If you’re a service-based business owner, it’s important for your clients to feel seen and appreciated. From intentional touch points in your workflow to the surprise and delight gifts you pick out for your clients, Brittney Johnson believes in the power of an intentional and personalized client experience. In today’s episode, Brittney discusses how to map out your client experience, where to include intentional messages and reminders for your clients, and why personalize connection is so important!
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Guest Bio:
Brittney committed to customer care back in 2004 and has been showing up to create exceptional experiences for others ever since. With a Bachelors in Psychology, she has always had a passion for how people experience the world around them.
An empath, mom, lover-of-coffee, and animals, Brittney founded Virtual Synergy Consulting in 2019 offering Virtual Assistant support to coaches and agency owners, she became a Certified Director of Operations in 2021 and has since chosen to focus her expertise on improving the experiences clients have with Legal, Financial, and Real Estate service providers as a Customer Experience Strategist.
Her work drives organizations toward their business goals while also creating loyal customers that become brand advocates so both the organization and the customer wins!
Today’s episode is brought to you by my Client Hub Template inside the DIY Systems Template Shop. Business owners often have their client information spread across a variety of different tools, making it hard to access the information they need to make critical decisions. That’s why I built the Client Hub Template for Airtable, to take the guesswork out of building your own!
Here are the highlights…
[1:50] Get to Know Britney
[3:49] Mapping Out Customer Journey
[6:30] Deciding on Delights in Your Client Experience
[11:59] Friendly Reminders for Your Clients
[12:49] Preparing for Renewal
[14:19] Recording Calls for Client Experience Review
[15:48] Knowing Your Audience
[17:14] Selling New Services to Past Clients
[18:38] Prepping Your Clients for Launch
[21:30] Personalizing Sales & Sales Calls
[26:35] Curating Personalized Gifts
[28:45] Connection Creates Memories
[32:02] Biggest Fuck Up
Mentioned in this Episode
Connect with Brittney
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/customerexp.strategist?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtualsynergyconsulting/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittneyjjohnson
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast. I am chatting today with Brittany Johnson. No, we are not related. Oh, I forget y’all don’t know. My last names Johnson. We’re not related, but we’re what I would call like client experience sisters, because we both care about this and this is what we have built our businesses on.
So Brittany, good morning
and welcome to my podcast.
Brittney: thank you. I did not know your last name was Johnson. How did I not know that? That we
Colie: Colie completely made up. We’ll have that conversation
after we stop. So I wanna tell you guys how I met Brittney. Brittney and I were both in a secret showcase, with Jordan Gill of done in a day. And the moment that we stopped, I think I, I might have waited like a day or two, but I sent Brittney an email that was like, no, you must come on my podcast.
You must talk about this. So why don’t you tell the listening audience who you
are and what you
do.
Brittney: Awesome. And thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I am Brittany Johnson. I’m the owner and founder of Virtual Synergy Consulting. I’m a client experience strategist. I’m also a certified operations director. Uh oh gosh, that sounds like so much. I started my business back in 2019, and the goal originally was just to kind of get away from the toxic nine to five.
I feel like we all kind of have a similar backstory in that regard. But it quickly became something way more than that. So I found my superpower is creating exceptional and elevated customer experiences, and that has brought me to what I do today as a client experience strategist. So very exciting.
Colie: see, you just called yourself a client experience strategist, and no doubt that’s what you do. But what really hit me during your showcase is that. You’re talking about client retention from a group program standard, and I scream it from the rooftops for the photographers. So we are gonna talk about group programs, but I also wanna get a little bit of
the services in there because I’ve said it every day of the week, and I know that you agree it is easier to get someone to pay you more money if they’ve
already paid you one time.
Like you don’t have to convince them of your value. They’ve already paid you money, and as long as you didn’t completely fuck it up, They’re probably willing to hire you again, but let’s be honest, what Brittany specializes in is making sure that you don’t fuck it up the first
time. So,
Brittney: Yes.
Colie: yes. So let’s talk about the first part of this because one of the things that I talk about a lot, and you mentioned it before we hit record, is mapping out your customer journey.
So I feel like when people come to me for systems, they’re all about the tools and I’m like, wait, hold up. Like flag on play. You need a
piece of paper and a pencil first. Cuz we need to map out your customer journey. So how do you help your clients? Start with the customer journey before you can even have a conversation about
client retention.
