If you're not taking
steps to uncover your clients' service expectations, you're missing a
valuable opportunity to distinguish your firm and strengthen client
relationships. In my last post,
I tried to make the compelling case for doing what I call "service
benchmarking" at the outset of every project. I also outlined the
general content of that process and offered a helpful resource to use from my website.
In
this article, I'd like to go further in describing how you can
benchmark service expectations. Every client is different, so you'll
need to tweak the process to fit both the client and your firm.
How to Do Service Benchmarking
Talk to every key client contact who will experience your service.
Client perceptions of your performance are rarely limited to a single
person. Yet it is not uncommon for us to talk about client preferences
with only the primary point of contact (e.g., the client PM). Instead,
attempt to meet with all key client contacts with whom you will have
significant interaction.
Determine how many benchmarking meetings are appropriate. There
are advantages to meeting with multiple client contacts in a single
benchmarking session. Besides the efficiency of getting feedback from
different individuals in one sitting, the combined session enables them
to better understand each other's expectations and to reach a consensus
where necessary. But some client contacts (e.g., senior management or
accounting) might be better engaged in a separate meeting.
Take time to plan the meeting. Having
a standard questionnaire provides a general outline for the
benchmarking session. Yet you should review the questions in advance to
determine which are appropriate to ask and what additional or modified
questions should be added. Different client contacts will undoubtedly
warrant different questions.
Expect to spend one to two hours in the benchmarking session. The
time involved will depend on a number of factors—how familiar you are
with the client, how many client contacts will be participating, how
much time the client is willing to commit to this discussion, etc. For
large projects or contracts, I've found that a two-hour meeting is
pretty typical to cover the bases.
Consider collecting the information in multiple conversations. The
average client will likely balk at spending two hours—or any amount of
time—to formally benchmark expectations, especially on smaller projects.
But don't abandon the process too quickly! You can collect the
information in multiple meetings and phone conversations—even without
the client being aware that you are doing "benchmarking."
Be sure to allow the client to bring up issues you may not have anticipated.
One disadvantage of a standard questionnaire is that it can lead you to
be too focused on the questions listed, perhaps bypassing issues of
importance to the client. Instead, keep the conversation loose enough to
allow the client to venture into issues that might not be addressed in
your questionnaire. Be sure to ask, "Is there anything else we haven't
discussed that you'd like to talk about?"
How to Do Service Benchmarking
It's
natural to think of applying this process only to new clients or new
projects. But it can be entirely appropriate to employ it with current
clients or later in the project. Since great service is primarily about
meeting and exceeding expectations, understanding those expectations
better is worth pursuing at any stage of the project or relationship.
Begin uncovering client expectations during the sales process.
This enables you to better address client service issues in your
proposal or presentation. Indeed, giving attention to the working
relationship can be a substantial competitive advantage, since likely no
one else will. Doing this in the sales process also shortens the
benchmarking step after contract award.
Initiate the formal process shortly after contract award. The
insights gained from service benchmarking should be integrated with
other elements of project planning. There are many obvious advantages in
doing this process at the outset, enabling a mutual understanding of
what's expected before the work begins. Many of the service problems
I've encountered could have been avoided if the two parties had gone
through this step at the start of the project.
Revisit the process at key project transition points. Client
expectations often change to some degree over the course of the
project. You will be wise to check periodically to confirm that your
initial understanding of client expectations is still valid. A
convenient time to do this is at project transitions such as
planning-to-design, preliminary-to-final, design-to-construction.
Fill in benchmarking gaps at any stage of the project. If
the project is already underway, a full-blown benchmarking session is
probably tough to sell to the client. But you should still attempt to
fill in gaps in your understanding of client expectations. Be careful
not to assume too much. Check to make sure that what you think you know
is accurate.
Employ the process when there are service problems. If
you didn't do benchmarking at the start, you should at least use
elements of the process in response to any service issues that arise
later in the project. Sometimes clients who were reluctant to
participate early are eager to do so after problems appear.
Of
course, service benchmarking is only the start of an effective client
service process. But even your best service efforts will fall short if
you don't understand what the client expects. So don't fail to ask,
whatever form that may take.
