Getting Started with a Feedback Initiative

Regardless of how you collect feedback – almost everyone agrees it is important to do so.  Organizing your client feedback efforts into a systematic approach will ensure that you actually get the results you need.

The WickerPark Group, which focuses on client service interviews and client growth programs in the legal industry, authors a great blog, and a recent post highlights some good advice for getting started on a feedback regimen:

The success of client feedback programs requires leadership buy in and top down support. When asking for feedback and opinions from clients, the firm is making a promise that it will respond to the feedback – both good and bad.

Effective feedback doesn’t just happen – like anything else it takes some effort, guided by a purpose, to maximize the potential benefits.  When the impetus for improving client relationships through feedback comes from the top, with support down the command chain, the results can be quick and extraordinary.

Each client requires a different service strategy.

This simple statement captures the entire essence of why feedback is critical.  Every client is a little bit different – and each person you interact with has his or her own set of personal preferences, needs, cares, concerns, and personalities.

Your process might be great in general, but needs subtle tweaking to maximize the relationship potential for each interaction.  Helping your staff understand this, and that feedback during the project is the only way to identify adjustments, will drive use of any feedback systems you put in place.

Is the firm willing to respond to the feedback and take action? How?

This may seem like an obvious question, but the answer will decide your success with a feedback program.  Prompt, effective, and helpful follow-up, focused on the client who gave you feedback, will create new opportunities and positive relationships.  When those engaging in feedback activities begin to see these results, they will naturally tend to continue collecting feedback.

From the very beginning, start with the end in mind – the goal of getting feedback is to follow-up with a response to the benefit of the client.  Start off with great responses, and your feedback program will grow quickly and sustainably.

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.

A Service Driven Business

Chris Hazlett, President of Integrate (www.integratechange.com) wrote an excellent blog post about focusing on client needs. You can read it here.  Though Chris’s business of custom software development differs in many ways from Architects and Engineers, the service delivery nature of work is very much the same.  An excerpt from the post sheds light on the right attitude to have about your clients:

Most recently, I received a call from one of the division heads at Merrill Lynch about the software we developed for them, Account and Account::Coaching. If you have ever gone through a merger at a big company, you know that one of the hardest things to merge (other than the personnel) are the different software systems that run the businesses. So when this director called me to talk about Account, I thought they were going to ask what the best way to decommission it is. To my surprise, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch were so happy with the system that Bank of America’s representatives have made the decision to continue to use it into the foreseeable future.

The reason I tell that story is not for accolades. I tell that story because I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished, not just in the software arena (It’s been running for 2 1/2 years without being touched by us), but because of how proud I am that Integrate got it right for this client. Low-maintenance and ease of use are certainly worth praise, but the service we had to provide to get it right is more important to me. (emphasis by Ryan Suydam).

All to often in service delivery of any sort, we tend to lose sight of the service we provide, and focus instead on how great the product of that service is.  If clients only needed great product – a market would exist to buy and sell products (a completed set of plans, for example) without the added cost of service included.

Rather, clients need care, attention, and a vast array of problems solved. A product doesn’t actually solve problems, and often times presents a host of new problems altogether.  The product is all about ME – and my “masterpiece”.  The service, on the otherhand, is about YOU – the client – and how I can help YOU with the problems you face.

As you compete for work against increasingly desperate competitors – who often have “better” examples of previous product – stay focused on the client’s service needs today.  Take pride in how well the service is delivered first and foremost, and your clients are sure to feel the product delivered is a success.  Measure your ability to provide quality service by collecting feedback often!

Feedback and the Johari Window

DesignFacilitator’s Client Feedback Tool uses many of the premises described by the Johari Window. The Johari Window describes two axis of feedback:

• Asking for Feedback (Horizontal)
• Giving Feedback (Vertical)

In brief, the health of your relationship with someone (a client for example) can be measured by the SIZE of your “arena” (see the diagram). The more you ask for feedback, the more awareness you develop about yourself – reducing your blind spot and increasing your arena (the vertical line moves to the right). Likewise, the more feedback you provide, the smaller your facade, and again, the bigger your arena (the horizontal line moves down).

Diagram of the Johari Window

Using a feedback system like DesignFacilitator to constantly ask for feedback from clients will increase the health of your client relationships. When you know what your clients think and feel about your project processes, you have eliminated your blind spot. Being aware of your relationships’ quality allows you to make intelligent, informed business decisions (such as when a client will be amenable to a fee increase).

Likewise, building a healthy system of communication by asking for feedback frequently will enable you to give feedback to your clients as well. With an open feedback loop, you can both guide and tweak each others’ processes to create better performing projects for everyone.