Brittney: So with a lot of my clients, a lot of my clients are creatives. So they are like, go, go, go. I have this idea. I need to build this new thing. I need to put it out there. It needs to be happening right now. And I am just very much in the space of like, pause. That’s beautiful. I love that you made this amazing thing.
It is going to hit home once you launch it and. What does that look like? Right? Like, how is the client going to know what the hell to do with this thing once you put it into the world? Or how to get the most out of it, or why it should matter to them, like why they should even buy it or buy the next thing you put out if they’ve already bought from you.
So the customer journey is really the best place to start, and the way that I guide my clients in mapping that out is just like you said, like, okay. Pencil, paper, pen, paper. I don’t care if you wanna pull up, what is it now, ca Canva has like the whole whiteboard thing. So it’s like, and that’s a whole rabbit hole.
But anyway, so it’s like whatever fits your fancy, right? But you need to be able to document what happens first, what happens next, so on and so forth as it relates to that customer coming into your world. So where are they gonna start? How do they get from where they start to where they want to be? And each of those steps needs to be mapped out clearly so that you can see the gaps, right?
Like you don’t know what you don’t know. And if you have a visual, it’s a lot easier to identify and fix before it becomes a problem.
Colie: And where I see, cuz I mean mapping out your customer journey. I feel like I’ve talked about this enough on the podcast to where we don’t need to like really harp on that fact. But what you really bring to the conversation is what you call delight and touch points. So I feel like. When, you know those creatives that are like on the go, ready to get their, their service or their product out into the world, they are not thinking about how what they do during that service affects whether or not that client is gonna pay them again or whether or not they’re gonna rant and rave about the service that they got to bring in those referrals.
Cuz we all like referrals, right? Like people go out, they sell it. Coley was awesome. I mean, oh my gosh, if you’re trying to get systems, you need to hire her, blah, blah, blah. I mean, but. If we think about it from the expectation of everyone will eventually want to rehire us, everyone will bring us referrals.
What can we do to make that process easier? So how do you suggest, or how do you do this as your service? To like sit down with a client and be like, okay. I understand that you’re gonna get them here and you’re gonna take them here. How do you determine what kind of delights you do throughout that client experience to make it more likely that they
will pay you money again?
Brittney: See, that’s the fun part. Oh my God, you just got me so excited. It’s ridiculous. Okay, That is the fun part, right? Because everybody’s. I say this lightly, everybody’s product or service is different, right? It, there’s variations to it and that’s what makes it fun because what is a delight point for you, for your clientele may not even be something that needs to be considered for somebody else.
So we were talking about people with group programs, and it’s funny you work with photographers and one of my oldest clients, probably one of my first clients, I’ve worked with her for almost five years, is a boudoir photographer. And I love her life, and I love everything she makes. It’s beautiful and oh my God, and I’m always talking to her about how we can.
Further delight the clients, right? So if we are like, someone buys something from you and you shoot them an email and just say, you know, oh my God, I appreciate you so much for continuing to support the, the boudoir divas. We love being able to be a part of your boudoir journey. You know, uh, check out this free resource or click this button and leave feedback, or tell us what you love most about what you just purchased.
Asking people what they think and how they feel. People love to talk about themselves. Absolutely love it. Like do it as often as you can, ask someone to tell you what they think and what they feel and like you got ’em. You know what I mean? So for her, those are really easy delight elements to add. She does like these little postcards with One of her pictures on ’em that she took, like, cuz they do, destination shoots.
So like they go to, yeah. I think she just went to, I don’t know if it was Europe or what, but she’ll take a picture from one of her destination shoots and she’ll put it on a postcard and she’ll just do a handwritten thank you. Or, you know, have you checked out the new episode? I see you’ve been a member for the last year and a half.
Thank you so much. Here’s the QR code. You know what I’m saying? So like, figure out what it is. Your clients love about your products or your services, or even just you, because it doesn’t always have to be the product or service. Like you’re also a huge selling point in your offers. Like people grow to love you as well.
So the more access they have to you, you know, free stuff, you know that they already love. Any of those elements you can add or just bonuses all the way around.
Colie: I mean, and I often tell people to start with the basics because the photographers that I work with, a lot of them, like you book them. And then you don’t talk to the client until like right before their session when you start to do the planning. And I’m like all of that dead space. And your client experience is an opportunity for you to make them feel special.
