Strategic Client Management

Recently we have been working with a customer implementing a level 3 client management solution. It is very exciting to help build a strategic system focusing on client outcomes.

Before we look at the specifics of level 3 let’s discuss each level in detail. We shall explore what a system at a particar level is capable of, and what the benefits are.

Looking at why a customer chooses to implement a client management system the bird’s eye perspective is quite straightforward.

1. Level - past. Customer needs a way to store information in a central place, in a safe and controlled matter. Once the information is centralized, various statistics and reports can be built.
2. Level - present. This level represents a shift from recording activity to planning. At this level the planning is tactical, planning individual activities for a few days or week.
3. Level - future. The customer focuses on the client outcome and needs a system that will reinforce the focus and tie all activities towards client goals.

The levels are not replacing each other. A level 2 system still needs a good level 1. implementation. You can imagine them like stories in a building. The first level is your ground floor, the foundation on which the rest of the house is built.

Let us briefly examine the first two levels. And then we will look at the specific level three implementation.

Level 1. Activity log and reporting

At this level the system/app functionality is about answering question like: what activities were performed with a client. These are notes from meetings, calls, emails along with photos and documents. Of course we need a client database with pertinent client information, like personal info, anamnesis, but also things like contract documents. The app usually supports both searching and browsing individual information records and also aggregated dashboards and reports.

Apps like this are called basic CRM, Digital Filling, Compliance Reporting, Data logging or Interaction tracking.

Core benefits

• Centralized data source - a single source of truth for client information, with interconnected records.
• Historical Record: Provides a comprehensive history of interactions and interventions for each client.
• Compliance and auditing: Simplifies adherence to regulatory requirements, facilitates easier audits, improves privacy and data security.
• Reporting and dashboards enable tracking of key metrics like client volume, types of services utilized, and frequency of contact. Additionally management gains insights into overall caseloads and basic operational activities. Finally worker client&time allocation can be turned into financial reports (for example funding, or donor report).
• Careful design of activity and client forms, retains important client history even with staff turnover and avoids asking clients for the same information repeatedly. Searchable and navigable database ensures fast data access and thus saves worker time. On the other hand paper based or disconnected system, for example storing documents in a separate system, lead to user frustration, missing and/or duplicate information.

Level 2. - Proactive planning

Apps on this level are all about time management and planning. Basically they help the customer, workers and clients answer the question what am I doing today (tomorrow or this week). More specifically they help the worker choose which client to meet, when and where to meet. Then allow to book (block) any additional customer resource needed, like a meeting room, company car or even a specialist co-worker. Finally the apps keep everyone in the loop with email or sms notifications: email for when an activity is assigned to a co-worker, sms for clients about upcoming activities and any followup reminders.

For example one of our customer implemented workers working in pairs. Thus to plan an activity the app had to consult multiple calendars for both workers (non-client work, client work, personal calendar). Then send a notification for the planned activity to the paired worker. On the day before the activity another notification email was sent to worker and a sms was sent to the client. A reminder email is send if the activity record is not completed on the day. Additionally another follow-up reminder can be scheduled by the worker. Finally a meeting room for office visits or a company car (each with their own google calendar) can be booked right from the activity planning screen.

Naturally apps like this are called task managers, time management, operational crm and so forth.

Core benefits

1. Faster scheduling with fewer conflicts, thanks to connecting various calendaring sources.
2. Improved Resource Allocation: Better scheduling of staff, rooms, and equipment, leading to higher utilization.
3. Reliable service with Reduced Missed Appointments/Tasks. thanks to automated notifications and reminders with multiple triggers and delivery options, such as in-app, email and sms.
4. Better collaboration and visibility: All stakeholders (with appropriate permissions) can see planned activities and client status. Shared visibility into client plans and schedules fosters teamwork.

Level 3. Client outcome focus

Apps on this level add strategic/ long term planning functionality. There can’t be a strategic-only app, you can’t really skip the steps of creating a single source of truth and a capable operations system. Rather all the core features of level 1 and 2 are included, but strongly connected with goals. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all work is strategic. In the context of social work, dealing with emergencies or single-visit low threshold activities, there is no “long-term”. There is a situation now, and we need to deal with it. Yes the client relationship might evolve into a cooperation, but shoehorning all work into strategic categories makes no sense.

Core benefits

1. Demostrable impact - measure and report outcome not only activities
2. Purpose and alignment - every activity has a clear focus and contributes toward the client goal
3. Strategic planning - identify effective practices that can be scaled and areas that need improvement
4. Client engagement - clients own their goals and become partners when they understand how activities contribute towards their goal
5. Priorities - a clear plan ensures high priority activities are done on time, while leaving room for non-strategic/ad-hoc work

The pillars of strategic work are the above mentioned long-term work, a clear desired outcome and client commitment. All are required, without any of these pillars there is no strategic work. Don’t get me wrong, that does not mean non-strategic work is not valuable, nor does it mean all work must be strategic.

Long term (to state the obvious) means to achieve the outcome, we need to work with the client over weeks or months. Again, not everything can or should be strategic! Having said that, long term client engagement without a clear goal is difficult to justify.

A clear outcome means a smart goal. Beware of putting output over outcome. It is often hard to measure whether we are moving in the right direction, so we fallback on counting the number of meetings, phone calls and emails (the output). Yes, it makes sense to establish a baseline of the number of required activities. However, they cannot be a substitute for progress evaluation, or even worse for goal achievement.

Finally, as the saying goes we cannot want it for them. If there is no commitment from the client, the whole thing falls apart. Does it mean we shouldn’t work with the client until they are ready? No, we can and should engage with the client, supporting and guiding, until they are ready. Naturally resources are limited thus how much time, energy and yes money we can spend at this client stage has to be carefully evaluated. Carefully delineating strategic and reactive work lets customer assign resources appropriately.

With all the caveats out of the way, let’s say the client is ready to commit.

Let’s do…what?

First it is great to be prepared with realistic possible goals, guiding the client enthusiasm for dealing with their situation towards a realistic and achievable goal. In the case of our customer, we’ve built a module where the senior workers maintain a collection of both generic and specific template goals, complete with plans (steps) and criteria’s for use. Having a ready made list of goals is a great source of motivation for the client and ensures quality of service provided. Our customer preferred to tailor goals further for each client. Thus the template goal serves as a starting point and the worker chooses which template-steps apply to the client’s situation or which additional extra steps are required. The customer therefore gets both a single set of goal categories while allowing for client customization. One set of (template) goals makes it possible for the customer to gain insights through aggregated statistics. For example it is now possible to see that a particular goal is hard to achieve or is not used often or is often heavily customized. Insights like these are required for organization wide improvement.

And action

With the goal set the work can start. For our customer all direct and indirect client work notes have to be tied to a client goal. Conversely for any goal the worker can immediately see all the activities made in support of it. Each goal and each step within the goal comes with a worker set deadline. Of course upcoming deadlines are brought to the worker’s attention both within the app’s reminders and with a weekly email. The customer also opted-in for a (relaxed) minimum of client engagement. In their case each client must have at-least one touch-point a month. In order to move along specific goal steps, workers can schedule client activities with specialists. Who are of course notified. Finally each client activity comes with an optional follow up reminder. This is handy if there are agreed follow up steps by the client and they need to be completed before the next meeting.

Measure

In our client’s case a goal has a deadline which triggers evaluation. This makes the goal “Done”, with potential results of fully or partially achieved or non-achieved. If necessary a goal can be attempted multiple times. However the deadline is not moved, a new goal instance is created instead.

Evaluate

Armed with a rich set of data-points clearly tied to clients and goals makes it easy to build dashboards and statistics. Internal users like coordinators and managers can freely explore the data with interactive filters and charts with drilldown. In the case of social work, reports for various funding sources and benefactors are much easier to prepare. Finally the stories of achieved goals make for much more impactful marketing than a number of activities completed.

Unlock Purpose-Driven Client Management

In today's outcome-focused world, a client management system must do more than just track activities—it needs to drive progress. As demonstrated, integrating a comprehensive goal-setting and tracking module, where every client interaction is purposefully linked to defined objectives, is key to achieving meaningful results.

If you're ready to empower your team and clients with a system designed for success, we're ready to show you how.

Get in touch with us to discover how we can implement a client management solution that transforms your approach and delivers measurable outcomes.