5 Important Things Successful Collaborative Teams Focus On
1- Streamline the customer experience:
Take time to understand your customer, as times they may come in different forms, from different spaces, with different needs and expectations. To that end, every client needs to be your only client. In today’s world the “end client” is very much looking for an experience. Know who “your” client is and provide that experience. Deliver on time, on budget, and with a genuine concern for the final product no matter what piece of the puzzle your service is creating, especially in the creative and advertising space.
2- Provide a custom experience:
With the first rule of streamlining the customer experience being kept in mind, it is imperative to be agile, understand that different teams work differently, and to the best of your ability, be open to and ready to accommodate different ways of working to collaborate and turn out an excellent product.
3-Always be available:
If you engage a client and develop a working relationship, you owe it to your client to be readily available to respond to questions, make adjustments, etc. Remember, it is all about the customer experience. Establish the best point of contact, and clearly understand the preferred means of communication as sometimes its email, sometimes it’s by phone etc. I try to always encourage ongoing communication and offer my calendar within correspondence with a link like this one that makes it super easy for clients, networking contacts, and others to seamlessly click, pick a time, and book a 15 minute call. Taking the time to do this shows others that you truly are invested in developing partnerships, are available, and makes the experience easy. After all, we are always measuring our experiences whether we realize it or not.
4- Solicit feedback:
If your focus is truly to provide an excellent service, (which it better be) than this really is the most rewarding part of the relationship. If it is a one-off quick job, then getting that feedback helps you to identify opportunities to improve, just as much as an opportunity to see what the client really enjoyed about working with you or your team. If it is a longer term relationship, feedback is an excellent tool to occasionally check-in and take inventory of your product and make sure that the client experience is always kept top of mind.
5- Consistency:
Always be consistent. What exactly does that mean? Simple. It means that you and your team are consistently engaged, consistently focused on excellence, and consistently always remain aware of how your (their) deliverables, attitude, and integrity toward your contribution in the process is providing the most positive experience for your customer.
-Conclusion:
Working in VoiceOver, I quickly learned that my customer base is multi-faceted. I have the customer who has hired me to provide a voice for a project they are working on to provide to an “end client” for an advertisement or an eLearning for project, and I must keep in mind the elements affecting my customer’s experience, but that is one piece. The other piece of this relationship is to understand my customer’s “end client” expectations. After all, if I cannot connect with the true final audience, I cannot possibly achieve in providing the best experience for my direct client who hired me originally to provide the voice. So, in conclusion, just always take into account where your business fits in, and take note that the experience you are trusted to provide may just be a little more far-reaching than it seems at first glance.
About Bob:
Bob Benjamin is a professional voice over artist based in Orange County, New York with a unique background having worked with creative teams for decades in various capacities. He understands the need for excellence, honesty, and the importance of building strong business relationships based on results. Bob continuously works with professional voiceover coaches to improve his skills and ensure he is able to deliver the highest quality product, on-time and on budget. Recording from his own professional studio, Bob can connect with clients via Source-Connect and ipDTL if live directed sessions are desired.
