One Size Does NOT Fit All: Tailoring Services to Client Needs
I remember going to get my wedding dress altered. My mom and I share the same body type, which means, for better or worse, that I’m roughly two sizes smaller from the waist up than I am from the waist down. Historically, this has made finding dresses, swimsuits, and most pants pretty difficult. This led to us ordering my wedding dress a couple of sizes too big so that it would fit around my hips. While standing on the dias, watching the seamstress pin and tuck folds of the dress to mark where the alterations would be, she made the comment: “Your wedding dress should fit like a glove made just for you. Other clothing doesn’t matter much, but you want to feel like a queen on your wedding day.” I still think about that comment sometimes.
And, when the day came, I did feel a little like a queen. Something about wearing a dress designed specifically to fit you (along with a big party to celebrate you and your husband’s love) fills you with joy and confidence.
Giving Your Clients the Royal Treatment
Here’s the thing: feeling like royalty doesn’t have to be exclusive to your wedding day. Part of what made our wedding so special was that the day and the experience was custom to us. What we needed and wanted was the deciding factor to the food, the decor, the guest list, and, yes, my dress. A lot of vendors went out of their way to make us feel special, and it added to the magic of the day. And as business owners, we have the potential to add some of that royal magic into our client experiences and services too!
Everyone’s business is a little different, which means everyone’s business needs are a little different. In my line of business, I might get two clients who need a new project management software but are looking for completely different capabilities when it comes to the specifics of their operations, team, and processes. Client A might need a software that lets them communicate with team members directly within projects and restrict access to certain project-related content to only some team members while Client B wants a software that has robust time tracking & reporting capabilities and a master calendar feature across projects so that everyone can see when certain deliverables are due and who’s responsible for them. If I had only one standard software I recommend to every client, one or both of these would be left feeling a little dissatisfied no matter how well I set up their process automations within the software.
Instead, I approach project management software options (and other tech stack needs) with a list of what my client needs, their budget, and their own level of tech proficiency and find what’s available that will be the best fit. It can take a little time to do this added research and to build a team that is proficient in a wide range of platforms, but it means that my clients leave feeling cared for and confident that their business needs have been met.
How to Offer Custom Services
So, what might tailoring your services look like in your business? It’s a good idea to start by considering what you shouldn’t customize. For example, you don’t need to write different, personalized emails for every stage of the onboarding process of a project. Your invoicing and payment process should probably be standardized and automated. The overall pattern of a project should follow roughly the same pattern of sales call, onboarding, the necessary project updates along the way, and offboarding. You get the idea. If you drain yourself by going out of your way to redesign the wheel in areas of your business that should be the same for the majority of clients, you won’t have the time or energy to make the customizations your clients actually want and need.
Next, decide what you are customizing and try to come up with a process for creating these custom quotes and scopes of work. If you’re offering a completely custom project that’s outside of your usual offers, the planning and pricing will look different from if you’re offering some flexibility within your already existing offers. You want to be fair to yourself and helpful to your clients, so don’t commit yourself to a project that’s outside of your depth of knowledge, and don’t underpay yourself. For example, we offer services in three areas:
- Systems Audit & Strategy
- Systems Development and Training
- Fractional COO Consulting
Within these areas, we are always providing support in the realm of operations, systems, and automations. However, within each of these, we offer custom quotes to our clients based on their needs. In “Systems Development & Training”, the project (and associated training for the client) will look different if we’re building out a project management system and reporting dashboards versus a client management system. It will also be different if we’re building out project management processes in ClickUp for one client and in Monday for another client. Our overall structure and flow of the project will be the same, but what we are doing for the client will be different.
From there it’s a process of trial and error and fine tuning. You probably won’t do everything as optimally as possible the first few times you offer a tailored service. Accidentally underpaying yourself, over- or under-estimating how long a custom project will take, and unintentionally agreeing to a project that’s far more complicated than you thought are fairly common when you’re first delving into the world of boutique services. But it’s worth it long term to build more positive client relationships and to give yourself new and exciting challenges!
If you’d like help calculating custom quotes in a quick, efficient, and profitable way, check out our Custom Quote Calculator in the Visionary Vault! This easy to use and affordable tool can help you tackle one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face when offering custom services!
