Building Client Loyalty = Repeat Business I have to preface today’s topic of building client loyalty by saying everything I’m going to talk about here won’t help you if you are not a good designer. You don’t have to be an amazing designer, simply being a good one will do. As long as you know what you are doing, then you will benefit from today’s topic. Face it; if you are not a good designer, there’s not much you can do to get repeat business from clients. Other than practice and get better that is. But I’m guessing by the fact that you are here right now, that you are serious about your design business and therefore must know what you are doing when it comes to design. So let’s move on. The idea here is to build relationships with your clients. Building relationships is the main ingredient in building client loyalty. I’m not talking about designer/client relationships, but relationships on a more personal level. No, I’m not suggesting you start dating your clients to keep them coming back. Although that might work. I don’t personally have any experience on that front, but hey, if it worked for you drop me a line and let me know. What I’m suggesting, is to get to know your client on a more personal level beyond the design projects you work on together. I’ve been following this principle since I got into the industry 30 years ago. Even more so since I started my own design business in 2005, and I must say, my track record is pretty darn good. The majority of my clients become repeat clients, and the majority of those repeat clients, keep coming back over and over again with more design jobs for me. I have a special mailbox in my mail app where I keep “praise” messages that clients have sent me over the years. Let me share a few lines from some of them. “There's nobody else I'd rather work with.”  “I can't imagine working with anyone else.” “I feel like you're a part of our company.” “You get me, I don’t know how, but you get me.” So how did I end up building client loyalty like this? Is it because I’m a world-class designer? Because I'm not. I consider myself very good at what I do, but I'm nowhere near world-class status. The reason I receive this sort of praise from clients is because of the relationships I’ve built with them over the years. Think about it. Relationships are built on two principles. Trust and how much you like someone. If you don’t trust someone, chances are you won’t have a relationship with them. Same if you don’t like someone, chances are you won’t have a relationship with them. Now the trust part is easy. Create good design work and deliver that work on time and chances are your clients will trust you. The other half of the equation is getting them to like you. Think about this: Clients would prefer to work with a good designer they like, than work with an amazing designer they don’t like. My strategy for building client loyalty Here’s my strategy for building relationships with my clients and getting them to like me. Are you ready for it? I listen, AND I take notes. That's all there is to it. No, seriously, that’s the magic of it. Listening and taking notes. The goal is to get clients to like you. The more you know about your clients, AND the more your clients realise that you know about them, the better the likelihood of those clients liking you. Let me elaborate, whenever a client comes to me, for whatever project. Not only do I want to know about their organisation and how the particular design project fits in, but I want to know about the client themself, their personal life, their family, etc.. And I build up this knowledge over time through conversations. How? Through idle conversations and chit chat and by asking the right questions when the opportunity arises. Don't be too forward by directly asking personal questions. Instead, ask indirect questions that will allow you to gain knowledge about your clients. Let me give you an example. Let's say a client I'm working with calls me on the phone. Me: