Building a client relationship management process with QBRs and risk plays in Moxo

At a glance

Building a client relationship management process ensures consistent communication, stronger partnerships, and proactive risk control.

Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and risk plays help teams stay aligned on outcomes, track satisfaction, and prevent churn before it happens.

Structured cadences create visibility across accounts, ensuring no client goes unmanaged or unmeasured.

Moxo brings this process to life with automated QBR workflows, risk dashboards, and follow-up reminders that keep relationships healthy and accountable.

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Why client relationship management needs structure

Strong delivery alone does not guarantee retention. Many businesses lose clients not because of poor service, but because relationship management is inconsistent or reactive. A project might be delivered successfully, but if the client feels ignored between milestones, trust erodes.

According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in client retention can boost profits by 25–95%. Yet, without a defined process, most companies struggle to achieve this. Teams often miss check-ins, delay escalations, or rush through QBRs without meaningful insights. Over time, this lack of rhythm creates silence that clients interpret as disengagement.

A structured client relationship management process solves this by turning relationship-building into a repeatable playbook. Instead of hoping managers remember to follow up, businesses create workflows that trigger cadences, detect risks, and provide leadership visibility.

Moxo brings these playbooks to life. By combining workflow automation, branded client portals, AI-powered risk detection, and real-time dashboards, Moxo ensures client relationships are managed proactively and consistently.

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Define relationship goals and success metrics

The first step in building a client relationship process is to define what success looks like. Without clear goals and metrics, your meetings, like Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), risk becoming simple box-ticking exercises rather than strategic conversations. You need to know what you're aiming for to know if your process is working.

Set clear goals

Your goals should align with your company's broader objectives. Common client relationship goals include:

• Improving retention: Retaining clients beyond their initial contracts and increasing overall customer lifetime value.
• Driving growth: Identifying and securing upsell or cross-sell opportunities during renewals.
• Boosting advocacy: Turning satisfied clients into advocates through testimonials, high Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and compelling case studies.

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Track the right metrics

To measure progress toward these goals, track a combination of leading and lagging indicators:

• Cadence adherence: Are you consistently holding QBRs and check-ins as scheduled?
• Client engagement: Are clients responsive and collaborative? Are key stakeholders attending scheduled sessions?
• Retention & growth metrics: Keep a close eye on renewal rates, expansion revenue, and churn rate.
• Client health scores: Combine metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, NPS, and issue resolution times to get a holistic view of client health.
  

With Moxo, these metrics are not tracked manually. Every cadence, escalation, and QBR automatically contributes data to real-time dashboards. Leaders don’t wait for end-of-quarter reporting—they see live health scores across accounts.

Case example: A consulting firm using Moxo embedded health metrics into their QBR workflow. Executives could view retention risks 90 days ahead of renewal, leading to proactive saves and a 14% uplift in renewal rates.

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Running cadences in Moxo (QBRs, executive check-ins)

Regular touchpoints are the backbone of client relationships. Weekly project syncs, monthly executive check-ins, and quarterly business reviews (QBRs) all build confidence and trust. Yet too often, these cadences are scheduled reactively or skipped when teams get busy.

Moxo operationalizes cadences as workflows:

• Automated preparation: Tasks are auto-assigned to gather data, build decks, and finalize agendas ahead of meetings.
  
  
• Magic Links for executives: Senior leaders can review decks and provide feedback without needing a login.
  
  
• Branded client portals: All QBR materials, notes, and follow-ups are stored in a secure client portal.
  
  

Case in point: SimplySolved uses Moxo to structure ongoing client engagement for accounting and advisory clients. Instead of fragmented emails, clients now have a portal where QBR decks, audit updates, and action items are visible in one place. The result: stronger engagement and fewer missed expectations.

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Streamlining client cadences: Building trust and mitigating risk

Effective client relationship management hinges on consistent and valuable interactions. Regular touchpoints, such as weekly project syncs, monthly executive check-ins, and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), are crucial not only for fostering trust and ensuring alignment but also for proactively identifying and addressing potential risks.

