7. High-ticket client experiences & how to make them remarkable

EPISODE 7 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

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In this episode, I answer a subscriber question about how to create a five-star client experience for high-ticket one-on-one services and VIP days.

 “I recently niched down and increased my rates to only offer high-ticket one-on-one services (VIP days). I know people pay more for a great customer experience. What are your hot tips on providing a stellar, 5-star customer experience that delights clients as a service provider?”

Because as it turns out, premium clients don’t just pay for results—they invest in ease, exclusivity, and a seamless experience.

In this episode, I share strategic yet simple ways to delight high-paying clients, from a smooth onboarding process to surprise-and-delight moments that turn them into raving fans. Expect first-hand examples from within my client-serving business!

If you want to deliver on your high-ticket prices, generate ongoing referrals, and create an experience that clients can’t stop talking about, this episode will give you practical, high-impact strategies to do just that.

What we cover:

What High-Ticket Clients Actually Expect Beyond the Deliverable – Why ease, personalization, and trust are just as important as the service itself.

The Role of a Smooth Onboarding Process – How to make scheduling, contracts, and payments feel effortless from the start.

How to Personalize the Experience Without Overextending Yourself – Small, scalable ways to make clients feel seen, heard, and valued.

Surprise-and-Delight Strategies That Elevate Your Client Experience – Creative ways to exceed expectations without adding extra work.

How to Support Clients Beyond the Deliverable – Simple ways to maintain the relationship, encourage referrals, and create long-term client loyalty.

Soundbites:

“High ticket clients are paying the premium dollars because they want things to be easy. They’re busy. They want things effortless and we can set the tone here with a smooth onboarding experience where you are taking care of the heavy lifting for them.”

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Your next steps:

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Episode Transcript:

Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode. I am answering a question today that was submitted anonymously as part of a coaching opportunity that I opened up for my email subscribers. Totally unexpected and people loved it. So the question we’re looking at today reads like this. I recently niche down and increased my rates to only offer high ticket one-on-one services.

VIP days in particular. I know people pay more for a great customer experience. What are your hot tips on providing a stellar five-star customer experience that delights clients as a service provider? So generally, high-paying, high-ticket clients usually expect more than just results. They’re investing not only in the outcomes and in the deliverables,

but they want ease to go with that and they want a level of delight, right? Even though they might not know it. Deep down, they really just want to be treated like royalty. So today we are going to explore how you can craft a high-end customer first experience that feels absolutely remarkable from start to finish.

and turns first time customers into raving fans who tell their friends about you. So as I said, I strongly, strongly believe that the customer experience is just as valuable and just as important as the service and the deliverable itself. Your high ticket clients expect more, right? They’re paying big dollars, so they’re expecting next level

customer experience. So they’re paying for ease and exclusivity as I said before and that means seamless stress-free processes from paying through to onboarding through to working with you and getting the results. They also wanted to feel absolutely personalized, right? They want everything to be tailored to their needs, to the way they work and to their business, which is fair enough if you’re handing over

big chunk of money, right? You don’t want off the shelf products. You want your service provider to work around you. And as part of that process, they absolutely want to feel seen, heard, understood, and valued, which is super important. So in the process, the smallest, most insignificant details can often make

biggest impact. And that’s what I definitely have experienced in my business. So the things that a lot of people would say, why do you bother? Other things that come up in my off boarding surveys that my customers are telling their business buddies about, and that convinced them to reach out to me again, to work with me again and again, as part of my use for a day sessions and ultimately,

Really, they appreciate that you go above and beyond. And I’m not talking about stretching yourself thin and over delivering and, you know, disrespecting your boundaries. I’m talking about small details that you can often automate that just feel like you genuinely care, right? You’re putting the effort in and you love working with them. You’ll love supporting them and you are passionate about what you do.

And let’s not forget here, a remarkable customer experience is what is going to get you those referrals and repeat business. People who work with you and feel, yeah, this was average. They’re not going to come back even if you deliver outcomes, right? If it leaves them feeling underwhelmed, they are going to look elsewhere and keep shopping on price and go with someone else who potentially treats them better.

