A strong client services strategy is the key to retaining high-value B2B clients and driving long-term revenue for SMBs.
Many small businesses struggle to manage high-value clients consistently due to a lack of headcount or bandwidth.
With the right structure and tools, SMBs can create a scalable client services strategy that feels personal and proactive, building meaningful long-term relationships.
In this guide, you’ll learn what client services involves, how it differs from customer service and key metrics that define success. You’ll also get six practical tactics for building a scalable client services strategy using Pipedrive.
Key takeaways from client services
Client services is a relationship-driven B2B discipline focused on long-term value, not only on resolving immediate issues.
A strong client services strategy requires segmentation, proactive outreach and structured account management supported by automation and centralized data.
Core success metrics include CLV, CRR, revenue churn and NPS, which you can monitor with a customizable CRM tool such as Pipedrive.
Pipedrive helps SMBs streamline, automate and scale client services with custom pipelines, workflow automations and smart documentation tools. Try Pipedrive free for 14 days.
What is client services?
Client services refers to proactive support for B2B clients that helps them achieve their business goals, deepening customer trust and ensuring they continue to see measurable value from your product or service.
Many SMBs use “customer service” and “client services” interchangeably. In B2B ecosystems, the distinction matters.
Here’s a comparison to clarify the key differences:
Customer support services | Client services |
Troubleshooting and problem-solving for immediate issues (e.g., “My login failed”) | Strategic alignment with client needs and long-term business objectives |
Short-term, transactional interactions | Long-term strategic collaboration across the client lifecycle |
Reactive: Offering support via help desk or call center when customers initiate interaction | Proactive: Scheduling custom onboarding sessions, check-ins and strategic reviews |
Technical support agent or general representative troubleshooting and solving issues | Client services rep or account manager tailoring service to high-value clients |
Effective client services requires more than simply answering questions or fixing issues on the go. It’s a strategic function designed to support high-value business relationships, drive retention and uncover new revenue opportunities.
How client services drives growth for SMBs
SMBs offering strong corporate client services tend to retain customers longer, experience less churn and drive more upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
In many sectors, new products are easily copied. What competitors can’t imitate is the way you treat your clients. Investing in high-touch client services differentiates your brand from the crowd.
In fact, McKinsey notes that firms excelling in customer experience through proactive, personalized support enjoy roughly double revenue growth.
In the same research, McKinsey highlights the competitive advantages of providing a consistent and proactive client experience. They call it “experience-led growth”, claiming it can increase customer satisfaction, wallet share and cross-selling opportunities.
The data reinforces the idea that long-term relationships, rather than one-time transactions, drive the strongest revenue outcomes. For SMBs, creating a client services strategy can be an efficient growth lever.
By focusing on proactive support, predictable touchpoints and clear ownership, small teams can drive the same experience-led gains typically seen in much larger organizations.
A customer relationship management (CRM) system helps small teams stay organized, automate follow-ups and personalize every interaction.
For example, when SaaS startup DashThis set up a new account management department, it started looking for an easy-to-implement CRM that would scale with the business. By integrating Pipedrive, it managed to provide tailored services to each client, creating an unbeatable customer experience.
Key B2B client services metrics for success
To measure the success of your client services strategy, you must track metrics that reflect relationship health and financial value, moving beyond simple customer satisfaction scores.
Here are some key metrics to track:
Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the total revenue you can expect from a single client. A high CLV justifies providing hands-on client services and helps you decide which clients to prioritize.
Customer retention rate (CRR) tracks the percentage of clients who stay with you over a given period. A declining CRR often signals gaps in onboarding, customer engagement or ongoing support.
Revenue churn rate looks at lost sales revenue due to non-renewals, cancellations or downgrades. Tracking revenue churn helps you spot client accounts that need immediate attention from your client services representative.
Net promoter score (NPS) measures how likely a client is to recommend your business based on email surveys. Tracking NPS scores helps spot any dissatisfaction before the client churns.
Pipedrive’s Insights feature makes it easy for SMBs to track client service metrics in one place.
With customizable dashboards and reports, you can visualize CLV trends, monitor retention and churn rates in real time and track overall client health without manually preparing client service reports.