Remind them of what else they could be doing after this service is complete, like buying products.
I mean, every time I hear someone say, oh, my client’s never buy products me. Okay, but Did you show them what you sell? Oh, well, it’s in the online gallery. Oh, okay. So what you’re telling me is they got to your online gallery and they’re looking at the photos.
They ain’t got time to look in the rest of that stuff. They’re trying to find their favorite photo. Trying to, in the case
of Bourgeois, probably trying
Brittney: How would they even know to look though? You know what I mean? Like how are you guiding them to that
thing?
Colie: Yes,
yes,
So I mean,
that’s something that helps you, but also helps your client. I feel like too many photographers shy away from selling the products because they’re like, oh no, my clients can do that on their own.
Honey, they paid you for a convenience. Like they paid you to take these photos. A lot of them I would venture would pay you to take, making the album off their hands would pay you to
like print and frame their photos. Not everybody, I get what you’re saying. Not everybody, but the people who are interested in paying for that convenience will do it.
And then you know what happens? We’re talking about
client retention, right, Brittany? If they print a book, an album, and their partner’s like, oh, you know, I really like those photos. Are you gonna get another one of those shoots done? Yes sir. Yes sir.
I am. Let me call my photographer. I mean, but in the case of photographers, at least if your images just live on hard drives, the likelihood that them seeing the images to prompt them to hire you again
is pretty slim.
And let’s just talk about asking for the sale, Brittany. I feel like part of the problem is people think that they are badgering their clients when they come back to them and they don’t really think about it as like a service. Like, Hey, I’m not gonna make you remember that. It’s time for you to have another photo session.
Let me send you an email gently prompting you to think about the fact
that, hey, it’s been a year.
Hey, it’s been
Brittney: Friendly reminders, please. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, set aside the fact that people are running businesses or trying to find things to like bring them joy. They’re still dealing with just the day-to-day shit. You know what I mean? So it’s like you’re giving them too many things to think about, consider and make decisions on, like, you wanna make it as seamless and simple.
As humanly possible, which is why we’re like, Hey, guide them to that thing. Send them the gentle reminder or the friendly reminder saying, Hey, you did this last time. I know you loved it. How about doing it again? Here’s a link for you to book that. You know what I’m saying? Like
Colie: Easy
Brittney: easy.
Colie: process.
Brittney: The whole thing took three minutes.
Colie: Yes, and I’m actually, I didn’t realize that you have to explain this to people. In the last, I would say two weeks, I’ve set up like ongoing booking processes for two of my photography clients, so that all they had to do was like send out an email marketing blast with the link to directly book.
I had someone who. You know, didn’t do it. She put the dates in an email and I was like, no. But then they gotta email you back and be like, oh, well, is this date still available? Mm-hmm. Just click on the link, see if it’s available, and book your session. All right. Brittany, I feel like I’m taking up too much of your time talking about services.
So I wanna get to the group programs because there will be people in the listening audience that have group programs or. A different kind of service that they sell after the first one. So in the case of group programs, how is it that you are helping your clients, increase their client retention? To have people sign on for, you know, another year, another six months, whatever it is, whereas they’ve been paying for this service and now it’s either they stop paying or they actively opt in to continue to be a
part of
this service.
Brittney: One of the things that I see most often in businesses where people kind of shoot themselves in the foot is that they don’t prepare for that renewal, right? They don’t do it quick enough or soon enough they don’t give themselves enough runway, so, so let’s say someone is renewing. Two weeks from now and you just started sending them reminders or sending them requests for feedback, or, you know, sending them some type of discount on renewing or some type of additional bonus to entice them to renew.
You wanna try and give yourself as much runway as possible, depending on the depth of the program and all the different features and things that come along with it. I suggest at least four weeks, so give yourself one month prior. And you wanna just start sending those gentle nudges like, Hey, your renewal’s coming up.
I love when people, and they don’t take advantage of like just getting on the phone with somebody enough, like people sit on screens all the time. You would be amazed how many people would just be open to having a phone call with you. So just sending them and any email and say, Hey, book a call with me.
