How to Make it Easy for Interior Design Clients to Work with You
Updated October 2023
What if you found out you're confusing your potential clients and making it hard for them to work with you? If you’re familiar with Donald Miller and The Story Brand, then you also know how true the expression “If you confuse, you lose” is. When I start working with clients, we start by identifying their client-facing touchpoints so we can ensure that potential customers find it easy to work together right from the start. How many times have you gone to someone’s website and been so confused about how to work with them that you leave and never go back?
I’ve had conversations with other consumers about this, and I’ve also heard feedback from my clients that their customers are telling them, “You’re the only company I interviewed who provides this level of information: We’re ready to book!”.
And the thing we did to get those kinds of responses from their customers time and time again was created once and continues to attract clients who are eager and ready to book.
By fine-tuning a few key customer touchpoints in your inquiry phase and onboarding phase, you’ll be helping your customers to say YES to working with you.
But first: what is a touchpoint?
A touchpoint is defined as “…any time a potential customer or customer comes in contact with your brand–before, during, or after they purchase something from you.” Every interaction with a client is an opportunity to create a meaningful or magical moment.
What are the benefits of improving customer touchpoints throughout your interior design process?
TOUCHPOINTS INSPIRE CONFIDENCE.
It gives clients confidence in your ability to solve their problems. If each of your touchpoints anticipates what your clients will need at that step, they’ll feel like you understand their pain points and have the solution for them. This will make it easier for them to see you as the best option if they’re interviewing multiple businesses for their project.
TOUCHPOINTS CONFIRM THEY MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE.
When they make a purchase, touchpoints will confirm for them that they made the right choice. The way you thank them for choosing you, the onboarding materials you send over, the gift you send out. All of these touchpoints will foster good feelings and so much confidence in you right from the start of a project, especially when some people tend to have buyer’s remorse right after making a purchase.
TOUCHPOINTS CREATE A REFERRAL WORTHY CLIENT EXPERIENCE.
Your well-planned touchpoints will allow your clients to fully enjoy their experience doing business with you because they’ll know exactly what to expect every step of the way. This will again inspire trust, which means making continued purchases from you and saying yes to your designs will be a simple YES!
When clients don’t know what’s coming next, they’ll be anxious, they’ll be reaching out with questions, they’ll be worried about whether they’ll miss something or not. The experience they’ll remember with your company will be one of stress and uncertainty, not one that inspires repeat business and referrals!
KEY TOUCHPOINTS FOR THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
When I work with interior design business owners we fine-tune the touchpoints in their inquiry phase, their onboarding phase, and their offboarding phase. For every client, we design these interactions based on their ideal clients and their services, but the key phases to focus on are typically the same.
The key touchpoints of your interior design sales process
The inquiry phase touchpoints are places where you can automatically work in the know, like, trust factor. Take a look at where your leads are coming from and then focus on improving the initial touchpoints on those platforms first.
Your website
Your website should be easy to navigate. I recommend no more than five tabs along the top. About, Services, Gallery, Contact. You should be able to get by with just those four unless you have a blog or resources page.
Please don’t get cute with your titles for each page. Services should be called services or work with me, so potential clients know exactly what you can do for them. Don’t call it anything that might confuse them.
Make sure all links on your website work (I recommend running a monthly check) and if you have a calendar for bookings, make sure you have availability added so they don’t hit a dead end.
Ahh, the pricing question. Do you include pricing, do you not include pricing? I am a HUGE fan of including pricing! I did this with my wedding planning business and with this business as well. If it’s not that cut and dry, I love to see “Starting at…” so potential clients at least know if it’s a reality to work together or not.
Use Google analytics to see how web users are navigating your site. Where do they go first, where do they go second, where do they drop off? Change your navigation bar to anticipate their journey.
Every page should tell them what to do. Book a call, send an email, download something, etc. Most clients want someone to tell them what to do. You’re the pro, and your website gives you the first opportunity to guide them through your process and help them make the best choice.
Make it SO easy for them to inquire. I like contact forms but I also recommend adding your email as well in case someone doesn’t like contact forms.
After they inquire, include a message or redirect them to a page that lets them know what’s next. I like to know when I should expect a response so be sure to include that at a minimum.
Your social media
If you use social media as a way to attract clients, you’ll want to make sure to apply the website tips to your social media accounts.
Are all your links working?
Is the call to action there?
Are you letting them know what to do in the posts that promote your services?
Are your posts showing and explaining the type of work you do and who you do it for?
Is your branding the same as your website so there is consistency?
Always respond to their messages with more than a heart. Have a real conversation. Get to know them so they are more comfortable reaching out when they are ready to buy.
Your social media should talk about what you do and how you do it for your clients. If you’re a wedding planner and you only do full-service weddings, let people know that so you don’t get inquiries for “day of” brides. If you are a designer and don’t do renovation projects, let clients know that.
The proposal & contract
My recommendation is to send your interior design proposal and contract in a timely manner. Like 1-2 days. When people first reach out and talk to you, they’re excited to have a solution and eager to work together. They want to solve their problem, they believe you can do it, and they are excited about the end result. Don’t let a lengthy delay cause them to lose interest or faith in your ability to help them (grab our done-for-you Canva or Honeybook Proposal Template).
When you send them the proposal, include everything they need to book and let them know what happens next. This will put them in the mindset of a client, and they’ll be eager to move to the next phase with you. Not sure what to include in your contract? Click here for my Interior Designer Scope and Service Agreement Template.
The key touchpoints of your onboarding process
Woo hoo! You just booked a new client. DO NOT miss the critical step of onboarding them!
They approved the proposal and signed the agreement, and now it’s time to onboard them. I recommend sending onboarding info right away. Again, they may be having some buyer’s remorse or feeling nervous about their investment, and I recommend giving them something right away so they feel confident in their buying decision.
This should include a welcome email along with some welcome materials with all the info they need to get started. Make it easy for them to navigate this information so they know exactly what's expected of them and WHY it’s beneficial for them to do the prep.
Read my favorite onboarding process tips.
Gift time!
Part of your onboarding process should be to send them a handwritten card or a gift that makes sense for them/their family. I love the giftology method and highly recommend sending something that is useful for your client.
Communication is always key, but especially during onboarding.
All email communication during this phase should let clients know what to expect next and how it will impact them.
Anticipate how they will be feeling at each stage of the process and send information out BEFORE they have to ask.
The key touchpoints of your offboarding process
The project is wrapping up, and now it’s time to say goodbye.
Let them know you’ve fulfilled the contract terms and what to expect next. For some clients, closing out projects is really tough, and this leaves them feeling overwhelmed with so many open loops to keep track of. Close the loop! Even if there are some items outstanding, you can close out your projects with a closing email and let them know how you’ll handle any open items.
Let them know additional ways to work with you.
Ask for feedback and a testimonial and make it SO easy for them to complete this step for you.
Send a thank you gift or card.
Create a follow up sequence to keep in touch with them to see how they are doing and to send them a few additional helpful resources.
I know I said these are simple things to do, and then I laid out a thousand words about how to do it. But here’s the thing, once these are set up/created, you can run this system on repeat straight from your inbox and have it automatically running on your website. Once you get into the habit of checking links, updating your availability, and responding to clients in this way, it will become so natural for you.
Defining your customer journey and all the key touchpoints and then creating materials and processes around them not only gives your clients an amazing experience with your business right from the start, but it also reduces your work so you can spend that newfound free time focusing on your client work, your family, or whatever it is you want.
If you are ready to get these key touchpoints set up for your business so you can have a repeatable process for bringing in new clients and wow-ing them right from the start, I’d love for you to check out my plug-and-play Client Experience Templates for Interior Designers and Wedding Planners. I’ve designed the materials for each phase of your process, complete with custom emails, client guides, questionnaires, and customizable documents, so then you can start using them right away with potential clients. If you still need to define your process, you might want to start with the Designed to Scale® Business Blueprint for Interior Designers.
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