The Right Way to Formally Follow Up with Clients

Aug 14, 2017 | Uncategorized

QUESTION: I have not had a formal followup with the clients of my placements this year.  I have done phone calls and face to face, how is he doing?, etc., on the phone but not formally.  What do you think of an online survey?  – Jane, Chicago

ANSWER: I would not do an online survey simply because it is too impersonal, and they are not going to do it, or a small fraction will do it.  It does not show that you care and you love them.  You can actually have your administrative assistant do the followup.

I would make the follow up more conversational so that you get a really good look and feel for what value you provided and combined with sincerely where they feel you can improve.  Whenever you do a survey to clients or candidates about your interaction, what I think is valuable if it is not you that calls them.  I think they will be more candid with somebody on your team.  I have my project director call our coaching clients, and we are getting some really good feedback, areas that I can personally adjust to provide you guys and gals a lot more value in building your business.  I am wide open to things that are going to help you grow, but I think if I called you individually you might be a little more squeamish.

This is what I would suggest, have your administrative assistant call up people you have placed about three or four months after the placement and ask:

  • Did our firm exceed your expectations on the following?

Jane has:

  • Quality of the candidates.
  • Timeliness in the presentation of the candidates.
  • Within the compensation budget.
  • Did we exceed expectations as it relates to our process?
  • The quality of qualified candidates.
  • Our responsiveness.
  • Quality of weekly updates discussion, meaning a weekly update on the search.
  • Weekly search analytics reports.  Jane does an analytics report on what is going on in the search.

Also ask about:

  • Return on investment, value received for the candidate hired.
  • Is there any service we are currently not offering that you would like to see us offer?

I think those are all great questions and would ask them on the phone.  I would not ask them using SurveyMonkey or something like that.  But great question.  Great idea.