The Educated Client
What would you give for an educated client? Someone who understands, even at a basic level, the process you have to go through to deliver their requirements? What would that be worth to you in time and money saved in not having to explain and re-explain why something cannot be delivered "just so"? One solution could be to show them what you do.A lot of my time in my previous life as a project manager on railway infrastructure design projects was spent managing the expectations of my client and setting those expectations against what could be delivered by the engineers. Usually this revolved around timescales and/or scope of delivery. The words "couldn't you just..." used to fill me with dread as they were usually a precursor to a seemingly innocuous request for what appeared to be a small change on paper but which entailed a massive amount of analysis and re-engineering of many complex factors. All this inevitably added up to a significant cost in terms of time and money and potential delays in completion which then resulted in arguments at the end of the project as the reason for the delay, even if documented and explained to the client at the time, was by now long forgotten.
This situation, I know, is not peculiar to engineering - I am frequently being patiently "educated" by my website developers as I trot out those immortal words "can you just...?". I am sure there are many situations where demanding but essentially uneducated clients are baffled by why it takes so long or costs so much to do something? Of course it maybe that you don't want to educate your client as it would expose situations where perhaps you are not being as proactive or effective as you could be (as my neighbour suspects is the case with his conveyancers during his recent house sale;-) ). However most of us are just trying to do a good job and "if only the client knew what we had to go through" life what would be a lot simpler!
Soooo why don't you show them what you do? Invite them to your office and show them how you work, what the process is, where the pitfalls are, what the impact of those words "couldn't you just...?" really mean. When I look back I realise I assumed a lot about my clients - that I had told them the process of delivery in the tender document and then in the project plan. That they had, of course, read the project plan and not just ticked a box for audit purposes that said "Project Plan received" and then put it on a shelf never to be looked at until there was trouble!
Maybe if I had taken the trouble to invite them to the office and SHOWED them the process, enough to "educate" them, then I could have saved myself and the client a lot of time and aggravation. And, of course there is the added benefit of building client relations and giving them the confidence that when a request is made there is a machinery in place to deliver what they want. People are strange creatures - if we do not knwo something we are apt to invent our own explanations and these can take on a life of their own to the point that perception truly does become reality though the truth may be something entirely different, as in my fiends belief about his conveyancers. And that is when the trouble starts!
Whatever your business, whether your clients are internal or external, how can you educate them so that you better understand each other? What are your clients processes, what constraints and time pressures are they under? And if you are a client, when did you last visit your supplier and really take a look at what it takes to deliver your requirements? It just might save you a whole lot of time, money and aggravation:-)
Last Updated ( Friday, 17 August 2007 )