While working from home does have its advantages (wearing pajamas at your desk being one of them) it can also be detrimental to your business if you are not visible to your consumers. When working from home, communication is vital to the success of any remote operation, especially if you are based in a different location from your client.Â
If you are looking at working from home communication with your clients is tantamount. You will need to build mutual trust so that your services and products are not doubted, and you will need to be sure to keep clients updated at regular intervals about their projects. Clients might feel that emails and text messages are not enough, and you may have to invest in some video-calling and screen-sharing technology.
Below we look at some of the best ways to stay in touch with clients when working from home.Â
Video Conferencing
Many clients prefer having face-to-face meetings, but if you are working from home, you may not be able to attend these meetings. You could invest in video-conferencing software to remedy this, such as Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and others. This will allow you to see your clients and for them to see you -Â remember, a lot can be learnt from body language alone. Just be sure that your office space or living room has been cleaned before you call up an important client.Â
Screen Sharing
If your clients are technologically savvy, you can use screen-sharing technology when communicating with them. This will allow you to share your screen with them, and vice versa, enabling you to share and demonstrate a new website design, logo design, or new functionality on their website. You can also avoid a long and confusing email thread that might lead to more mistakes than progress being made.Â
Provide Your Schedules
Working from home does not mean that you are not working, but some clients might see it this way and attempt to phone you, message you, or email you at every hour of the day. In order to avoid this and to streamline your communication, you should provide your clients with your schedule so that they know when they can (and cannot) contact you. For example, you might only be working from 10:00 am until 16:00 pm on Mondays, so be sure that your team and your clients are aware of this.Â
Don’t Rely Solely On Email
Now, email is a reliable way to communicate with clients and it allows you to have a thread of what was said by who, but you should not rely only on email for communication. Your clients might be unable to answer emails at some point, or you may forget to check your inbox and miss an important message from a client. You can use messaging applications such as WhatsApp Business to keep in contact with clients while working from home, as these applications provide instant access to messages.Â
Send Progress Reports
Whether you are working on a new product, service, or completing a client project, it is vital that you send progress updates to your clients to show them that you are meeting deadlines and goal projections. Not only will this help to keep projects on the right track, but it will show your clients that you are thinking about them and striving to provide them with the same high-quality work. Your progress reports could be in the form of an email, a WhatsApp message or even a video call.Â
Have A Dedicated Work Line
If you will be taking phone calls from clients when working from home, you should invest in having a dedicated phone line for client phone calls. This will eliminate unwanted calls to your personal phone and will maintain a level of professionalism that can sometimes be lost with remote work. Be sure to set this phone to have an audible ring so that you can hear it wherever you are and can answer the call as soon as possible.Â
Go The Extra Mile
Maintaining communication with your clients when you are working from home is vital, and if you go the extra mile and ensure everything runs smoothly, you will be showing them that you care about them and the projects you are completing for them. Invest in video conferencing and screen sharing software and remember to provide schedules to your clients for ease-of-communication.Â
If you are working from home and need assistance with your online marketing strategy, contact NetMechanic today to find out what we can offer you.