Not a Zoom call. I’m going to call you on the phone and we’re gonna do this like normal people and just have a normal conversation. You’re gonna tell me what I can do to best serve you, and we’re gonna figure out how we can move you forward toward the direction of where you wanna go in this program, like
Colie: but Brittany, if you do a Zoom call, then you get it recorded and you can potentially use any awesome information that they say for a client
Testimonial. I’m sorry, I just
had
Brittney: can, you can also
record phone calls. I do it with the law firm that I work with as is their client experience coordinator. We use, what is it? Dialpad, and every phone call we make is recorded. You get a transcript, everything. It’s beautiful and it’s more of a, a human experience. People don’t have to be stuck at their desk.
They don’t have to be in front of a computer. I could be walking around the grocery store having a conversation. You make it easy for people. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. It’s a.
Colie: Okay. And it’s funny, I actually had it written down my notes to ask you for the timeline to start this kind of conversation. And so when it comes to like a group program, I also feel like 30 days is a great runway. So in that 30 days, how many nudges is too many? Cuz here’s the thing. I’m one of those people making that joke.
I check email at stoplight. So if you told me that like my renewal is coming up and I see it, I’m like, oh, I should take care of that. Mm-hmm. By the time I got home, I forgot
you even emailed me.
Brittney: Girl, the lights are green and you forget that somebody emailed you.
Colie: Okay, so how many emails? I don’t wanna say appropriate, cuz I know it’s gonna
vary based on the personality, the program, all that good stuff. But like how many would you suggest on average in that 30 day runway before their access to the program is terminated?
Brittney: Oh my God, that’s such a hard question because of all the variables.
No,
Colie: want, you can just tell me
the last one
that you did.
Brittney: yeah. I think know your audience. How often do you typically communicate with them? I think. Holding true to like a pattern. Like, so they know what to expect is your best bet. Like I wouldn’t go from sending them two emails a week to five.
They’re gonna be like, what is wrong with you? Like, why are you so intense right now? But. Maybe that first week you send them to that first and second week you send them to maybe that third week you send them three. If you haven’t gotten any response at all, maybe that that last one is much more personalized, where you’re like, Hey, I just wanna get on a call with you and, and get some, some feedback on what your experience has been like, and then just kind let that unfold, however it will, whether it results in a renewal or not. I feel like a lot of people don’t take advantage of the, the feedback so, Because even if someone doesn’t renew, typically that feedback will tell you why, and so you can fix it for the next go round of whoever’s renewing next, you know?
Colie: All right. So Brittany, that’s retaining them for like a group program
that they’re already enrolled in to where what they’re saying yes to is just more of the same. But how should we perhaps change our perspective if we are trying to take people that hired us previously? And sell them on a new
product or service.
Brittney: Hmm. Oh, that’s fun too. I think with that, whatever that new product or service is, my hope is that it was built with the client in mind. So whether that’s a client that’s already bought from you, so you already know what their next set of needs are, or if that is like a, a new i c a. You should still know what their needs are.
So as long as you’re speaking directly to that and you know, making sure that you’re making the, what is it my coach says? She says, sell futures not features. So you’re making it clear exactly what their future looks like with that thing. You’re good. Like the people who are meant to be in it will be in it and it won’t be a heavy lift. Also giving yourself enough runway
is important with that as well. Cause please do not go call yourself launching something in three weeks. Stop doing that.
Colie: Okay, so let’s back up. So opinion on some launches. Girl. Let’s, let’s get into that very quickly. So, What do you consider, so we talked about a 30 day runway. If you’re trying to get someone to renew for the same product and service that they’re already in, what do you love to see in a typical launch for a new program or service?
Like how long should we be planning in a advance before that cart opens or that new service becomes live on
your website?
Brittney: I’m going to make this very clear. I am not a launch strategist at all.
My skillset set will come in more where you are building out the touch points in the launch. So like what do those need to look like? So you need to make sure you’re being crystal clear on what it is they’re getting the timeframe for the access to it.
When it starts, how they’ll access it. Is it a different platform? Is it this link they need to bookmark? Does the link work? Please check your links. Who are they contacting if something happens? Like what is the format of the program gonna look like? Where do they go if they need support? Those types of things need to be sprinkled out throughout.
So if you’re doing like a workshop, if you’re doing, guess like an evergreen launch, then you need to make sure that that stuff is in there, even if it’s just like a slide. You know what I mean? Like try and answer people’s questions before they are vocalized is my, is kind of my rule of thumb. Like don’t let it become an issue.
