A call with a client is easy to book and easy to waste. It can end warmly and leave everyone with a different memory of what was agreed. A little structure before and after turns a pleasant conversation into progress.
Before: a short agenda
Two days ahead, send three to five lines: why you are meeting, the topics in order, and anything the client should bring or decide. It helps the client prepare and makes it easy to say “that is next time” when the conversation wanders. For a first call, our kickoff agenda fits 45 minutes.
- One clear purpose, for example “agree the plan for November”.
- The decisions you need, written as questions.
- Who should be on the call, and who does not need to be.
Make it easy to join
A surprising amount of call time is lost to links. Send a meeting link in the invite, not later in a message. In BravaSpace you can schedule a call from Meetings: it creates a Google Calendar event with a Google Meet link, can invite the client’s contacts by email, and shows a Next meeting tile on the client’s Overview with a Join button that opens 15 minutes before. If you prefer one link for everyone, you can keep a single reusable meeting link and show it on client profiles.
During: write decisions as they happen
Name a note-taker, even if it is you. Capture three things, in this form:
- The decision, in a sentence.
- The action that follows from it.
- Who owns it, and by when.
Read them back before you close the call. It takes two minutes and removes most of the misunderstandings that surface a week later.
After: a summary within the hour
The summary does not need to be polished. List the decisions, the actions with owners and dates, and anything still open. Post it where the client will see it again, ideally in the same place as the rest of the work. In BravaSpace, that can be a message in the client’s thread, with the actions created as tasks the client can see.
Keep the rhythm
Before the call ends, book the next one. A regular slot, whether weekly, every two weeks or monthly, saves the back-and-forth of finding a time and tells the client what to expect. If a call is not needed one week, cancel it. In BravaSpace, canceling removes the calendar event and the tile.
When a call should have been a message
Not every question needs a meeting. If the answer is a yes or no, ask it in writing and keep the answer on record. Save calls for conversations that need back and forth: goals, trade-offs, and anything emotional. Your clients will thank you for the time you give back.
To set up a call step by step, see Schedule a client call with Meet.