Here are the 15 client reporting blunders you certainly want to avoid if you’re new to the world of client meetings or just want to be sure you’ve crossed all your ts and dotted all your i’s. if you like the below content then subscribe to “fun in office” for humorous office gossip and tips on how to organize your workspace.
Want assistance in avoiding a particular error? Go ahead and:
- Having a false mentality
- Providing excessive details
- Lack of preparation
- not providing updates on a project’s development
- not understanding the client’s top priorities
- extending the report’s length
- using specialized language
- selecting only the best outcomes
- failing to take action
- lacking sufficient involvement
- delivering an unimpressive presentation
- giving a client bad news in a surprise
- a lack of KPI definition
- excessive response to performance
- seeming unfavorable
Having A False Mentality
Walking into a client reporting meeting with the incorrect frame of mind is among the worst things you could do. You will only be putting yourself and the customer in danger if you do this.
Christopher Fenning of chrisfenning.com is here to elaborate more. “Entering with the incorrect mentality is the worst error someone can make. Be confident and well-prepared, but don’t assume you’re always correct.
Be open-minded, explain your work, and ask for criticism; don’t just ignore it; be sure to engage in active listening and take it into account. The deliverables determine how frequently meetings are held.
Providing Excessive Details
You want to strike a balance between what the customer needs to know and what they can grasp when it comes to providing information and data to them.
“The simplest way to make a client reporting meeting last longer is to share too many facts that are likely to cause a lot of confusion or misunderstanding. You may save your clients a ton of back-end information to cut down on needless correspondence. To avoid this, Kevin Miller at KevinMiller.com advises, “synthesize the most important information for your customer and keep them on a need-to-know basis.
Lack Of Preparation
Being underprepared is another potentially harmful error you could make at a client reporting meeting. You must be prepared with all the data and the responses to the client’s most pressing inquiries.
How long should you spend getting ready for a client reporting meeting? According to our poll, company owners require one to three hours to prepare for each client.
Not Providing Updates On A Project’s Development
A customer report may contain a lot of specifics and information. An update on the status of a given project or task is one element you shouldn’t omit.
“Ignoring my client’s project’s development was the worst error I’ve ever made. It might be difficult to stay on schedule with every assignment when I have so many clients. Along with keeping an eye on each project plan, I also have weekly client follow-ups to do. Sitting together at a client reporting meeting is very difficult for me when I get off track. In addition, Natasha Rei says, “I have to go over our most recent changes and take longer than normal to prepare for the meeting.”
Not Understanding The Client’s Top Priorities
Do you understand a client’s top priorities before you meet with them? Is it website traffic, PPC clicks, or sales figures? Whatever the situation, the report must provide its most desired metrics.
Remember to connect all of the data to the client’s top concerns when you create the report itself. “Tying efforts or outcomes back to the project or company goals and objectives is the largest error a consultant can make in a client reporting meeting. Customers want to understand how the outcomes or efforts are progressing favorably and how the partnership is benefiting the company. Can anything be counted and measured? No. However, part of what makes a consultant’s job useful is demonstrating how their deliverables and consultative work are supporting goals and objectives.
Extending The Report’s Length
Making the report for the meeting overly long is another error individuals frequently make. It may seem necessary to stuff it full of information, but doing so will just make the client more confused or obscure the most important figures.
For this reason, Michael Robinson of Cheap SSL adds, “One error to avoid is producing reports that are very drawn out and repetitive: In my opinion, the worst mistake you can make in a client reporting meeting is generating reports that are overly drawn out and repeated.
Determine how frequently you should report to clients to avoid making your reports overly lengthy and repetitious. Should you submit a weekly report? maybe each month or every three months? According to our polls, the majority of teams have reporting meetings every month. However, the answer will depend on the nature of your business and the project you’re working on with your customer.
Using Specialized Language
Use language and expressions the customer is familiar with and understands while crafting a client presentation. Jargon and unfamiliar words should not be utilized since they will make it more difficult to explain or may cause misunderstanding all around.
Olivia Tan from CocoFax elaborates on this advice, saying, “The most crucial thing to remember at a client reporting meeting is to take into account their awareness of the main indicators. Most agencies continue to use technical phrases on their clients without taking into account their level of technical competence. Before handing them the figures, you must, however, deconstruct your report and make an effort to educate them on the signs.
