A yearly business review is a vital part of a company’s growth strategy. Not only does it help you to maintain customer relationships but it also aids goal setting.

If you’re not already conducting a business review, read on to find out why it’s so necessary. Along with this, we’ll also provide some tips for getting the most from it.

What is a Business Review?

In short, a business review is an annual or quarterly meeting. The company sits down with clients to look back at the previous period to assess their KPIs, risks, and future growth. Essentially, it’s a meeting to make sure everyone is happy with past and future performance in the customer relationship.

Business reviews can happen both annually and quarterly. Ideally, you should do both for the following reasons:

Quarterly

A business quarterly review (QBR) is more of a quick check-in to ensure everyone is meeting KPIs and staying on the right track. While it’s not as in-depth as the annual review, it allows customers to suggest things they do (or don’t) like without too much time between meetings.

Annual

On the other hand, an annual review is a chance to dive deeper into the previous year’s performance. It gives everyone a chance to reflect on what happened and how KPIs were met. You might also look at budgets and goal setting for the coming year.

Why is a Review Important?

A business review is vital for your customer relationship. While your business might be in regular contact with clients, a review is more of a formal sit-down to discuss things in a set environment. As such, it ensures:

• Everyone understands what’s going on.
• By extension, nothing is missed or overlooked.
• Your clients can comment on budget and performance regularly.
• You and your clients are in constant communication in the right way.

Benefits of a Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

Some of the benefits of a QBR might already be obvious in regards to a customer relationship. Even so, here’s an explicit list of why a business quarterly review is a good idea.

Track Overall Success Metrics

Almost all business relationships will be based on some kind of KPIs. Reviewing them quarterly ensures you’re staying on track and that both sides can offer feedback. If you were to only do this annually, you might find you’ve wasted time (and money) by getting off track.

Show Off ROI

ROI (return on investment) is arguably one of the most important parts of any customer relationship. After all, if your clients are paying for a service, they’ll want to see what their money gets them.

Where better to do this than at a QBR? Again, this could be done annually, but sometimes it’s better to meet more regularly. For example, you’re a digital marketing agency and you recently justified a large ad budget. The client will probably want evidence of an ROI as soon as you have some. This is what a business quarterly review can do.

Create Clear Direction

Similarly, a QBR helps to create clear direction in the customer relationship. Meeting every 3 months or so means you stay on track with your goals and timelines. You can also use QBRs to address goal setting for the coming period, whether this means sticking with the same goals or adjusting them slightly.

Either way, there’s no better method for sticking to a direction than meeting regularly to discuss it.

Forge Stronger Relationships

All this boils down to one thing: building better relationships with customers. Offering to meet regularly helps establish trust because it shows you’re honest and open with your work. Rather than hiding potential negatives, taking them to quarterly meetings and wanting feedback helps you look more professional.

Tips for an Effective QBR

So a business quarterly review is just a simple meeting, right? Not necessarily. You should always plan properly for these meetings, so here are 5 tips for an effective QBR.

1. Make an Appointment in Advance

Set up a QBR well in advance so everyone has time to prepare. In fact, why not schedule the next one at the current meeting? This means it’s in the calendar, and you know when you need to be ready.

Also, arrange a brief call a week or two before the meeting. Doing so allows you to ask your client if they want you to bring anything or discuss particular topics. As such, you can be prepared for the meeting well in advance.

2. Share Success Stories

This should be obvious, but make sure your client knows what’s gone right. Tell them what and why things were successful, and be sure to mention the people who helped.

3. Learn from Unsolved Issues

But at the same time, make sure you discuss unsolved issues. These could be unmet goals or differences in expectations. Either way, use them as learning experiences for the next quarter.

4. Avoid the Past (Make Decisions for the Future) 

This might seem strange at a business review, but don’t focus too much on the past. You can discuss KPIs, providing you use these to inform the coming quarter. Mention what went well (and what didn’t) but it’s what you’ll do moving forward that’s the important thing.

5. Set Timelines for Success

The bottom line of any goal setting is timelines. You should always have a clearly-defined period for achieving a goal. It doesn’t have to be by the next QBR, but it should be reviewed then. Either way, work together to agree on timelines before signing off on any goals or projects.

Communicate with Your Customers Using Textr Team

Communication is vital in the run-up to a business quarterly review, or at any point in the customer relationship. Make it as easy as possible by using Textr Team.

You can text and call in the same app and use customer tagging and team groups to build better relationships. There’s also call recording for effective reviewing, and IVR is coming soon!

So, download the app on mobile or for your web browser today to begin your 7-day free trial. See what Textr Team can do for your customer relationships!