4 Easy Ways to Help Clients Get Better Results

We are all creatures of habit and it’s really hard to change habits that can be deeply woven into our lives, our relationships, are coping mechanisms and even traditions. Think about the last time you tackled a big change in your life (or even a little shift that felt huge to you)… What was it? How difficult was it for you? Did you follow through? Did you have support?

Clients come to you for help to change their habits and meet their health goals. It’s not uncommon for them to have tried many times to reach their goals on their own before coming to see you. We know that it’s incredibly difficult to make lifestyle and dietary changes because we’ve all experienced it at one time or another. This is where you come in… having a plan of action isn’t always enough. You need to be able to break action plans into small digestible bites for your clients.

Here are four ways you can help keep your clients accountable on their health journeys.

1. Set attainable goals.

If initial goals are too big and overwhelming for your client, they will lose motivation before they even start. It’s ok to set large goals — in fact, you should encourage your client to set the bar high for themselves — but make sure you lay out some smaller tasks in between.

Set them up for success

Think about how satisfying is it to check items off of your “to-do” list? The small tasks are often what give us the motivation we need to complete the larger ones. Clients need to build that momentum little by little if you want them to reach their larger goals.

Start with 1–3 digestible recommendations that won’t overwhelm your client and build on from there.

2. Use a tracking system.

Practice Better’s Food & Mood and Lifestyle Journals are a great way for clients to let you know how they’re doing. Journal entries are shared with you in real-time and provide another level of accountability to your clients. Tracking is such a powerful tool for clients as it shows them the correlation between what they’re eating and how they feel.

Depending on the level of support your client needs, you can also choose to comment on their journal entries to provide clients with encouragement and feedback.

As mentioned, celebrating the small wins is a great way to build momentum. It shows your clients that you’re paying attention and you care about the effort they’re putting in, even if they’re just getting started.

3. Encourage your clients to purchase a package of sessions.

Offering packages of multiple sessions is a great way to encourage clients to continue to work with you and stick to their program. If they simply have one-off visits, they can easily “fall off the wagon” and not come back.

If you’re not allowed to sell packages, not a problem, make sure that you book your follow-up session at the end of each session so that your client doesn’t have a chance to forget.

Having follow-up sessions already in their calendar will help them stay on track, knowing that they’ll be meeting with you again soon. Consistent check-ins mean that you’re able to better support your clients when they’re feeling stuck, celebrate their wins and tweak their program as needed.

4. Goal Setting and Check-ins.

These concepts aren’t new. Practice Better strives to refine them and provide tools that make them easier for you to use with your clients. Remember, accountability is a two-fold system. To have success, clients must remain accountable to you as well as to themselves.

Creating a goal setting worksheet is a great way to really help your clients get clear on what they will do between sessions. This worksheet can be automatically sent to clients after a session has concluded using the Practice Better forms automation. On the other hand, it’s also a great opportunity to get a first-person account of how clients did on meeting their goals and executing their action steps. Since our last session, what were your wins? What did you struggle with? How much effort did you put in? What can you do better?

Try out these simple and effective accountability strategies to make your clients feel supported and motivated throughout their health journeys. These four strategies will also prove to be invaluable to creating the most effective plans as you collect critical information along the way.

Practice Better is the complete client management platform for nutritionists, dietitians and wellness professionals. Sign up for free today.