Try and be as proactive as you can
Colie: I kind of try to follow Steph Taylor’s program Launch Magic in that she thinks that you should have like a 12 week runway before you launch any new program, which when she first said it, I was like, are you crazy?
12 weeks? Where the, but what she’s trying to talk about is, you know, you talk about the problems and the needs of the person upfront, and you don’t actually get into like the nitty gritty of the program or the service and what it entails until you’re much closer to, you know, Cart open or whatever. But just thinking about planning that far in advance will help you make sure that you are personalizing, you know, you have the time to personalize parts of these touchpoints, and also make sure that there are enough of them in place to where you are touching bases with your clients.
And I think that’s even so much more important when you are trying to bring a previous client to a new one. Because the more that you can personalize the ask. I think the more likely they are to hire you
again. What do you think
Brittney: I absolutely agree. I think anytime that you have an opportunity to personalize the experience, you do it like no questions asked because that my whole thing is bringing the humanity back to business, right? Like everything is so transactional and fast and electronic, and the more you can recognize and appreciate and.
You know, hold space for the actual human. On the other end of that interaction, the better off you’ll be. You both win always
Colie: So how do you feel about sales calls? Because I feel like we’ve talked a lot about like feedback calls, but do you have a perspective on sales calls and how they should be used for client retention or getting previous clients to book into a new product or
service?
Brittney: sales calls. I guess I’ve never really thought about it. I do think that sales calls whenever possible should also be personalized. I think back to when I was reading Joey Coleman’s Never Lose a customer again, and he gave the example of when he was prospecting, he had a lead and he went and visited this guy at his office.
He was really into golf. And he remembered all of his memorabilia and like he had a, what are those things? Like a putting green in his office. It was ridiculous. But anyway, I know these people exist. No, no. Now I’m not trying to be rude, but he had a putting green in his office and Joey said that after that visit, he went and he bought a golf ball.
And he wrote, I can’t remember what he wrote on it, but he mailed it to the guy with like a thank you card for his time. And within a week the guy had signed up with his corporation. And I’m like, that’s, that’s genius. All you have to do is show people that you’re listening to them, that you value who they are as a person.
And I mean, you’re already setting yourself apart from the competition. Cuz 98% of people aren’t gonna do that. They’re gonna go that extra mile. So I think that holds true even in sales, sales calls and things
Colie: Yeah,
I mean, so that is just so fascinating about the golf ball. I feel like with high ticket offers and services, you really do have the space to like, you know, research the potential clients on their Instagram, on their website, get to know more about them so that if you are sending them something to delight them, it’s not just something that you’re sending to everyone.
It can specifically be something that has, you’ve put a lot of thought into it for that specific
person.
Brittney: I agree with that. I also, I guess, My caveat to that would be, even if it’s not high ticket, is so like subjective. Like,
Colie: I mean, high ticket is subjective, but I, let me just, let me just put a dollar amount. I wouldn’t do that for someone that I was trying to sell a $50
digital download
Brittney: no, no, no.
Colie: like, I just mean someone that’s gonna spend, you
know, four figures on your
service, maybe even
Brittney: yep. We in the same boat. Yep. That makes sense to me. Absolutely.
Colie: Yeah, I mean, I guess I, I’m not talking about high ticket, like someone has spent $25,000 with you. I just mean, not that you shouldn’t put effort, but you have an associated like budget. I would, I would hope. That many people out there are putting a budget in there for like a welcome gift or those kinds of things, and the more that someone is paying you for your service, the more wiggle room you would have in order
to be able to do that.
Brittney: Don’t that sound just so ideal and beautiful. Girl that ain’t happening, at least in the businesses. Some of the businesses I’ve been in, some of the ones that I have supported, um, some that I’ve just kind of come in and helped friends with and things like that. It seems so simple and like. The easiest and quickest thing to kind of just put in place like boom, there it is.
That is just not happening. So there you go. That’s something that you can do today, like when you do your numbers next, like sit down, figure out what’s a comfortable budget for somebody who’s spending four figures, like at least four figures. If you have a offer that size and figure out what, where you can go and like find gifts.
Like I’ve used, um, who are these folks? They send me emails, like they email a lot. I probably get seven emails a week. I’m like, okay now.
Colie: I mean, that’s a lot.
Seven emails is.
