Version 3 Is Here!

DesignFacilitator has released Version 3 of the Client Feedback Tool. Version 3 was developed in response to your comments– your feedback– to us. You told us you wanted the Client Feedback Tool to be faster, sharper, with more consistent actions and with more flexible, powerful reports. Version 3 provides all this and more. Its enhancements include:

• Simpler navigation and sharper screen graphics.

As soon as you log in you will notice how much easier it is to move about the new crisp screens. On the left side of the screen, clicking on a subject heading displays a list of sub-headings so you can quickly select the desired action or report without waiting for the screen to refresh. In the upper-right corner of the screen, we show you where you are on the site currently.

• A new ribbon-style toolbar with standardized actions. Found at the top of most screens, the toolbar offers

- A Filters tab where you can identify what you wish to see in the report (who, when, which project, and so on).

- An Options tab where you can control how to group and sort the information (by sender, project, team, average score, etc).

- A File tab that allows you to decide what to do with the information. You have the power to download it, print it as a pdf, send it to an email address, save the report settings as a favorite report. You can even schedule it for automatic recurring delivery to your email!

• Fewer screen post-backs.

Many subscribers previously expressed concern about the time required to post back the screen every time they changed a filter. Version 3 addresses that concern by incorporating an Update button on the ribbon. This allows you to select and change multiple filter settings without waiting for the screen to repost each time. Once you have made all your filter selections, simply click the Update button– we flash it to remind you– and all your changes are applied at once.

• Successes and challenges reports

These reports were designed to help identify areas of strength and those possibly requiring additional attention in your firm. You can tailor this report to show you which clients, projects, phases or firm members have the highest or lowest average scores, extremes, percentage of change, and so on . The Client Feedback Tool even includes several standard templates under the Options tab to help get you started.

• The Feedback Quotient® report is a Client Feedback Tool exclusive.

This report applies a proprietary formula to analyze numerous  metrics such as the number of surveys sent and received in a given period, reply rates, scores, score consistency, follow-up actions, and more. The result is a relative ranking of projects, project clients, and survey senders in your firm. You will know where feedback is being effectively used, and by whom.

Additional new functions of the Client Feedback Tool:

You can save and recall your favorite report configurations and settings.

You can create, save and send batch reports to yourself and others.

You can schedule your favorite reports for recurring delivery to your email… or others’.

You can send most reports as PDF files via email.

You can now view feedback on a mobile device.

Version 3 does not require any software changes on your part, as the Client Feedback Tool is a web-based service. Please let us know if you need help or want to schedule additional training for your team.

Please contact us if you have questions:
866-433-7322
919-573-1730
(M-F 9am – 6pm EST)
Or email answers@designfacilitator.com.

New Features Coming Soon – Version 3 Rollout

In our continuing effort to optimize your Client Feedback Tool experience, DesignFacilitator will roll out some exciting new features in late October, 2009. Version 3 enhancements will include:

• Simpler, more straightforward navigation
• Updated graphics with brighter, sharper screens
• A ribbon-style toolbar with standardized menus and operations
• An exclusive Feedback Quotient® report that ranks the quality and quantity of your feedback
• New reports that help identify your firm’s strengths and potential areas for improvement

Version 3 will also allow you to:

• View feedback on a mobile device
• Send reports as PDF files via email
• Build, save and send batch reports
• Save and recall your favorite reports and settings
• Schedule reports for recurring delivery to your email– or some else’s!
  

This upgrade should be virtually seamless and we will keep you posted as the Version 3 release approaches. The transition will not require any software changes on your part as the Client Feedback Tool is a web-based service. For your convenience, we will provide tips and training here on our blog site, in emails, and via web-based training sessions. Please let us know if you need help or want to schedule additional training for your team.

Please contact us if you have questions:
866-433-7322
919-573-1730
(M-F 9am – 6pm EST)

Or email answers@designfacilitator.com.

The results are in…. You need feedback!

How often do you meet your clients’ expectations?  Or perhaps more importantly, how often to you fall short of their expectations?

DesignFacilitator has been helping subscribers exceed their clients’ expectations since 2004.  Even so, a recent strategic partnership with PSMJ Resources, Inc. has provided an entirely new look at how firms measure up to clients’ expectations.