So if we have a quick CX lesson here, it’s this one. So exceptional customer experience isn’t about over delivering, over stretching, know, disrespecting your boundaries. It’s about creating a sense of ease, a sense of deep, genuine trust and of amazing value that they are experiencing for their investment. Before we

get into the details. It’s really about understanding your customer. So everything starts with knowing what your customer needs, knowing when they need it and being able to anticipate a lot of those things. So we’re creating that ease and the flow and everything here starts with the onboarding process and that process of signing the contract, accepting the agreement.

handing over that money, right? So high ticket clients, high paying clients, they are paying the premium dollars because they want things to be easy. They’re busy. They just want to get things done professionally and they want to have the outcome, the deliverable as easy as possible. So they don’t want extra work. They want things effortless and

we can set the tone here with a smooth onboarding experience where you are taking care of the heavy lifting for them, right? So that starts with professional schedulers. You don’t want to go back and forth via email to work out when they’re available for your strategy call, send them a scheduler that is linked to your calendar and shows your availability. It helps them work out time zone differences if you’re serving people in other countries.

and it just looks professional. can brand it. I personally use Dubsado. Dubsado offers a scheduler tool as part of its platform, but there are so many other tools out there that allow you to come across professional and make that process easy. Also payment processes. Whether you use a checkout tool like ThriveCard to process things or for example, like in my case, Dubsado, or you go straight by a stripe,

make sure it works, make sure it’s not clunky and make sure people don’t have to come back to you with tech issues, right? Then as the VIP day or your high ticket service kickoff date approaches, make sure you remind people of the things you need. You give them enough time to give you what you need and you make giving you that information

super easy. again, Dubsado or HoneyBook, other CRM systems here are amazing because you can automate those reminders. So if someone doesn’t deliver things you need by a certain date, you can customize a reminder email that is on brand and send them that gentle nudge they might just need to make sure they’re on track.

Also, I personally am a huge fan of private podcasts and onboarding guides. So whether you have a welcome guide for your new clients that sets expectations around your boundaries when it comes to how quickly you come back to them with email requests, what your business hours are, your working days, how you want to communicate, whether it’s via a portal, an air table base, et cetera.

It is super important to set the expectations so you’re on the same page and there’s no potential conflict that comes up down the track because there were misunderstandings that weren’t addressed early on. Also private podcasts, I mentioned that. Personally, I love the idea of surprising and delighting your brand new customer with a private podcast. They can add to their private podcast feed. Personally, I use Hello Audio.

makes it super easy and you can talk them through potentially, know, how they can get the best outcomes from working with you, how they can make sure they give you everything you need, how you can help them make that process easier, how they can use their assets that you’re working on if you’re a graphic designer, for example, how they can implement the brand assets. So this private podcast can not only help them feel

at ease with the investment they’ve just made. It can also set the scene for what’s to come and build up that excitement for your collaboration. It is a branded experience that really sets the tone for what’s to come. Another one here, keeps coming up in almost every episode, Bonjoro personalized video message. So I use Bonjoro in my sales process at various moments that matter.

know, at various points across that sales experience. But I also send my clients a quick video message as I start working on their brand as part of my use for a day session. They don’t expect it, but it’s just a nice touch to let them know that yes, I’m starting, I’m up, I had my morning coffee, and now I’m getting stuck into your copy or into your customer experience strategy. So little touches again to keep people informed.

as they go along and to give them the confidence that you were actually going to do what you said you were going to do. Then once you have people, you know, sign, they’ve paid, it’s all logged in. It really comes down to adding as much personalisation as possible. So the customised proposal was a starting point. Again, Dubsado makes it super easy to create templates that you can then quickly tweak.

So it looks like something you created just for them. But I’m also a huge fan of surprise and delight moments as you go along. I sent a specific to my client welcome gift based on their interests, their personality that’s on brand. I personally pack those parcels. My daughter helps me. She’s my head of gifting and loves it. So this is something that is noted nowhere.

people don’t expect it, but again, it is a great moment of surprise and delight. Who doesn’t love going to the letterbox and finding a little on-brand parcel? It’s nothing expensive, so it doesn’t break the bank. They are just little goodies that align with my values and also, yeah, are handpicked to suit my customers. Handwritten notes are an option as well. So if you don’t have the spare budget to send

elaborate gifts. You can also just send little postcards. So let’s say your clients book you four months out because you are so busy. Good on you. Send them a quick postcard as your project kickoff date approaches to just tell them how excited you are that it’s finally happening. Right. You can also add little bonus opportunities in that lead up to your work together. So I personally have a little, I call it my little black book.

