Re-Engage Your Clients with a Community
Episode 008
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Points Covered
What is the Re-Engagement stage of the client journey
Community groups as a re-engagement strategy
My experience as a community group participant
Benefits of using a community group
Things to consider before starting a community group
Episode Transcript
Hey, everyone, and welcome to Episode Eight of The Seriously Sorted Podcast. Today, I'd like to have a bit of a deep dive into a re-engagement strategy that I spoke about recently with a client and thought this could be a great way for some of the service based businesses out there to nurture their existing clients who they off board, and re-engage in a way that doesn't feel too salesy. Now off boarding is one of the 5 Essential Processes for Service Businesses that I spoke about in Episode Four. So you can go back to that episode to check out those five processes.
what is the re-engagement stage of the client journey
But essentially, really quickly, after you off board someone and sort of make sure that you've closed off that particular service that you've just offered them, you would look to potentially re-engage that person in some way down the track. Now that can become sometimes really quite clinical, or even just non existent. It's probably the piece that people miss out the most, they sort of close off their service and see you later sometimes.
Community groups as a re-engagement strategy
So what I want to talk to you today about is having some kind of community group whether that's a Facebook group or on some other software, to nurture those existing clients that might not be actively working with you right now. Now I'm in a couple of these types of groups myself, I mean to that our for alumni of coaching programs that I've done with a couple have different coaches. And I'm also in one that comes top of mind for a course that I've done. And anyone that has done any of these courses gets to be part of essentially a graduate program, I suppose a graduate Facebook group.
benefits of using a community group
So what do these groups all have in common that could assist us in maintaining that relationship with current clients and previous clients before we look to actively re-engage them with one of our services. I'm going to take you through a few different benefits that I can see both from a coach and service provider point of view, as well as a participant point of view, from my experience in some of these groups.
1:: keep your services top of mind
Okay, let's get the most obvious one out of the way up front. It keeps you top of mind with your clients and previous clients by maintaining that relationship in that community. So when it's time for them to look to get their next service offering from someone, they're more likely to think of you.
2:: generate a community of SUPER FANS
The next benefit is one that I've observed personally from participating particularly in the coaching groups, is the ability to create a little world where all of these participants speak your language. So they become essentially super fans and ambassadors for the way you work. And what I mean by that is, we all have buzzwords and particular ways we describe things. So for coaches, you might be really into using diagnostic tools and profiling. And all of a sudden, the people in that group start using that language and using those terms with each other and it just further embeds the learning and creates a real sense of connection and understanding within the community.
If you're a course creator, it means that anyone that has completed your course or courses are all using the correct language and right terms when they look to seek out advice from yourself or from other members of the community, and it just makes makes the clearer understanding.
If you're a copywriter, for example, and you have previous clients all in a group together, they're going to understand what tone of voice is, what brand personality means and again, be able to understand each other better and have more robust conversations.
3:: an audience to trial new services & offerings
The next benefit is the ability to test and trial new services and offerings on a group that will be understanding and forgiving, I suppose, of the process of that back and forth, and trial and error that you're going to need to go through in order to get that offering up and running. And remember that this group already have an appreciation of the value that you bring and the expertise that you offer, in a way that if you just put something out onto Facebook on onto Instagram that "hey, I've got this beta test, of course, it's going to be at a discounted rate", often you'll get those people being attracted to that because of the price point of the offer of the discounted rate rather than the value it provides. And sometimes there can just be less appreciation there and potentially not the right type of feedback when you're doing your trials.
4:: welcoming new team members
The next benefit is a really interesting one to me. And it's about bringing new team members on board. So often if we are a solopreneur, and essentially our brand name is known for us as the individual, so if you're a coach or a copywriter or photographer and you're looking to expand your team, and you're worried that you might lose clients, if they don't have direct access to you, because you're now at capacity and you're needing that new person. that "new you" to take on some of your client work, having them be in the community and participating in the community will really sort of welcome them into a fold quicker, and encourage those existing clients to realise that this person that you've essentially brought on board is aligned with your values and your work ethic and basically will make them feel super duper familiar to your clients. So when it does take them time to reengage them, they are super happy to be working with either of you.
things to consider before starting a community group
Okay, so that all sounds amazing, right? But there is probably one big thing to think about before you jump on board and create a Facebook group, and that would be how much time are you prepared to commit to this community yourself? Because people will want to join because they do have some access to a particular point, to you and your expertise. So you do need to think about how much you're going to participate in this forum, who might actually manage any admin that has to be done for the forum as well.
So it's not without its time commitment, but again, if we're thinking about re-engaging people, obviously we know that it is easier to re-engage an existing client than it is to generate a new one that old saying, but it's a great one-to-many ways to do this, to nurture your clients and existing clients without it feeling too robotic. I know a lot of people, all they do is sort of send an automated email periodically every six months, and it doesn't feel as connected to them. So this could be a really great way if you're prepared to put in the time.
who might not be suited to this strategy
Now, this also won't make sense for a number of services out there, particularly if you feel that your clients and previous clients won't feel comfortable being in a forum where you all know each other. So just consider whether this is the right approach for you. It's certainly an approach that works best when you can cultivate a community feel, and where it's exciting and interesting for your clients to get to know each other.
So there you go. My sort of insight, particularly as a participant of some of these community groups, I went down the rabbit hole this weekend on my computer researching different platforms and software that can help me do this because as you all know, I'm a bit of a tech nerd. And look once I get this whole podcast thing down pat and working like a machine, that might be the next thing I like to do is look at some kind of community option for my clients. Thanks so much for listening.
your podcast hostess
Lauren Stratford
I’m Lauren and I help overwhelmed creatives like you embrace their strengths, get clear on their customer journey and maximise their impact (without adding to the never ending task list!).
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