To overcome these challenges and build a robust CRM process, operationalizing your client cadences is key. Using a dedicated platform can transform how these interactions are managed:

Automated preparation: Tasks are auto-assigned to gather data, build decks, and finalize agendas well in advance. This ensures every meeting is well-prepared, minimizing surprises and allowing for thorough risk assessment.

Seamless executive engagement: Features like "Magic Links" enable senior leaders to review decks and provide feedback without needing a login. This simplifies high-level oversight, ensuring strategic alignment and rapid intervention on critical issues.

Centralized client portals: All QBR materials, meeting notes, and follow-ups are stored in secure, branded client portals. This creates a single source of truth, improving transparency, accountability, and the ability to track progress and manage action items related to identified risks.

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Connecting to Proactive Risk Management:

By systematizing your client cadences, you empower your team to:

Proactively Identify Issues: Consistent reviews bring potential problems to light before they escalate into larger crises.

Ensure alignment: Regular check-ins confirm that client goals are being met and any shifts or challenges are promptly addressed.

Document decisions: Centralized notes and action items provide a clear, auditable record for accountability and effective risk mitigation.

Case in point: SimplySolved leverages Moxo to structure ongoing client engagement for its accounting and advisory clients. This transition from fragmented emails to a unified client portal has meant that QBR decks, audit updates, and crucial action items are visible in one place. The result isn't just stronger engagement but also significantly fewer missed expectations, demonstrating a clear reduction in client-side risk.

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Proactively managing risks with AI and automations

Building strong client relationships requires not only regular communication but also the ability to detect and address risks early. Even with structured processes like quarterly business reviews (QBRs), unforeseen risks can arise. Here's how leveraging AI and automations can strengthen your client relationship management process:

Early risk detection: Risks like missed milestones, declining meeting attendance, or unresolved issues often signal disengagement. Identifying these signs early is crucial to maintaining trust and commitment with your clients.

AI-driven insights: AI-powered tools can monitor client interactions to flag risks quickly. For instance:

• Detect unanswered questions in chat threads.
• Identify unusual client silence or reduced engagement levels.
• Highlight overdue tasks or unresolved action items after QBRs.

Automation for timely action: Automate follow-ups and reminders to address potential risks promptly. For example, send automated check-ins when a client hasn't interacted for a set period or when a milestone is overdue.

Integrating risk plays into QBRs: Use QBRs not just for reviewing goals but also for revisiting flagged risks. Collaborate with clients to co-develop solutions for any identified issues.

By combining proactive risk detection with structured QBRs, businesses can build more resilient and trust-driven client relationships. With AI and automation, you’re not just reacting to problems; you’re staying ahead of them.

Case example: RSM uses Moxo to streamline client engagement across its financial services practice. Risks that once went unnoticed for weeks are now flagged instantly by automations, allowing proactive saves. Their leadership team reported fewer last-minute escalations and more structured renewal conversations.

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Reporting snapshots for leadership: Data-driven client insights

Strong client relationship management requires more than intuition—it demands actionable insights backed by data. For executives, a clear, portfolio-wide snapshot of client health is essential to spot risks, plan renewals, and ensure proactive relationship building.

Moxo reporting dashboards provide real-time visibility by consolidating workflow data into meaningful insights. Here’s how they can support your client relationship management process:

• Cadence completion: Keep track of critical touchpoints. Measure the percentage of Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and check-ins completed on schedule to ensure consistent client engagement.
• Escalation tracking: Identify accounts with unresolved risks and track how long issues remain open. This helps prioritize interventions and prevent small problems from escalating into bigger challenges.
• Renewal readiness: Get a pipeline view of upcoming contract renewals paired with sentiment analysis to assess client satisfaction and renewal likelihood.

Additional considerations for CRM success

When incorporating QBRs and risk plays into your process, consider these best practices:

• Set clear metrics: Define KPIs like client satisfaction scores and response times to ensure your team is focused on measurable outcomes.
• Automate workflows: Use tools like Moxo to automate meeting schedules, reminders, and follow-ups, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistency in relationship management.
• Collaborate across teams: Share insights from reporting dashboards with account managers and customer success teams to align efforts and improve client outcomes.