Brittney: I’m like, I don’t talk to my mama that often. Okay. Please stop emailing me. Like I’ll use thanks. There’s so many different places and it doesn’t have to be a heavy lift.
You just like go back and listen to a call. Like, what did y’all talk about? What is that person like? Find something on Amazon.
Colie: I know a lot of people will send me Starbucks gift cards. And the funny thing is, I mean, I don’t know if you know this about me, Brittany, I’m
obsessed with my coffee, right? But in December of 2021, I bought myself like a really fancy espresso machine, or rather, my husband did, and I just said that it was from him, whatever.
Anyways, he, I. I don’t go to Starbucks anymore unless I am traveling, which I’m traveling this week, and so I’m gonna use all this, all this money on my Starbucks app. But I mean, in general, I used to just send coffee gift cards, you know, out. Or in some cases I would ask people what their favorite local restaurant was so that I was helping a local business and surprising and delighting my
clients at the same time.
But I kinda, I mean, I feel like I’ve gone off of that. I need to like, bring that back into the fold. But if someone. I mean, maybe we’re just talking about me guys, but someone wanted to start sending their clients welcome gifts again. I mean, you mentioned a service that would do it, but like how is it that you can put a more personalized touch on it?
Like do you have any of your clients ask their clients about themselves on like an intake form with the specific objective of like curating
a welcome gift for them?
Brittney: absolutely. That’s what I was gonna tell you. Like it’s easy to add these things to an intake form or, put in the welcome guide. You know, some people have a form within the welcome guide. It’s like, Hey, once you get done reading this, submit this. So we just know a little bit more about you, right?
And then you’ll pull together ideas for the welcome gift. From that, I have personally curated an entire like, I don’t even know if it was a welcome. It may have been a, a anniversary gift, like anniversary of working together, um, which is usually at the year mark. But I pulled together things that I knew about my client and literally just went on Amazon and just.
Pulled stuff together and made a whole box. So like I knew she loved reading, so I got a lot of really cute bookmarks. I got her some of just the regular bookmark cards. The strips, but then like one that was a butterfly cuz her son has autism and it has the little chain on it to put inside the book to hold the page.
And, She loved parks and recreation, so I got her like, coloring books, the parks and recreation coloring books. So she liked coloring. It was good for like mental health stuff and got her like the colored pencils to go with it. Like, so just pulling together things you know about your clients. You can do it that way too.
Also, I geek out over this stuff, so I understand if some people are listening to this, like, girl, I am not doing that.
Colie: I mean, but it is about that surprise and delight. And even if, cuz that’s the thing, even if you aren’t ever gonna have this person hire you again, let’s say for, let’s say for some people, if you have one big offer and there really isn’t an opportunity to retain that client and have them hire you again, because once they’ve done this one service, you literally don’t have anything to offer them, which I think is a mistake,
but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Brittney: I wasn’t gonna say nothing,
Colie: They still have the opportunity, they still have the opportunity to bring other people into your business. And so even if the plan is not to retain them, I want everybody to think in this case about retention and referrals
in the same light, everything that you’re doing is either going to bring you more money from that client or more money from the people that they tell
about your amazing
Brittney: A million percent because you’re building that connection. That connection is what creates that memory, right? The experience and the connection go together. So if somebody has a shit experience, they’re not gonna wanna deal with you, be connected to you in any way thereafter, and Lord knows they’re not sending anybody to you.
You can, you can chalk that up, that’s dead in the water, but if you create this, Exceptional and exceptional being the perfect word, because very few businesses do this. They don’t, I don’t think they are aware enough, one, allow themselves the bandwidth to actually put an initiative in place. And some just don’t care.
But you create this exceptional experience and that builds the connection. So, like you said, even if the person. It doesn’t have the need to buy anything else from you or you don’t have anything else to offer them. The next time they talk to somebody who mentions needing a service that they know you offer, they’re gonna immediately think of that experience and that’s who they’re gonna tell.
They’re gonna say, Hey, you need to go to to Brittany. You need to go to Coley. You need to tell, you know what I mean? Like you need to go here for this service and this support, because it was amazing. It’s not gonna be a, a doubt in their mind. The other thing I wanted to add, which is really funny cuz we’re talking about what to do in the beginning, like with the welcome gift and like renewals and such, but there’s ways to add delight in your touchpoints throughout the client journey as well, not just at these major milestones.