Selecting Only The Best Outcomes
Your clients want to know the truth when they meet with you. the positive, negative, and even possibly very costly. Because of this, it’s crucial to be truthful and open about all of the information in your report.
Steven Derevencha from Atlas Creative Digital Marketing elaborates on this error.
The worst thing you can do in a reporting meeting is to conceal or minimize poor performance. The truth is that clients seek you out because you are the authority and they require your perspective. Whether that is a good thing, a bad thing, or neutral, your agency should be as open as possible. This does two things: it increases customer trust and aids in setting reasonable expectations for long-term initiatives.
Failing To Take Action
What happens next when the meeting is over? Your clients want to know what you’ll be working on moving forward and what to anticipate. A critical error to avoid is forgetting to add a wrap-up or activities to follow up on.
“A typical error is failing to send follow-up things,” says Jason McMahon. Ensure that each meeting attendee leaves with a key takeaway and is aware of their respective responsibilities. After the meeting, send a follow-up message with a succinct summary of the discussion. List the action items that came out of the meeting along with who is in charge of what and by when. Each team member must be aware of their responsibilities.
Lacking Sufficient Involvement
No matter the type of meeting, it’s frequently not ideal for one person to speak exclusively throughout it without giving anybody else a chance to add their voice or a chance to speak. Don’t thus make the error of conducting a client reporting meeting when no one else is present.
“Don’t let a lack of participation get you. Meeting organizers must design meetings in a way that appeals to each team member. When just one or two decision-makers are speaking at a meeting, it is difficult for the rest of the group to pay attention or feel that their input counts. Try assigning a different agenda item to each member of the team.
Delivering An Unimpressive Presentation
What can you do to help your customers fall asleep? Make a dull or unimpressive presentation.
How then can you liven up your presentation while keeping everyone awake? Don’t forget to attach images to support your arguments. Clients, in my experience, like graphs and pictures that show concerns or progress. It aids them in processing the information you are describing. Including images may also make your statement more compelling and communicate the necessity of a certain project, resource, or course of action, according to Simple SEO Systems’ Ronit Levy.
Giving A Client Bad News In A Surprise
Nobody enjoys receiving terrible news, especially when it comes as a total surprise during a meeting. It’s advisable to let a customer know ahead of time if you plan to share some less-than-ideal news with them at a reporting meeting.
I do not advise shocking customers with terrible news at a meeting, says Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls, as a way to do this. In my experience, sharing disappointing findings before a meeting when there is more time to discuss the context and facts is significantly more beneficial.
A Lack Of KPI Definition
Do you know how the report’s KPIs compare to your client’s objectives? When presenting client reporting in meetings, it is normal to be out of alignment in this area.
“A common error we observe is the lack of upfront definition of the KPIs being measured. Then, create a column in Excel or Sheets for reporting for each month. This makes identifying trends in data over time simple. We do alter KPIs, but for consistency’s sake, we usually just add new ones while preserving the previous ones. Some individuals merely display recent data and cherry-pick the best outcomes. This results in a lack of trust and openness, says Robert Donnell of P5 Marketing Inc.
Excessive Response To Performance
Whether you’re providing good or bad news, keep in mind that a customer will be watching you to see how you respond. It’s always a good idea to have a strategy in place for what you’re going to do next, regardless of the numbers.
The largest error you can make in a client reporting meeting is overreacting to recent performance, according to Zack Duncan of Root and Branch Group, who explains how to avoid it. Strong performance may cause you to overreact, which may unintentionally lead to the customer having unreasonable expectations for the future. As an alternative, you might significantly change your plan in response to subpar performance when, in reality, only slight tactical adjustments may have been required. If your main strategy is sound, you should typically be tweaking your approach rather than making radical shifts. It will become progressively difficult to analyze your performance and optimize toward your main performance targets if you develop a practice of constantly making significant adjustments.
Seeming Unfavorable
In the case of a client encounter, it’s crucial to reassure the customer that you’ll come back to them with the appropriate information even if you don’t have all the answers to even the most spontaneous query.
The customer being constantly told “no” is a serious error. There are 56 instances where this won’t be the case, but as an illustration, suppose you failed to prepare some data or a customer asks you a question on the spot that is off-topic or concerns another team. The word “no” is direct, one-way, and frequently taken to mean no. It’s okay and a lot friendlier to respond with “let me get back to you on that” or “let me check with the right team for you.”
Last modified: April 17, 2023
