4 Tips To Improve Client Communication In Your Web Agency

Impressive work gets clients through the door. Strong client communication is what keeps them there.

It’s easy to forget about the relational aspect of web design and development when you’re hyper-focused on the tasks you need to complete. You have the skills to fulfill your clients’ needs, so you expect them to stay. But with plenty of talented agencies in the sea, losing clients is often easier than finding new ones. Clients know they can take their money elsewhere — and they will if they don’t love working with you.

Agencies often get stuck working with clients who communicate poorly, too. Clients might miss deadlines, forget about meetings, or take days to respond. Constant follow-ups can be frustrating for both your agency and your clients.

So how do you create more harmonious, long-term relationships with clients? The key is improving communication with content, feedback, and project management software. Here are four ways software like SimpleStage can help you gain loyal clients that naturally spend more and provide referrals.

1. Clarify the Content You Need

Content collection can be tricky for both your agency and your client. Your team may feel like you’re constantly pushing clients to provide the content you need. On the flip side, your clients may get confused about exactly what they need to provide. When clients don’t have clarity around your content requirements, they may continue to miss key deadlines.

Content management tools like SimpleStage create clearer client communication. Your agency can request content on specific areas of the website design, so clients can visualize where their content will appear. It adds clarity to your content requirements, so they can confidently do their part. Plus, when clients get content right, this ensures fewer revisions for both sides later on.

SimpleStage doesn’t just help clients provide content faster. It helps agencies implement content faster, too. Clients can make feedback and content edits onto the staging site without making permanent changes. Then, they can screenshot the changes (which are autosaved as HTML code), so your web team understands exactly how it should look. You’ll no longer misconstrue any of your clients’ visions.

As your communication improves in the content realm, you and your clients can collaborate better in the long term.

2. Streamline Client Feedback

One of your client’s key roles in the web development process is providing feedback. When they don’t do so in time, this can hurt your productivity and delay your website launch. It’s a lose-lose for your agency and your client.

Feedback management software like SimpleStage can help you avoid pitfalls in this process. Instead of collecting feedback over email or a shared doc, your team can do so right on your staging site. Clients won’t have to jump on multiple channels, which makes it easier for them to communicate with your teams.

The less effort a client has to put into their deliverables, the higher their long-term satisfaction will be.

Streamlined client feedback also gives you the context you need to fulfill clients’ needs. On SimpleStage, clients can reference specific parts of your staging site. They can mark up your designs or start conversation threads in relevant areas without affecting your code. This context allows you to respond to feedback correctly the first time around.

When clients feel like your agency truly gets their vision, they’ll stick with you longer.

3. Stay on Top of Project Milestones

Great client communication requires your agency and clients to stay aligned on goals. Your team must clearly communicate milestone requirements, or what needs to get done for the project to proceed. For example, clients should know that if they miss a content deadline, web page delivery may be late.

Web development project management software like SimpleStage can help you boost communication. Your agency will be able to visualize progress on action items, so you can send reminders and follow up with clients as needed. This way, clients stay on top of their deadlines to keep your relationship productive.

SimpleStage allows you to follow up right on your design files, content, or general web pages, too. You’ll streamline communication, while reducing the steps that clients need to take to provide what you need.

This can effectively save clients’ time, inspiring them to return to your agency in the future.

As clients do their part to hit deadlines, your agency can meet milestones without delay. You won’t frustrate clients by pushing back key due dates for deliverables or their target launch date. In this sense, great client communication through SimpleStage can aid your client-agency relationships.

4. Keep Clients Looped Into Your Progress

No work-in-progress is perfect. Sometimes, it’s not even close. Shutting clients out until your work is fully ready for review can feel like the safest way to keep them happy. But strong client communication must occur throughout your website creation process.

Clients Want Transparency

While transparency can be nerve-racking to provide, it’s key for client satisfaction. Clients want to understand your progress, from what’s complete to how much of the project budget is left. With greater transparency comes greater client confidence in your agency.

Web project management software like SimpleStage allows you to loop clients in at any stage. You can start conversation threads with clients right on your staging site as you make changes to it.

Constant Communication Leads To Better Results

Looping clients in can help your web and content teams, too. With project management software like SimpleStage, you can learn about your client’s vision as you’re working on their site. You can change your direction when you get off track, instead of making major revisions later on.

This improvement to client communication can further boost satisfaction. Clients will see your team meeting their needs time and time again. This can inspire a strong long-term relationship.

Improve Client Communication To Boost Your Longevity

Better agency and client communication is key for successful long-term relationships. Clients depend on you to provide strong direction and transparency. With a tool like SimpleStage, you can do exactly that. And as a result, your agency may receive higher quality content and feedback from clients on time. When both sides are satisfied, your relationship can thrive.