that it’s already a better replacement of the feedback part. However, one thing to note: our work has a lot of impact on the clients’ lives, for sure, but our job is translation, not winning business goals. Our job is especially not to generate the same business results as higher-paid consultants and managers are normally charged with getting. That would make us semi-professional managers and consultants working for a pittance. And some clients already see us in that kind of light, using translation services as an excuse to in reality secure some other goals that would normally be more expensive to cover.
6. Oh yes, pick up the phone. You lose jobs (and clients) if you don’t. But In keeping with what we’ve already discussed, a translator needs to pick up the phone like a manager or like a lawyer, not like a faxroom boy springing to attention at the very sound of some junior line manager’s voice. And here we tend to be sorely lacking in skill or sense.
I’ll share some personal strategies in another post.
Like Tess, I always try to meet up with clients when I’m in the area. It makes our relationship much more pleasant. Thanks for a great post!
Okay, my own ideas now:
First of all you need to avoid taking them for granted, even though it may be hard to force yourself to try and impress them the same as when they were a new client. It’s like family or friends. Sometimes you force yourself to put on a smile for the sake of the relationship. And you say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ when you don’t really have to.
This includes your core work. All translations for them have to be good, not just the first few that make the first impression. It’s easy to quickly get them to a point where they could only give you a glowing testimonial if you asked, but it’s even easier to do something, just one thing, that would make you not want to ask them to give you honest feedback on your website.
… So avoid those unpleasant accidents — even through active management (QA/QC, and it’s not like you can’t design your own procedures just for yourself) — and you’ll have more enthusiastic clients giving you glowing testimonials and warm referrals and everything else that makes you a rockstar. If you already have a glowing testimonial from them, you won’t have to fret what happens if someone actually contacts them.
Next, if you have a long-term relationship in mind, then you probably need to be friendly and somewhat interested in what’s going on in their business or even private lives.
Also, not turning them down too often reduces the probability of being replaced. I fly solo myself, but it’s not a bad idea to know someone who could fill in for you when you don’t have any spare capacity. (On the other hand, being somewhat known in your professional circles for reliability increases the chance of getting some work from or through your colleagues, anything from filling in for them without the client ever knowing to them just recommending you instead of taking a job they feel you’d be better suited for.)
In some cases a blog, newsletter etc. can help you retain the client’s interest in the long run. (If they have subscribed it and they actually read it, there is less chance they will forget, especially occasional but returning clients, some of how can put a lot of work on the table whenever they reappear after weeks, months or even years, as they don’t you on a more frequent basis.)
Beyond courtesy, competence and a bit of enthusiasm, there’s not really that much you need. You can, however, talk to them about some things that might not be obvious to them due to personal quirks or the circumstances of your first contact, e.g. a narrowly targeted referral after which you may become their goto translator for the occasional translation out of some rare language or specialism but it might simply never dawn upon them to inquire about your other languages or subject areas. (In which case chances are it should dawn upon you to volunteer that information that would otherwise be missed.)
Good stuff. Thanks, Corinne, for this informative piece on customer retention. It reminded me of the many ways we can relate to our customers, stay in touch and show them we care. In the midst of busyness, one easily forgets about this.