So a little PDF document of brands that I am collaborating with, of brand discounts that people can get via certain coupon codes I have. And it’s just another way of introducing my customers to people I trust and service providers that I would be comfortable to send them to. And it also means they’re getting a really good deal. Plus it’s something that no one expected, but often people tell me that

this was just what they needed and it’s been, you know, on their radar for a while. And whether that’s tech tools or service providers or courses also depends on obviously the way you serve your clients. But if you have a certain date that you work on deliverables, you can absolutely surprise your client with a Uber Eats sweet treat delivery to help them.

you know, celebrate that it’s happening, that branding is happening, their website’s happening, whatever service you deliver. And again, it’s nothing expensive, but it will just make their day, right? You can also potentially look at Spotify playlists. So you can set the scene for your collaboration and, you know, share your playlist that you work with. You can share a meditation if that’s on brand for you.

curated resources that are tailored to their industry. So really the sky’s the limit here. It depends on the type of service you provide and your audience. an example here, let’s say you’re in the creative field and you are a designer, you’re working on someone’s branding, you can totally throw in a custom desktop wallpaper that features brand colors, a little mood board.

Totally unexpected, but people are going to go, Oh my God, that is so sweet. Like such a nice touch. And it probably doesn’t take you a lot. If you have a custom template, a pre-made template that you can just quickly tweak. So that is surprising delight. I could go on for hours, but I won’t. yeah, use your creativity. Yeah. How can you excite your audience, your clients? It is one of my favorite aspects of running my business.

be honest. So once you have onboarded your client, once you have worked with them, you surprise and delighted them all along. They have their deliverable. It could be tempting to just stop right there, right? Like you delivered what they paid for and you’re done and dusted. But people who run a customer first business, and I have a feeling that is

you, you’re working towards that, are going to only get started here. So what you can do, again, totally unexpected, it doesn’t necessarily have to feature on the sales page, be part of the service. You could, if you had a membership, for example, you could throw in a free month inside your membership for that ongoing support to keep up the momentum. And you never know, people might actually hang around in your membership for your

accountability, whatever you deliver in that membership. You could also throw in a week of Voxer support or email support just to make sure they’re totally comfortable with the deliverables. It could be a follow-up resource. So it could be a recap. Personally, in my Use for a Day sessions, I always, always make sure my copy clients in particular,

have everything they need to hand their copy document over to their web designer and for their web designer to get everything out of it. So I record a detailed video walkthrough of the document, how to read the document and anything they need to know to make it look amazing and bring it to life on their website. So that is something I deliver to benefit my clients and make their collaboration with that next service provider even easier. It could be a checklist to help them.

you know, implement the deliverables from here on. It could also be a private podcast that features, you know, an audio version of that recap, for example, if it’s something that doesn’t need visuals, it could be a private podcast with a recording of, you know, your strategy call so they can recap things that were discussed there that go beyond your deliverables. So really just have a think about

how you can add extra value and make it even easier for your customers to take that next step with your deliverables by their side. It could also be a surprise bonus, right? It could be, you know, a quick check-in, totally unexpected, two weeks down the track to see how they’re going and offer them, you know, a quick 30-minute call if there’s anything that is holding them back from getting the most out of those deliverable.

It really comes down to again, just showing that you’re there for them, right? You are a genuine partner that is there beyond the deliverables. And how I do that in my Dubsado, I have workflows set because I know we’re all busy. so certain things are automated as part of and included in my deliverable emails. So as I go through our project,

But then also I have certain reminders set to check in at some very strategic points after handing over the copy or the customer experience strategy to see how it’s actually working for them. So for copy, for example, I know it takes a little while usually to work with the designer to get it out there, to put your website live and for that website to actually have enough data, gather enough traction to get organic traffic, et cetera.

