Mike Phillips presenting at Buildex Seattle on Oct.15

DesignFacilitator’s Mike Phillips will be presenting an educational session on Thursday, October 15 at 1:00pm entitled “Using Client Feedback to Improve Your Firm’s Prosperity,” at Buildex Seattle.  This case study will detail the simple strategies found to improve the understanding between designers and their clients.

What Did You Expect?

Having just purchased a new car, I recently received a call asking if I would take a satisfaction survey.  Because feedback is what we’re all about – of course I agreed.  I also asked who was in charge of that part of the show, and, I really should have asked how to spell it, because I never actually found them online.  But, while searching for them, I found a report by Accenture called “High Performance in the Age of Customer Centricity.” Even though I had to give away some personal information in order to be allowed download it, it was worth doing, as they had some interesting findings to share.  One statement that really caught my attention was:

“Our analysis suggests that how often consumers felt their real expectations were met appears to be a better indicator of their likelihood of leaving or remaining loyal.”

This is also what we have learned with our work on DesignFacilitator’s Client Feedback Tool.  What matters most is not how well they thought you served your client, but how well you performed compared to their expectations.   Comparing what they expected to what they actually received measures their feelings in a way that a “very satisfied – not at all satisfied” scale simply cannot capture.  Take for example a crab cake I ordered at Second Empire Restaurant.  It was fantastic, but was it $18 worth of fantastic? Actually, yes it was. This says a lot because, as one of the highest rated restaurants in our area, my expectations were extremely high, and yet they still impressed me.  

Stereotypes of car dealers and dealerships abound, and since this was my first new car buying experience, those stereotypes were what I expected.  I winced walking in the door.  It wasn’t loads of fun, but since I was expecting the worst, I thought it really went quite well.  Now I have a better opinion of (some) car salesmen, a new car, and higher expectations for the next time around.  

To download the report mentioned above, visit: https://www.accenture.com/Global/Registration/Accenture2008SurveyRequest.htm

Feedback Case Study: Discovering Expectations Early

Feedback collected early in a project’s lifecycle critically affects many projects to better results. Marc Christopher and Jason Byrd, architects at Phillips Architecture in Raleigh, NC, share an experience that occurred in the schematic design phase of a new activity center for a local church.

Having used a previously successful process to collect programming information about the project, Marc and Jason met with the client to review the initial schematic designs. The meeting went smoothly, and both left feeling the project was on track. However, after a survey was sent to the eight participants, two attendees rated the efforts “needing improvement.”

Surprised, Jason quickly followed up, and discovered that these project participants hadn’t been through an architectural project of this nature before – and therefore had no basis to set expectations for what a schematic design was, nor what the deliverables from that phase included. After some discussion (and education) everyone was up to speed. Subsequent surveys revealed a very high level of excellence, consistently exceeding the client’s more informed expectations. The project resolved successfully. Of the experience, Jason says, “Had we never sent a survey requesting feedback, we would have been oblivious to the client’s feelings as to where we stood to date.” Armed with this information, Jason could adjust expectations accordingly by walking through the project’s process clearly.

Taking the lesson learned more broadly, Marc and Jason now approach new projects differently. Rather than take for granted an understanding of the architectural project’s process and deliverables, an initial project conversation is held to:

• Clearly quantify expectations for the next deliverable.
• Establish a clear timeline to meet those expectations.
• Communicate any deviations in advance.

“While these items may seem obvious, we sometimes take for granted that we are delivering in accordance with our clients expectations, ” says Marc.

Recent projects have accordingly seen consistently high marks across the board, as the improved processes are taking place.