Like one thing we do in the firm. If somebody is having a birthday, if somebody is sick, if someone has lost someone, um, if someone lets us know they’ve been nominated for something, like even sending a card or making a phone call and just congratulating them, taking a moment to celebrate them or show support for them, that also goes a long, long way.
Colie: I mean, I started asking my clients for their birthdays about I think eight months ago, and I still haven’t done anything with it. So Brittany, I think that this is like my, Hey Cole, you should go sit down and do something with all those birthdays that you keep on asking your clients for. I mean, I had the intention of like sending a birthday card and sending.
Like a gift card to Starbucks cuz Hello again. I love
the coffee. I don’t trust
Brittney: Look, life begins after coffee. You hear me? You don’t even wanna know me before I’m caffeinated. Okay. Like mm-hmm.
Colie: so I have this cup. It’s a OEM cup. I know I’m butchering that, but this has a little plate on my nightstand that’ll warm it up. So James makes me an Americano in these now every day before he goes to work that way, when I wake up, all I have to do is pick it up and put it
down, and then it
warms
Brittney: Ooh, listen, this cup, I got this cup and this was actually from a small business, uh, here in Cleveland, a shop that is for other small businesses in Cleveland to bring in their products. And this cup will keep my coffee warm for like five hours. I’m like, this is a godsend. Thank you, Jesus. So
Colie: Because like you said,
life begins after coffee. All right. Brittany, this conversation has been so amazing. We are gonna tie it all up with the question that I ask everyone, and that is, what was your biggest fuck up in business? What did you learn from it and how did you grow?
Brittney: So my biggest fuck up was thinking that I could run my business like everybody else runs theirs. Biggest fuck up ever. Um, and I feel like, I feel like it was necessary. Because it allowed me to hold space for myself and like what I actually want. What really makes me happy and kind of sit down the bullshit belief of nobody is going to pay for kindness, nobody’s gonna pay to, you know, show compassion and empathy for other people, and.
It really taught me to look at the businesses that are already doing it and how successful they are to just remind myself that it’s absolutely possible. I think that would have to be it.
Colie: I mean, I’ve always, when people, when I’m signing up for a course or like for a mastermind or whatever and people ask me for like my values, I’m like, I never know what to say for those, but I. I feel like once you figure those out, those can actually like push forward how you run your business in comparison to someone who has a business that offers like a very similar.
I will say outcome. So like, think about us, like we do systems, right? Like there we’re, we’re a dime a dozen. Now there are so many people out there that do client experience work, do systems, do all of that. But each one of us offers something
distinctly different. Even if the only thing is how we approach business with our values.
I mean, I’m sure all of us have different processes, have different delights, have different touch points, but at the end, We’re all giving our clients hopefully a better at client experience for their clients and then the systems to back them up. But how each of us choose to do that can be so different.
And so I, I, I don’t wanna say that I worry, but I feel like when new people come on the block and you find someone who’s been successful, It is very natural to just try to figure out what that person did to build their business
and then replicate it. And I do think that we’re moving into more of a space where people are being a lot more thoughtful about what they’re getting from like the group programs or the coaches that they hire in that, you know, I want this person to help
me shape my business,
but I don’t want their business.
I
want my business
to be
Brittney: Yeah. And I want this person to see me. I don’t wanna be seen as a number. I don’t want to just be another head in the group. Like I want to be seen, I want to be heard. I want to be valued, and I want to be supported. And when any of those elements are missing, you are damaging your client experience, period.
And people will remember it.
Colie: Guess what guys? That’s the end, she said, and people will remember it. Hey Brittany, if people wanna find you on these internet streets,
where can they find you?
Brittney: Oh my gosh. Okay, so I spend most of my time on Facebook, so, and I just changed my handle. Y’all don’t be judging me cuz I feel like, I feel the judgment coming through here cause I don’t know it off the top of my head.
Colie: Brittany, you are the first person ever to say
Facebook. When we get off this, I’m gonna ask you how old you are. Cause don’t nobody say
Facebook anymore.
Brittney: what y’all call it. I’m okay not being like the kids. Okay. I’m
- I feel old
Colie: oh my gosh, I’m
so much older than you, Brittany. I would say most people say, you know, like Instagram or, oh yeah, girl, 40. By the time this airs Colie
will be
44.
Brittney: Oh, you so knowledgeable. I’m about to be all up in your dms like so. Hey, I got this life question.