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Building a B2B client services strategy with Pipedrive
The foundation of a strong client services strategy is small, well-coordinated actions that your team performs reliably over time.
When your team can see what’s happening, who’s responsible and what comes next, clients feel the difference instantly. A streamlined process also frees up bandwidth for more strategic work.
Here are six actionable tactics to help SMBs deliver strategic, consistent and scalable client services using Pipedrive’s robust CRM.
1. Map the client ecosystem
A strong B2B client services strategy begins with a clear, unified understanding of who your clients are, what they need and where they may face challenges.
SMBs often struggle here because critical customer information and details are scattered across emails, spreadsheets or individual team members’ personal notes.
Use a CRM like Pipedrive as the single source of truth about your clients. Create custom fields to track and map specific client data points as you need. Here’s how it works:
With custom fields, you can store granular data such as contract type, support preferences, specific customer needs or account tier. You can then sort contacts by any custom field or behavior (location, spend, sales stage, etc.) to spot high-priority groups.
Pipedrive’s client data management features help you capture every customer interaction in one place. With a shared hub of client data, your team gains context to prioritize accounts intelligently.
Pipedrive in action: Content marketing agency Inkwell switched from spreadsheets to Pipedrive to manage its complex customer data. Moving to Pipedrive let the team store all client information in one place while maintaining a clear workflow.
Organized data and timely follow-ups helped Inkwell achieve faster deal cycles and higher conversion rates, resulting in a 167% year-over-year revenue increase.
2. Design proactive service pipelines
Creating proactive service pipelines ensures that new clients don’t fall into a void after the contract is signed, allowing you to tailor your approach based on account value, client complexity and strategic goals.
In B2B, closing a sale is just the starting line, yet many SMBs lack a structured process for what happens after sales.
With Pipedrive, you can create custom pipelines or tailor existing ones with additional stages (e.g., “Technical Setup”, “Adoption Check-in”, “Renewal Prep Call”).
To create a pipeline, go to the Pipeline view and click on the pipeline dropdown, followed by “+ New pipeline”:
A clear pipeline highlights when clients need extra attention. If a client stays in a stage like “Technical Setup” for too long, you can step in with proactive technical support. This way, no relationship milestone falls through the cracks.
Pipedrive in action: Amsterdam-based travel company SurfaWhile switched to Pipedrive to centralize sales and customer communications.
This clarity helped the company prevent stalled onboarding and follow-ups, which translated into faster deal movement and higher conversion. After adopting Pipedrive’s CRM, SurfaWhile almost tripled its number of leads.
3. Automate check-ins and manual admin
Workflow automation helps you maintain a reliable cadence of client touchpoints without adding pressure to your already limited staff.
Client relationships thrive on consistency, yet manual admin tasks consume the time teams should spend on meaningful conversations.
SMB teams are often stretched thin, and when things get busy, proactive outreach is the first thing to slip. This inconsistency can make clients feel undervalued, leading to churn.
Ensure every client receives timely follow-ups, check-ins and reminders, even during your busiest periods, with automations.
Pipedrive’s workflow automation acts as a force multiplier for your team. Using the CRM’s Automations feature, you can set up triggers that automatically create activities like sending a follow-up email, assigning a task or scheduling a quarterly business review exactly 90 days after a won deal.
Choose from pre-made workflow automation templates (like those in the following image) or build your own as needed.
Remove the burden of manual admin and routine tasks and let your team focus on high-value problem-solving and relationship-building. For SMBs, this allows you to offer a high-touch experience even with a lean client services team.
Pipedrive in action: Boutique executive recruitment firm Key Search needed a solution to automate candidate management processes. After switching to Pipedrive, Key Search implemented over 100 automations to handle repetitive manual tasks.
These automations sped up the team’s workflow by 40%, allowing recruiters to focus on personalized candidate and client outreach rather than paperwork.
4. Standardize documentation
A standard documentation process boosts SMB’s efficiency, especially when dealing with high-value clients who expect accuracy and polish.
B2B client management comes with heavy documentation, including sales contracts, proposals, renewals, onboarding materials, custom scopes of work and more. Inefficient document management can lead to slow timelines, mistakes and a poor client experience.
