Whenever I talk to successful interior designers about how they have grown their businesses, two answers stand out. The first is referrals: Happy clients tell their friends, family members, neighbors and colleagues how much they liked a designer’s work. The second is repeat business: Happy clients hire their favorite design firm for subsequent homes, vacation properties or commercial projects.
There’s something that underlies both referrals and repeat business: The clients liked the designers — not just their work, but them personally. They respected and trusted them. And the clients, in turn, felt cared for and valued.
Some of the most successful designers I’ve spoken with foster such personal connections from the very start, by only taking on clients with whom they feel a strong rapport during initial meetings. Let’s face it: A year or two (or three) is too long to spend working closely with someone you don’t really like. Frankly, a couple of months is too long.
But like any relationship, client relationships need care and attention. Thankfully, there are many ways — big and small — that you can do so. Fostering connections with clients was a theme among some of the interior designers’ comments featured in the 2024 Interior Design Business Survey from Pearl Collective, Business of Home and Interior Talent.
“It is so important to continually cultivate your relationships with current and prior clients, since repeat clients are the greatest source of business,” said Kerri Pilchik, founder of Kerri Pilchik Design in Ridgewood, New Jersey. “Sending a holiday card or gift, or even a note if something makes you think of them, are good ways to stay in touch.”
Throughout their partnership at Studio Heimet in San Francisco, Alicia Cheung and Eva Bradley followed a similar practice.
“One way we like to keep in touch with our clients is by celebrating special occasions in their lives — things like remembering their birthdays, anniversaries and due dates. Especially if we had any part in one of these occasions, we like to commemorate the day with a gift, but at the very least, we’ll send a text and card. That information comes from a ‘getting to know you’ questionnaire that clients fill out after initial onboarding of a project. Since many of our projects take around a year, we also get to know the rhythms of their lives and hear about various milestones they are celebrating, and we take notes and add it to our client file,” they said. “It’s not that different from what top restaurants do: They take notes about guests so that they have data to make that experience a special one each time a guest appears in the reservations. We want our clients to feel special and cared for.” (In December, Cheung and Bradley formed two individual firms, Alicia Cheung Design and Eva Bradley Studio.)
Cheung and Bradley offer other ideas for ways to foster client relationships beyond the initial project. Among the suggestions:
* Connect with clients via social media. Like and comment regularly (but not in a stalkerish way) on their posts.
* Send an unexpected gift. If you see something during a shopping trip that reminds you of a client, pick it up and send it with a note: “I thought of you when I saw this.” Or pack a basket either with some of their favorite things or yours (“Here are some of the pantry items I’m loving these days. I thought you might enjoy them, too.”)
* Invite clients to or provide tickets for activities that you know they will enjoy, whether it’s a sporting event, art show opening, author reading or theater premiere.
* Send reminders about items in the home that need maintenance — including the contact info for the service providers who can help them with that.
* Check in at the end of summer to see if they’d like help with their winter holiday decor, if that’s a service you offer.
* If they’ve been going through an illness or rough patch, send a care package of cozy items and comforting foods.
This kind of concentrated outreach takes time and effort — and requires a system so that you can keep track of your efforts.
But when the best source of future work is past clients, nurturing those relationships is an investment you can’t afford not to make.
