I wrote this for Coach360
One Door In: Why Too Many Channels Costs You Clients
Text, email, DMs, the gym app. When clients can reach a coach eight ways, messages slip and records walk out the door.
Most coaches run more client communication channels than they can count, and they opened every one of those doors as a kindness. You gave someone your number because you wanted her to find you. You answered the Instagram message because she was nervous, and that felt like the easier way in.
Count the doors honestly. Text, email, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, the gym app, whatever software the facility runs, and the comment someone left on a post three days ago. That is eight doors, one person, and no system deciding which one matters.
For me, it used to mean searching my texts, then my email, then scrolling back through Instagram messages. Somewhere in the middle I wondered whether I had imagined the whole exchange. The information existed. I had no idea which door it came through.
The ball does not get dropped because anyone is careless. It gets dropped because nobody can watch eight doors at once.
Inside the full article
- 1What slips through. The missed messages are usually small ones, and clients read every one of them as a sign of how much you care.
- 2What the business can't protect. When a coach moves on, the relationship and the record can walk out the door together.
- 3What it will ask of you. Consolidating has a real cost at first, and for some solo coaches it may not be worth doing yet.
- 4The shape of the fix. Four simple moves get you there, and the tool you choose matters less than whether everyone uses it.
Keep reading
One Door In: Why Too Many Channels Costs You Clients
The full piece walks through the hidden costs, the honest trade-offs, and the four-part fix, plus answers to the questions coaches ask most.