Pipedrive’s Smart Docs brings enterprise-level consistency to small teams. Smart Docs lets you create document templates that automatically pull data from your CRM – such as pricing, contract terms, contact details and custom fields – so every document is accurate.
Note: The Smart Docs feature is included on Professional, Power and Enterprise plans and is available for Essential and Advanced plan customers as an add-on.
Smart Docs integrates directly with major cloud storage platforms Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint.
For example, to connect your account to Google Drive, go to your account settings, select “Google Drive” in the left-hand column.
Then click the “Connect to Google Drive” button.
You can create document templates and add fields that automatically pull data from your CRM. These customizations can help ensure 100% accuracy in pricing and terms while saving hours of manual drafting.
You can then send the documents for a quick eSignature directly from Pipedrive, without using any extra software. Your client can add their signature with only their email address, so they don’t need access to Pipedrive.
Pipedrive in action: Since adopting Pipedrive’s Smart Docs, Utah-based SaaS Redlist has saved a lot of time and minimized human error thanks to auto-filling custom fields.
Free from manual data entry, the Redlist team was able to spend more time building client relationships and closing deals. Within a year, this efficiency drove Redlist’s annual recurring revenue up by 200%.
5. Drive account expansion
When you know what your clients need next, it becomes much easier to grow each account with relevant add-ons and upgrades.
Many SMBs leave money on the table by treating account management purely as a retention activity. Companies that excel in client services can spot revenue opportunities because they understand each client’s evolving needs. Stagnant accounts are often one conversation away from becoming more profitable partnerships.
Use Pipedrive’s filtering and reporting tools to systematically identify “white space” in your portfolio.
For instance, filter for clients who purchased “Product A” over six months ago but have not yet bought “Product B”.
The following video shows you how to create custom filters:
By filtering clients, your team can create a targeted list of warm leads for new products, turning service interactions into natural, value-add sales conversations.
You can also leverage Pipedrive Insights to track which clients have the highest potential for growth. Create custom reports, such as a revenue forecast report, to predict which accounts are ready for an upgrade.
Treating your existing client base as a growth engine unlocks revenue that’s faster and cheaper to secure than new acquisitions.
Pipedrive in action: Real-time media monitoring platform provider Truescope adopted Pipedrive’s CRM to boost its operational efficiency.
Thanks to Pipedrive, the Truescope team increased upsells and cross-sells with timely follow-up reminders and regular communication with loyal clients.
6. Use data to improve client experience
Establishing a clear feedback loop, where client data flows back into your CRM, can transform your approach from reactive guesswork to proactive improvement.
SMBs often collect customer feedback but fail to translate it into action because data is scattered or hard to interpret. Without data, you are flying blind and risk realizing a client is unhappy only after they leave.
Pipedrive can serve as the central hub for this feedback loop when you leverage CRM database features to record key data about client experiences.
For instance, create custom fields to log NPS survey ratings and use notes or tags to track recurring support issues.
Once you capture this data, use Pipedrive’s sales dashboards to spot patterns and trends.
Here’s what a custom dashboard looks like:
Dashboards can help you identify trends, such as when clients drop off after the first three months, or if a specific feature consistently generates support tickets.
You can then refine your onboarding process or product offerings to address specific pain points, continuously improving your services.
Pipedrive in action: SaaS company Kovai.co switched to Pipedrive to centralize client data and analyze customer behavior along with sales and KPIs. A data-driven pipeline helped the team handle the growing workload efficiently.
As a result, Kovai.co’s Document360 product achieved steady growth, leading to a 650% expansion of its sales team.
Pipedrive gives SMBs the tools to offer B2B client services with the same precision as larger teams.
When combined, these six tactics can help your small businesses deliver smoother experiences, reduce churn and grow more value from existing accounts.
Client services FAQs
Final thoughts
A structured proactive client services strategy ensures B2B clients stay longer, spend more and bring in new potential clients.
Pipedrive gives growing businesses everything they need to deliver exceptional client experiences with features like custom pipelines, workflow automations, reporting dashboards and Smart Docs.
Try Pipedrive free for 14 days to build a client services strategy that drives lasting revenue growth.
