I believe all business processes should be in place before working with clients. At least the basic ones you’ll need to operate. If not, then they can be created as you go. A process will help you execute, verify, and improve your work. They are especially important for recurring work. When growing your team, they can come up to speed faster if there are processes in place. Once you and your team are using them, you can evaluate them every six months (for example) and make improvements as needed. You can add new processes as well, as your team expands what they offer.
Some categories we considered for our processes are the following, but they are applicable to other business models too:
Pre-Client
- Steps you’ll take to understand if you can work with a specific client/business
- Ask them to fill out a questionnaire about their business and what they need help with. If needed, coordinate a meeting to discuss further. If we can help, we’ll let them know and send a proposal. If we can’t, we can offer to pair them with someone who can help.
Intake
- In this step you’ll request all the information needed to do work for your client
- If the client agrees with the proposal, we send them the contract and an invoice. Once that is paid & signed, we send them a welcome document and coordinate a kick off meeting for the tasks we’ll be working on. During the kickoff we’ll discuss the tasks, time frame, tools to be used, communication method & frequency, and any access we need to do the work.
Execution
- Steps you’ll take to execute recurring tasks
- This one depends on the services you offer. If you offer social media packages, you’ll have a process you follow for content creation, including tools to use and a QA check before posting. The same would apply for other services, in our case for inbox management, SEO, project management, bookkeeping, process management, writing, etc. In cases where the client has a different process, then we use theirs. The important thing is to have a guideline in place to make sure the work is done right, and to make improvements as you go.
- Depending on the communication method & frequency established, we’ll check in with our client and make sure work is being done right. If needed, we can make changes.
Post-execution
- In this phase, you’ll finalize deliveries, document lessons learned, request feedback, ask for a testimonial, and thank your client for the opportunity to work with them.
- For this phase we notify our client that the task is complete. If needed, we hold a final meeting. We then ask the client for feedback, and for a testimonial. We’ll answer any questions they have, thank them for the work opportunity, and let them know we’d available to work with them again.
Having these in place means we can focus on reaching out to clients, and knowing what to do when someone is in need of help. This can be overdone too, so the aim is to keep processes simple, to the point, and optimized.
For further reading on business processes, check this article from TechTarget.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help support ongoing tasks or projects, please visit our services page and contact us with any questions you might have.