Great, so Tina, thank you so much for being here today. We’re gonna be talking all about the client journey from that very first inquiry of a design client coming in, seeing if they’re the right fit to the full project completion. And of course, all of the thoughtfulness, the systems, the personal touches and everything in between to create a really seamless high touch experience for a happy client.

So why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Tina and your world in design?

Well, thank you. I’m so excited to be chatting with you as always today. My name is Tina Ramchandani. I am an interior designer based in New York City. I have a small but mighty team. We focus on warm, modern interiors that we call soulful minimalism. And the idea behind this is we like to create environments for our clients so they are surrounded.

by the things that matter so they can focus on the people that matter. So it’s really building a welcoming lifestyle for them that reflects who they are and what their family represents.

I love that. All right, so let’s start at the very beginning. How do your clients typically find you and what does your intake process look like?

Yeah, so our clients find us in a number of ways. Referrals are always the best. Oftentimes, they are friends of past clients. They have many times been in the homes that we’ve designed, whether it’s for drinks or dinner or play dates. They’ve seen our work firsthand. We also have a great referral system. So we get a lot of leads from realtors. That’s a great one for us. And

A lot of people say that they find us on Instagram, though I don’t know that it is necessarily truly Instagram. Some people are from Instagram Direct, but others have found us throughout the years. Maybe it is word of mouth or maybe it is from an article that we’ve been published in or, you know, a referral source, another referral source. And then they start following us on Instagram and they follow us for a number of years before they’re ready to reach out. So we have sort of a good

multi-prong system of where our leads are coming from.

And tell me a little bit about your referral system with your realtors because you said that’s it’s past class realtors are your best resources.

Yeah, well, in New York City, you you’re not allowed to pay for referrals for realtors. So really, it’s just good energy. So I like to be around people that are kind and supportive and like minded and people that I enjoy and I have fun with. And so I meet a lot of realtors in our business and we have coffees and drinks and

just kind of hang out and we’ve become friends and I’ll do for them whatever I can, you know, if it’s advice on their own home or helping them with something that they need for a client floor plans or just general advice, referrals to contractors or painters or whatever. And in return, they share my name along with others for their people that are closing on their homes. And we’re, it’s not just one, they don’t just say, call Tina. They say, hey, call Tina and to other people. We get a call and

Most of the time it works out.

Well, I’m wondering too with your clients, if you get so many referrals from clients, that usually means you’ve got a great client journey, which obviously we’re talking about today. Because if you’ve got happy clients, then they’re wanting to share the good news of who helped them with their beautiful home and hey, know, she, I can get you in contact with Tina as well. I’m excited to learn about your client journey today and those touch points.

Yeah, well, we’re always working on the client journey and we really enjoy working with great people. So it’s kind of a natural progression on how we work with these clients, but I’m happy to talk about it.

All right, well, let’s start with that discovery call. What do you gather as far as information during the initial discovery call? Do you have like an intake form as they’re scheduling that discovery call?

No, we used to have a form. We found that half the time it wasn’t being filled out and it was annoying to nag people to fill this out. We work with high end clients and they oftentimes are busy professionals and they don’t want to be bothered to take an extra step. they reach out however they reach out. If it is on Instagram direct, if it’s through the website, if it’s through house, if it’s through an email.

They reach out and Laura, who’s our operations manager, sets up a call. So we prefer Zoom. Sometimes it is just a phone call, but right away we just offer them the next available time and we try and hop on a Zoom to chat with them.

Okay, and then what are some of the requirements that she’s using to know that they’re the right fit for you to move forward as a true prospect for your business?

So actually, both of us are on that first zoom. So yeah, we thought about having just Laura do it. We received feedback from clients that they loved that I was one of their first points of contacts. And I know that everybody does this differently and every firm is different. But some of our best clients have said that they’ve gotten on a call with a designer or a design firm and the designer wasn’t on the call. And that’s why they didn’t go with that firm. So I will still be on

every Zoom, if humanly possible, unless I am out of town or something, I will be on that Discovery Zoom to really hear and see what the client is asking for.

So you really are taking what you’re hearing, the feedback that you’re hearing and implementing it and going, okay, this might work for other people to not have the owner be on the very first or the main designer to be on the very first call, but that’s not necessarily what your ideal client is looking for.

Yeah, they’re looking for a personal connection.

Okay, so do you have any, are some of those requirements that you’re looking for as far as an ideal client?

So really, obviously budget. So obviously they have to have a realistic idea of spend, but what I’m really listening for are their needs and their wants. If they are realistic about what they want to achieve in the budget, if they are realistic about timeframe, and if they are not realistic, are they open to feedback in a different way of working? So some people come to us with no clue. They say, I don’t know what my budget is going to be.

These are the things that I want. I may suggest a range. And if they say that’s great, then we can continue the conversation. If they say that’s way out of line, then that’s our answer right there. Some people say I want something overnight. And if we say this is what we can do for you overnight versus what’s realistic, if they’re open to different ways of working, we can continue the conversation. So I think that’s another reason that I’m on the call along with Laura is so the two of us can hear things and everybody hears.

things differently, right? So I might hear something one way, Laura may hear something another way. We’ll get off the call and confer and say, this is what I think that they wanted. The majority of the time we’re able to come up with a way of working with people, but it’s nice to have both of us on that call.

Do you find that you have certain professions or occupations that are not really a great fit for your creative