This makes sense. . .

Have you ever gone to a fancy restaurant and left disappointed?  Of course.  Expectations were probably TOO HIGH, and the food and service were good, but not THAT GOOD. 

As consultants, we are in the client satisfaction business. Happy clients = paid invoices, add-on work, referrals, and the potential for consultants to get promoted at year. We want clients satisfied. So far so good. . . 

What’s the problem? 

Well, there’s not a polite way to say this. The problem is that clients are human. Humans are beautiful and messy; they are full of emotions, and biases. The list of biases and heuristics is LONG. A few big ones come to mind:

• Confirmation bias
• Recency bias
• Bandwagon effect
• Hindsight bias
• Loss aversion bias
• Availability heuristic
• Anchoring bias
• Halo effect
• Attribution bias

Basically, humans are not robots . . .

Client executives are under enormous pressure. Your consulting project is NOT their day job; they have a laundry list of other issues to deal with. So, it’s not fair to assume they have the time or luxury to sift through the analysis like you did. They largely don’t have control of their calendar. They can’t exactly remember what you said last time, or even the commitments THEY MADE to you. They are human, so give them some grace.

. . which is a good thing

Robots don’t have courage or show leadership. Robots cannot persuade the business unit to confirm to a new pricing software platform. Robots cannot inspire employees who are exhausted from multiple months of over-time. 

We all want clients who have the courage, leadership, and thoughtfulness to do the right thing for their organizations and teams. Clients can surprise us with their trust and goodwill. Clients can be human and awesome.

. . . And a potentially bad thing 

Frankly, consultants have difficult jobs. We are hired to do a LOT in a LITTLE bit of time. We need low drama / no drama projects. There’s already a lot of time constraints, wonky data, and other variability to contend with. If possible, we don’t want clients who (even for reasons beyond their control): 

• Frequently change their mind
• Second-guess (or continually doubt) our work quality
• Try to see us fail (or take the fall for something)
• Inadvertently miscommunicate messages to other stakeholders
• Hire us for the wrong (or unstated) reasons 

Perception, raise it as high as possible

Step 1. Do the work. Be so good that they can’t ignore you. You should be confident because you are competent. You’ve done the work, you are willing to stand behind it. Like an architect who unveils a new skyscraper; you’re proud of your work, you’ve double-checked the math, you’ve inspected the construction. The building is not going to fall.

Step 2. Put your best foot forward. No reason to jeopardize your credibility, reputation, or change management inertia because you were late to a meeting, had a typo on the first page, or cc: the wrong person in the email.

Step 3. Share this professionalism with your team. Like branding, everything your team does, says, writes is a reflection of the firm’s brand. How you act in the hotel lobby, yep, someone from the client site will hear about it. 

Expectations, lower them (reasonably)

One of the biggest takeaways in consulting (and life, and marriage), don’t over-promise.  If you are not sure you will be home by 6pm, don’t tell your mom/father/sister/wife/husband/friend, don’t tell them you will.

The temptation: In the rush to get new business, we can over-promise. 1) You don’t know what you don’t know. 2) You have the eye-of-the-tiger hunger for the business. 3) Honestly, new relationships have a spark of optimism.

One professional I know describes the syndrome this way: “The most depressing day in the office is the day after we have won a new client. We look at each other and say, ‘How on earth are we going to deliver all that we promised for the budget we agreed to?” – David Maister

Quality work does not mean quality service

This is a bit counter-intuitive, but Maister brings up the $10 point that while “products are consumed, services are experienced.” You might do solid technical work for the client, but if they don’t perceive quality, well – bad quality.

Satisfaction = Perception – Expectation

Maister brings up the fascinating, scary, deep point is that “neither perception nor expectation necessarily reflect reality.” So our job as consultants is to do great work (of course), but also increase perception (without puffery) and lower expectations. Do we sometimes forget we are in the client business?

Because of the proclivity of professionals to become more fascinated with the intellectual challenge of their craft than with being responsive to clients, all too often clients are mocked for their lack of professional knowledge, despised because of the demands, and resented because they control the purse strings, and hence the autonomy of the professional. – David Maister

Yes, WHAT we do is important.  Yes, HOW we do it is just as important. Let’s remember that improving the quality of service is a LOT easier than improving the quality of the work. Let’s repeat that again.

Easier to improve service quality than work quality

Some clients want lots of details and be included in the decision-making process, while others just want a monthly update. In both cases, they want good service.

Thinking about myself. Action I should take this week for all my internal / external clients:

• Reach out by email, phone to engage. Don’t run-silent-run-deep on the project
• Set up the check-in meeting now, give yourself due dates
• Remind the client of the service they received, and will receive
• Get feedback, ask the client how the team is doing; find new problems to help them solve
• Coach junior consultants on how to look for add-on work