Client monthly reports

Big fan of reports... I love the line in the article "It’s more than communication, it’s education" If I had to classify myself it would be an education based marketer... a better informed client.. is well, going to be mine! LOL I am very transparent in the process, I want the client to understand what is going on and when. I am working on THEIR livelihood... that is a HUGE responsibility.

If I am say working on their house they can see the progress.. but with things like SEO and CRO and even web page development progress is usually displayed as a final product kind of thing. Not so much a we have done this see? we have done that see? what color do you want your cabinets? ( menu buttons? )

All Metaphors aside... many years ago I was looking for a better business model... At the time I was buying a new build home.. pick your lot.. pick your house model.. pick your finishes.. this is an upgrade etc etc.. and of course I had one of those Aha moments...

THAT is what I need to be doing with my services. Anyone that has been in that process knows all of the minor details these type of building firms give you. There are delivery dates there are install dates etc etc. you know when one has fallen behind and it effects this this and that.

The construction process can be VERY transparent in nature. From start to final walk through and working through the punch list.. A good contractor is going to keep you up to date and in the loop.

As service providers the same process should take place. And I think reports are the key in this to reflect apon what has been done, and what's next for the project. I do personally do expect myself or a team member to go over the report with the client. Make sure we are on track - listen for those slight hints of clues towards dissatisfaction and strive to correct issues as we go.

Making a sale is the easy part... maintaining the client and working towards that client referring becomes the long term goal. I think Monthly communication about the clients favorite topic ( themselves and their business ) is an effort in the right direction. and a report is the vehicle to make this type of communication have reason and not feel forced.

One client I was working with would get these in depth analytics and adwords reports somewhat too relentlessly and ever so efficiently...and upon closer study the "wordage" was all too similar....

Now...if you do that kind of business you may want to have a look at the automated type reports that get generated.

I was shocked that some well know newspapers utilised such automated services for sports reports and the like.

Things like Wordsmith make client reporting just that bit easier....Automated Insights - Wordsmith Natural Language Generation Platform

Sweet memories...

That brings me back to the old days when I was doing network support for small businesses. We installed firewalls with spam filters and reporting systems showing their employees internet usage, broken down by user names and IP addresses.

I'd sit down with clients to give them a report on a quarterly basis and their eyes would glaze over.

It then came down to being very simple meetings. "Sally spent 20 hours on Facebook last month.", "Joe received over 2000 spam messages, he's probably signing up for things with his business email account"..."I blocked Sally and talked to Joe"..."See you in 3 months"

It is a different story though when you can show them how their site improved in ranking, show the improvement in number of visitors, and start asking them how their call volume has increased. That they are interested in.

I have 3 little systems in play for my reporting.

1) I send a monthly overview, an informal PDF that has:
A summary of whats happened that month
What I've done
What I'll be doing in the coming month
Anything I need from them
A notes section where I can leave comments that aren't really important to the project, referral requests, service up sells etc

2) different live reporting for different types of clients:

My SEO clients have access to a Google spreadsheet that contains all links gained, this is updated live as and when a new link is obtained. And another that contains the contact lists and status of each contact, also updated live.

Lead gen clients get access to one that simply lists the leads generated live, I use zapier to Automate this.

3) Every Wednesday, I have a VoIP number forwarded to my mobile phone between the hours of 12-4pm. I also use a schedule once link if they want to book some time outside of my consulting hours. This just allows them to talk through the report or ask any questions about their campaigns if they want to.

Pretty robust little, and excellent for client retention.