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How-To: Keep Clients Happy
This article offers ideas for consulting companies that
perform project work for clients. The ideas are
designed to help keep your clients happy while you do projects for
them. We're a project management and timesheet software
company, so we deal with client billing and consulting work every
day. Standard Time (our product) is designed to meet those
consulting needs. Perhaps the ideas below will help.
Communication
The biggest thing clients want from their consultancies is regular
communications. They have hired you for your project
management and execution skills, but they want regular face-time.
If you aren't talking with your client every week, you are slowly
losing them. It may not feel that way at first, but you are.
You may not even have anything to say, but they want to hear your
voice nonetheless. Call them, schedule online meetings, or
show up at their offices on a regular basis. Deliverables
What have your clients hired you to do? Manage projects?
Manage a single project? Manage an account of some type?
Whatever it is, it probably has recurring deliverables. In
other words, you are expected to perform on a regular basis, and the
client wants to see the results of that work. So, how are you
tracking those deliverables? Do you have multiple consultants
on the job? When are the deliverables due? Have you
communicated those to the client? If not, you may be missing
an essential aspect of consulting work. The client may be
wondering what you are doing. What you are going to deliver.
Keep in mind that they have other things to do, and tracking your
projects may not be one of them. Status
Each deliverable has a status. Where are you on each one?
What percent complete? How many will you deliver this month?
You must keep accurate status of your projects and milestone
deliverables, or you will lose the client. You say, "Oh no,
they trust us." Yes, they may trust you, but if they don't see
regular project status, they will eventually come to believe that
you are not working hard for them. Do you have a project
tracking system? A timesheet? Can you produce project
management reports upon demand? You'll never survive without
them. The funny thing is: the client may never read those
project status reports, but producing them is the key. It
keeps the client happy. Consider Standard Time for tracking
those projects and producing the client reports they will expect.
As Agreed
Clients want projects completed as agreed. They never want
them finished late, and feel ripped off when completed early.
So, you take a job that is expected to take six months.
Everybody is happy, and the kickoff is a big success. But
after three months into the project, you aren't sure when you'll
complete it. Maybe in another month, or maybe five months.
Now you're in trouble. The client remembers, but you are no
longer sure. Don't let that scenario happen. Use some
software, like Standard Time, to make certain when you will
complete, and the exact status at any given time. When the
client calls, you can tell them we're 78% complete. We'll be
done in a month. That is a very reassuring thing to hear.
It beats, "We're not sure. Maybe in a few months..."
Anybody with a little experience knows what that means. Tools
Standard Time is the tool for this work. It tracks all client
projects simultaneously, produces client invoices, and relevant
reports. Email them to your client on a regular basis, and
they will believe you are doing your job. But remember, don't
forget to show your face once in a while!
Download Standard Time!
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