How’s your follow-through?

hand written thank you notes go a long way, as long as they are sincere, obviously. "studies show" (and my personal experience, fwiw) that transparancy and genuine realtionships boil down to good business. if the client was a pain in the neck to work with, i impose the silent treatment. if things went well (even though finished), i think it smart to continue some contact, even if sporatically. builds trust and copmmittment. referrals happen when these components are at play.

Since I bill hourly and they pay in advance, I send the results with a thorough wrap-up that repeats (in their own words) what they wanted, what they bought (to assure they're the same), what they got (so much more!), and what to do next to further their goal -- both with me and without me.

Then I follow up in 3 - 5 days (If I haven't heard back anything substantial) with some timely article or info that I forward ("this made me think about your X") and offer to answer any further questions, etc.

Because I'm an ego-face, I also compile everything nice that they've ever written to me and print it and slip it into a folder I call "nice letters" (better to read paper when you need a lift), and even appropriate the best specific bits for testimonials (using just their title since I'm confidential) for the site.

If I haven't heard from them in 6 - 8 weeks, I send another piece of info that should help them. Then they go into my tickle file for 2xyearly updates or introductions or whatever. But even if the wrap up is from a phone consult or face-time, I always write up a recap email, to get it all down on paper to affirm what they've learned, excelled at, gained, etc. Value-value-value.

I guess I should ask for their feedback on how it went, but since I'm often the first (and only) they've used, and each project is usually only 1 - 20 hours, and they don't know what they don't know so they're asking an expert to begin with, it seems... uh, my ego has prevented that. (Hmmm. That took an awkward turn! But I don't wanna ask them how I am to work with... wah!)

(Gotta go read the referenced post to see if you told how YOU do it.)

Us Art Directors love the rationale. You can never give us too much rationale. :)

@Robyn I like how you take the initiative in putting down your thoughts on how the project went. I think that's a good way to open things up.

@Christian I like the idea of a conversation. It's so easy to jump to the e-mail and personal contact is so much more... well, personal.

@Nathan Yes, the marketing aspect of results achieved can't be underestimated. Also, I've found that clients like to see their name on your web site when you've had a mutually rewarding experience.

Postmortems are vital for your portfolio no matter what your field. If I can say (and verify) that my work resulted in x% more traffic, conversions, revenue, better user satisfaction, whatever, it's HUGE.

Great for your portfolio, great for client relationships, great to align your work with (and take responsibility for) outcomes.

I have a conversation about the project, and see if there's anything I could do better, and if there was a snafoo or whatnot, how that could be avoided - I believe we are all works-in-progress, and feed-back is crucial to that process. I then try to keep in touch in some way.

Since I've spent some time as a software project manager, doing a post mortem has become pretty standard for me. I try to sum up in a closing email how I thought the project went, addressing any glitches in a positive way such as, "we did have some communication problems early on but having more than one method of reaching one another now should prevent that in future." And I ask if there's anything they would now do differently.