Expectations define the
experience. That's one of the fundamentals of delivering exceptional
client experiences. The client is the sole arbiter of what constitutes
great service (i.e., a great experience), and that opinion depends as
much on what was expected as what was delivered.
So what steps
does your firm take to ensure that you understand the client's service
expectations? In my experience, few firms follow any formal process for
clarifying expectations. Worse still, most do a poor job of soliciting
this input even on an informal basis. The focus instead is on
determining the usual scope, schedule, and budget.
Yet the
traditional project parameters usually fail to outline client
expectations adequately. To illustrate this, consider your own
experience procuring a technical service—in this case, hiring a mechanic
to fix your car. What explicit instructions do you give the mechanic?
Diagnose the problem. Fix it. Perhaps you ask when the work will be
done, or for an estimate of the cost.
Where in that conversation
do you discuss your service expectations? Usually this matter is largely
ignored. Do you want the mechanic to inform you of other problems with
the car? If you trust him, probably yes. But if you don't, such
information could be perceived as a ploy to try to take more of your
money. Do you want manufacturer's or aftermarket parts? Do you want to
see the old parts that are removed during the repair? And so on.
There
are several expectations you have about the transaction that likely
won't be discussed. But what factors will determine whether you continue
to do business with that mechanic? Fixing your car is a given. Are not
the service you receive and trust you build the primary determinants of a
continued relationship? Yet how can the mechanic know how best to serve
you and gain your trust if you don't discuss your expectations?
This
is the situation you face with your clients, especially the ones you
have limited experience with. And by the way, don't merely assume that
you know your long-term clients' expectations if you've never asked.
Through the many client surveys and interviews I've conducted, I've
learned that many A/E firms don't know their clients as well as they
think.
I've been involved in troubleshooting many service
breakdowns over the years, including a few that could not be
sufficiently resolved to retain the client. These situations resulted
from a variety of shortcomings, but one central underlying cause has
been evident in most every case—the firm did not adequately understand
the client's expectations about how they wanted to be served.
In
most cases, the service providers merely assumed they knew what the
client wanted. After all, they understood the project requirements,
scope, schedule, and budget. What more did they need to proceed with
confidence? An understanding of how the client envisioned the working
relationship. That interaction is a substantial part of the value you're
delivering.
So what can you do? I recommend a process I call
"service benchmarking" to clarify the expectations at the outset of the
project (and to be revisited periodically over the course of the
project). This activity can be conducted formally in a meeting with the
client (the preferred method) or informally over several routine
conversations. Following are the kinds of issues you want to explore as
part of service benchmarking:
Communication. How
often does the client want to communicate on a routine basis? By what
means? Who are the key points of contact within both organizations? What
kinds of communications is each responsible for? How many meetings are
expected? Who is responsible for facilitating those meetings?
Decisions and involvement. What
kinds of decisions does the client want to be involved in? Who will
make what decisions? At what specific points in the project is client
approval needed? Does the client want to participate in any internal
project team meetings or joint strategy sessions? At what stages does
the client want to review draft work products?
Information and data. What
information does the client want you to routinely report to them? What
information will the client provide? What specific records should your
firm maintain for the client's purposes and in what form? What are the
best electronic means for sharing information and data?
Deliverable standards.
Does the client have specific deliverable standards? Are there any
special document control requirements? How many copies are needed and to
whom should they be sent?
Invoicing and payment.
When should invoices be delivered to the client to ensure timely
payment? What attachments or backup information does the client require?
Are there any special payment methods that might be beneficial to both
parties?
Changes. Does the client prefer a
specific change management process? What is the basis for estimating
extra costs? What approval is needed and how long should this take? How
does the client want you to respond should a mistake occur?
Performance feedback.
Is the client willing to provide honest feedback on your firm's
performance? What is the best timing and process for soliciting this
feedback?
These are just a few of the questions you might ask the
client in defining service expectations. Be sure to write down the
client's responses and share them with the client to confirm mutual
understanding. You might develop a questionnaire for this purpose (or
download my "Client Service Planner").
After filling it in, forward it to the client to confirm that you
accurately captured his or her comments. This establishes the
"benchmark" by which service performance during the project can be
managed and measured.
Don't simply assume; ask! This practice can help both you and your client avoid trouble down the road.