A structured approach to QBRs and risk management, supported by robust reporting tools, enables leadership to proactively nurture client relationships and drive long-term success.

Case example: Creative Planning, a wealth management firm, leverages Moxo dashboards to give leadership visibility into engagement and renewal health. Their executives now spend less time chasing anecdotal updates and more time planning proactive interventions.

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Crafting an impactful QBR: Your essential template

Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) are powerful tools for strengthening client relationships, demonstrating value, and aligning on future goals. To make your QBRs consistently impactful and efficient, a well-structured template is key. Here are the essential sections to include:

• Executive summary: A high-level overview of the client relationship, including key achievements, shared goals, and an overall health score.
• Performance metrics: Dive into key performance indicators (KPIs) versus targets, analyze trends, and highlight the outcomes delivered to the client. This is where you prove your value.
• Open risks & challenges: Transparently address any current issues or potential roadblocks. Outline clear mitigation plans and assign ownership for resolution. This builds trust and proactive problem-solving.
• Strategic alignment & future opportunities: Discuss the client's upcoming initiatives and how your partnership can support and drive those objectives forward. Look for new ways to expand value.
• Next steps & action plan: Conclude with clear, actionable items, specific owners, and realistic due dates. This ensures accountability and defines the path forward.

A robust QBR template transforms these meetings from mere reporting sessions into strategic discussions that deepen client loyalty and identify growth opportunities.

With Moxo workflows, this template becomes operational. Input forms collect data, automations assign action items, and the QBR deck is stored in the portal. Clients and executives see updates in real time, not weeks later.

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How Moxo helps

Building a proactive client relationship management process means staying ahead of issues, maintaining communication rhythm, and tracking value consistently. Moxo helps teams automate these touchpoints—from QBRs to risk monitoring—within one connected workspace.

With Moxo’s workflow builder, teams can create structured cadences for client check-ins, assign owners, and set automated reminders for follow-ups and quarterly reviews. Workflow automation ensures QBRs are scheduled, documents are prepared in advance, and outcomes are logged for future action.

Client portals act as shared spaces for QBR agendas, reports, and discussion notes, while document workflows manage deliverables, KPIs, and feedback forms securely.

Performance dashboards help leaders identify risk signals—such as missed SLAs or declining engagement—while audit-ready logs maintain full visibility into every client interaction.

Moxo brings structure and foresight to relationship management—helping teams turn QBRs and risk plays into predictable, measurable routines that strengthen trust and retention.

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Turn client retention into a proactive strategy

Client retention does not happen by chance; it’s the outcome of structured, consistent engagement. A client relationship management process ensures cadences happen, risks are detected early, and leadership has visibility into account health.

Businesses that operationalize this process with Moxo see tangible ROI: faster escalations, stronger executive participation, and higher renewal rates. By turning QBRs, cadences, and risk detection into automated workflows, companies shift from reactive firefighting to proactive relationship building.

Book a demo with Moxo to see how your team can strengthen client relationships with structured, automated playbooks.

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FAQs

What is a client relationship management process?

It is a structured framework for managing client health and engagement. With Moxo, this becomes a guided workflow that automates cadences, QBRs, and risk detection.

How do QBRs fit into client relationship management?

Quarterly business reviews highlight value delivery and align future goals. In Moxo, QBRs are run as workflows with tasks, portals, and real-time reporting.

How does Moxo detect client risk?

Moxo uses AI Support Agents to flag unanswered questions and automations to escalate delays. Risks are visible to managers before they impact renewals.

Can Moxo integrate QBR data with my CRM?

Yes. Moxo integrations sync cadence and QBR data with Salesforce, HubSpot, and NetSuite.

What ROI do companies see with Moxo’s relationship playbooks?

Firms using Moxo report stronger renewal outcomes and reduced churn. Try the ROI calculator to estimate the impact on your business.

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