Usually three months after I hand over my copy, I check in and see how is it actually working for you now that it’s out there? Let me know, you know, what are some of the results? Do you have some stats? How is it going? And ultimately being there long-term for your customers and having an invested interest in their success means they are likely becoming the best referral partners because happy clients.

are your best marketing strategy. So I actually in my onboarding, offboarding survey have a question that asks whether they would be interested to find out more about my referral program. And I would say 80 % of them say, absolutely. Right. It obviously depends if they don’t really have a network of business buddies that could be interested in my service. It’s not that relevant for them.

But a lot of my clients work with businesses themselves that would be the perfect client for me. So I asked for permission to present them with more details about my referral partner program and then invite them to join. And personally, I have a referral partner program where I give an incentive for anyone who sends referrals my way. That just means I sort of direct my marketing investments elsewhere.

If I was to find clients without the warm introduction of referral partners, I would have to invest a whole bunch of time, resources, effort to create even more content than I already am. So I’m super grateful for my referral partners to send those warm leads to me. And we all know that people who come to you from referral partners are basically semi-souled. So…

I think it’s totally fair to reward them financially for sending someone my way. How else I do that and reward that is, you know, if they are willing to become a referral partner and also share their personal experience of working with me, with my audience that gives them an opportunity to feature in front of my audience. It also helps me build social proof along the way.

And I did this as a adventure, major exercise in early 2024, where I launched a private case study podcast. So featuring 10 of my clients, a mix of DIY students, so people who had bought some of my templates and DIYed and majority actually one-on-one clients. they…

basically shared an audio case study of what it was like working with me, why they came to me, the outcome, the results, et cetera. And that podcast is still available on my website as a freebie for anyone to sign up. And it means my customers are getting in front of my audience all the time. They had the opportunity to share a freebie in the episode, which then obviously made it even more appealing. And my customers are doing the selling for me.

it’s an amazing way to nurture those ongoing relationships. If people love working with you, they become your biggest advocates and they send even more customers your way. So we’ve covered so much in this episode and while I could go on forever and ever, I want to leave you with four little opportunities to audit your VIP client experience after this episode. So I want you to check.

Is your onboarding process currently effortless and smooth and feels bespoke? So where do you see some opportunities to add those personal touches and streamline processes, whether that’s, you know, introducing a scheduler, whether that is, bespoke proposals, have a look where those opportunities are. And then even if you don’t implement them all now, make yourself a list that you can chip away at.

Then next up, how are those personal touches looking? Do you have any opportunities where you can totally add more bespoke opportunities? How about personal client gifts, handwritten cards? There literally is no right or wrong here, and it can look different for everyone, but have a look what opportunities you have and you can see along that customer journey.

next up, do you currently support your customers beyond the deliverables? So how is that support and that relationship looking once you hand it over your deliverables and how can you introduce low lift and easily manageable support and check-ins after your process, your project is wrapped up. And last but not least, how is that?

referral network going. If you currently don’t have an official referral program, don’t stress. You can totally treat it as something casual and ask your customers for those. You know, to introduce you to friends and business partners that might be your perfect match. Or alternatively, I recommend looking at putting some official parameters in place and then getting your clients permission to present them with what that could look like.

And that is it from today’s episode. my God, that, yeah, it always gives me so much joy to explore how you can really elevate that customer experience. Because as I mentioned, the deliverable is great, but it’s the customer experience that really leaves a lasting impression and is what’s going to send people into a bit of a passionate spin, right? They’re going to love you. They’re going to rave about you.

and they’re going to drop your name in all the right circles because you created this remarkable experience that they haven’t experienced anywhere else. So if you are now going, Nadine, actually, I have a burning question. I have this headache in my business that I know the customer experience can absolutely fix. Then I invite you to submit your burning question, your biggest headache or obstacle in your business.

via the link in the show notes and you can do that anonymously or you can add your name and business details for a little shout out in the episode and I will personally answer your question or invite a guest expert to help me out where they are more qualified. If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe, leave a review and share it with your business buddies so even more people can find out about this interactive podcast concept and up

their customer experience game. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.