Great interview, Delilah!

I also agree with the idea of treating the client like gold. I think that you should treat every client as if you were still trying to get that sale because, it's true, sometimes you get a bit lax when things become a bit too "familiar". Case in point, my boyfriend and I had friends who owned a bar/restaurant and we were in there all the time. We were also friends with most of the staff. But it got to the point where we were getting really crappy service: I can remember a time when we went in for dinner (they had AWESOME ribs!) and you were supposed to get garlic toast with it. The waitress forgot mine and when I asked about she said, "Oh, I forgot it. You'll get over it." At the next staff meeting, the main discussion was that they better never forget that we are just as important as someone walking in for the very first time and it doesn't matter if they have been over to our house 100 times.

Dealing with clients on more familiar/friendly terms (once you get to know each other better) is fine but, when I comes to the business part of the relationship, you should treat them as if they were "walking through your door" for the very first time. Also, I think that every client should be treated with the "no job is too small" attitude meaning that a client that calls you for just a small job should be treated the same as the retainer client that brings you 60 hours of work or challenging projects every month.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase