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Top social media consultant services usually have both local clients and remote clients i.e. clients in states other than the one in which they are based. Nothing makes the truly genuine heavyweights happier than meeting with the local clients to check on progress and get an update on their projects. There are several local clients with whom they even set up these monthly appointments. These client visits are beneficial to the client-contractor relationship in many ways.

Here are several superb reasons why top SEO service providers value client visits highly, and why you as the client ought to never again skip a visit. By visiting with the clients on its turf, the service provider is able to do the following:

The first is look people in the eye – There’s a lot to be learnt and gained from looking someone in the eye! For instance, a friend could pretend to be happy, wealthy and healthy online and when you talk on the phone, yet reality could be far off. The same is true for the state of a business and every top service provider gets that. Checking and looking someone in the eye gives you a good baseline of how things are.

There is the element of meeting support staff – There is a wealth of information to be gained from meeting the support staff of the clients. Striking up a conversation with the bag handler at the golf course, sitting and eating a burger at the bar, meeting the receptionist, talking to the sales manager, and so on; they all have information that is priceless despite having the look and feel of an accessory. Every top service provider eventually figures that out. And it doesn’t hurt to be friendly one bit as this opens doors and expands the consumer base.

The simple act of walking the grounds/store/office is an important one in itself – If the site is familiar (which is usually the case when it comes to the best services), small changes that someone who works there day after day might forget to tell you and report to you about are silently noted. A new sign perhaps, new landscaping, a fresh coat of paint, etc, all count. These are all things that tell the service provider a lot about the state of their clients and their businesses.

Answering questions has to be at the top. To be available once a month or once a quarter, for a real live Q & A session is invaluable. Trust is build this way, one question and answer at a time. These are the exact same elements that a successful service is built of.

Whenever there is a discussion on how a PPC manager should handle his/her mistakes when reporting to a boss or client, it is bound to get extremely interesting. From the answers one is apt to glean, it becomes clear that a lot of PPC managers have very little clue on this issue. Any competent service however recognizes 3 main principles to use when mistakes are made in clients PPC accounts.

The first is to get the whole picture. Often a mistake feels like an attack. The natural response to an attack is to defend oneself. However, to maintain the relationship, the PPC client needs to resist that urge and instead listen. It is important to make sure to understand exactly what the issue is, how large the effect, and why it happened. Further, remember that perception is reality. The boss/client may have a different perspective than you have, causing the issue to be exaggerated in their view. Don’t discount their perspective but rather acknowledge it so that as you move forward you take the appropriate steps.

Own up to your mistake. It takes a high degree of professionalism to do this and only the best services can. The only thing more frustrating than the initial mistake is the blame game. Whatever level of responsibility you have in the issue, take ownership of that. Explain what happened and perhaps give some reasons why. Don’t make it sound like an excuse though and don’t take more blame than you deserve. Nonetheless, owning up goes a long way in maintaining a positive relationship.

Prevent it from happening again. Now that the issue has been determined, responsibility has been taken, and the mistake fixed, it is important to put measures in place to prevent the mistake from happening again. This step is what allows the move beyond typical customer service (fixing the problem) and demonstrates to the boss/client that the commitment to not making the mistake again is in place. It provides closure to the issue at hand and begins the relationship moving forward in the right direction again.

If handled appropriately, mistakes don’t have to be relationship and credibility killers. If anything, they can help bind relationships even tighter.