Colie: And I mean, I’m actually thinking to myself when I was your age, I think that’s actually when I, yeah, actually I was your age when I opened my
business. That
Brittney: What?
Colie: yeah. So cuz I’ve been, this is my
11th year of business. So
Brittney: I aspire to be you 11 years from now.
Colie: Oh, don’t go there. Believe me, I, I led a lot of life before I became a mother and then, you know, opened this business.
But no, like, no one ever says Facebook anymore. Cause you know, everybody’s hanging out on the Graham. I guess
people hang out in Facebook groups, but not
really like Facebook in general.
Brittney: I hear the gram, I think of my niece and nephew and it like makes me cringe a little. Cause I’m like,
Colie: No, that’s TikTok for me. My, when someone, when someone mentions TikTok, this is me. No, my 12 year old makes TikTok. I’m, I don’t do TikTok. And originally I had an account and it was like my fake name, Chloe James, and Chloe was Chloe’s my daughter. She was putting tick tos on there. And I think it was after I did a podcast interview and I realized, oh, but even though I’m not active on TikTok, people might be looking for my videos on TikTok.
So then I had to go and like archive
all of those. You know, there was one where she was asking me for a new doll and I was like, no. I mean, it was. Like, you know,
completely not business related. It was super ridiculous, but I had to go and archive all that stuff that she put on there so that I could actually put a
few business videos, because even though I’m not active there, I realized no people might be going to find me there.
And I don’t want them to be looking at
Chloe’s, you know,
Brittney: Yeah.
Colie: orchestrated
videos and all that. So, no.
Brittney: I, it’s total sidebar. Yes. I’ve tried to put some videos there. Sometimes TikTok is for entertainment, period. Like I go on TikTok to just geek and laugh and just enjoy my life. But as far as Facebook, it’s customer exp strategist.
on Facebook, on Instagram, it’s just my business name, virtual Synergy Consulting.
So you find me in either of those two places. I’m trying to be more adult and spend some time on LinkedIn. Listen Link LinkedIn is like a stuffy office to me. I’ll be like,
Colie: So can I just tell you
that it’s not anymore? I mean, again, I’m much older than you. So here’s the thing. I can remember what LinkedIn used to be when it was just like a
glorified resume
Brittney: Was it in black and white? I feel like it was in black and white.
Colie: mean, I don’t know, because I actually didn’t get a LinkedIn account until like, I think it was
last year. I didn’t have a LinkedIn account.
Now, my husband had one because, you know, he, he’s not, he, he has a corporate job, like
he’s a biochemist.
Brittney: Oh, wow. Yeah. He got a real serious
job
Colie: Yeah. I mean, you know, but like even then, the last time that he was really active on LinkedIn was when he got his, not this current job, but the one before that.
And then, I mean, he was at that job for nine years, so he didn’t do anything on LinkedIn in those nine years. But I remember when he was finishing his postdoc and he was looking for a job, I looked at it and I was like, oh, it’s just like where you put your resume. Okay. And as an academic, before I was a business owner, uh, we didn’t really do LinkedIn way back then.
And then when I became a photographer, like we definitely don’t use LinkedIn because no one comes to LinkedIn to find a photographer. It wasn’t until I was like, okay, so I’m doing systems for business people. Let me go ahead and hook myself up with a LinkedIn account, but. All of this to tell you, Brittany, they have videos, they have feeds.
Like it’s a lot more like Facebook and Instagram now than you would think. In fact, it’s probably a lot like Facebook with the aspect of, you know, instead of having a personal page, you have,
you know, your business
Brittney: do have both. I do have both. I have a personal and a business pa. I think it’s just the, the interacting part feels very corporate to me. Still. Like the feeds, the video, all that stuff. I do have that like, built out. I made myself go to a masterclass cause I was like, you don’t have to like it, but you gotta do it.
Okay,
Colie: But you
Brittney: gonna do it? So I did it. So get that like the, The features and all that are very similar to Facebook, but that energy for me, I just be like, it’s like being in the elevator
Colie: new friends.
Brittney: in it, and don’t nobody wanna be that close. It’s like, mm.
Colie: Okay, we gonna work on that, Brittany?
Brittney: Work in progress every day. It’s fine.
Colie: Work in progress. All right everyone. That’s it for this episode.
See you next time.
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