Typically, a DesignFacilitator subscriber uses the Client Feedback Tool on an ongoing basis, regularly requesting feedback from his firm’s clients.  These subscribers belong to firms whose philosophies include a commitment to collecting feedback; and they use the Client Feedback Tool to enhance their relationships and delivery of services.  In the last two years, looking across all data collected, these firms have received scores below “Met Expectations” only three percent of the time.  We see then, that engaging clients to find out what they really want from you allows firms to best meet their clients’ needs.  These firms ultimately keep more of their clients, and build the healthiest, most prosperous relationships.

Unfortunately, many of you have not yet realized the prosperity and satisfaction resulting from client feedback collection. DesignFacilitator has collaborated with PSMJ Resources to offer you a unique opportunity to gather client feedback. Simply participate in PSMJ’s Premier Award for Client Satisfaction Award, and you can send a one-time feedback survey to as many as 40 clients. This simple, cost effective process can actually pay for itself— but more on that later.  The data collection period ends October 30, 2009. DesignFacilitator will then compile the data and PSMJ will present awards to those firms that have demonstrated the greatest success from their clients’ perspective.

Although the Premier Award participation period is still open, early results have already provided significant findings.  Notably, firms that have no history of regular feedback collection receive “Below Expectations” ratings over ten percent of the time! This is more than three times higher than firms who use feedback on a regular basis!

What this reveals is that most firms do not know what their clients need and expect. Moreover, the only way to correct that blind spot is to ASK for feedback as soon as possible – before your clients become someone else’s clients.   Additionally, collecting feedback does far more than just increase the health of your professional relationships and keep you aware of your clients’ expectations. It also reduces liability risk, staff turnover, and burned-out project managers.  In fact, DesignFacilitator has worked with professional liability insurers who determined that feedback collection is so important that they provide 10% premium credits to firms who consistently collect it. Often these savings alone more than pay for the cost of the Client Feedback Tool.

The quickest way to get client feedback is to sign up for PSMJ’s Premier Award right away.  Through the end of the year, firms that buy the $495 Premier Award package from PSMJ receive a full credit towards a one-year Client Feedback Tool subscription with DesignFacilitator.  With the combination of these two services, you will quickly understand where you stand with 40 of your most trusted clients and how your client satisfaction measures up to the profession overall. You will even be able to collect feedback for the next 12 months from all your clients, partners, consultants, vendors, and anyone else whose relationship you value.

Do not wait.  The numbers are in.  Ten percent of your clients may be considering taking their business elsewhere.  Can you afford to lose them?

Visit http://www.psmj.com/surveys/products.aspx?v=item&i=1443 or contact DesignFacilitator at 866-4-DES-FAC for more information.

A&E Business Journal Features Article on Client Feedback

The A&E Business Journal, published by the AE Management Association, featured an article on Client Feedback in their May 2009 issue entitled “Using Client Feedback to Address the Five Biggest Problems for Design Firms,” written by Mike Phillips AIA.  In the article Phillips discusses how to collect actionable data from your clients and how to use this information to reduce problems and liability, increase profitability, improve team performance, and enhance marketing effectiveness.  Here he discusses how collecting feedback in design firms can be especially challenging.

Design firms tend to solve unique problems in unique ways, which brings a focus on developing a deeper understanding of the specific details of our clients’ problems, preferences and priorities. Not only is this success criteria elaborate, but it is different for each project and often mutates multiple times during a single project due to shifts in budget, schedule and a client’s sense of desired quality. Design firms which utilize a system for tracking and responding to these changes waste less time and creates the maximum value to their client by being better aligned with their needs.

To read the entire article, subscribe to A&E Business Journal. The AE Management Association is offering a FREE 2009 AEMA Salary Survey with an AEMA membership of $125.00 for those who sign up by June 30, 2009.

Mike Phillips is President and Founder of Phillips Architecture and DesignFacilitator. His personal website can be found at AboutMikePhillips.com.

Mike Phillips Featured in the The Zweig Letter

Focusing on the benefits of client feedback, the May 18th, 2009 issue of The Zweig Letter profiled our Client Feedback Tool.  Under the heading “The Power of the Survey:”

Mike Phillips, president and founder of Phillips Architecture, PA (Raleigh, NC), a 30-person architecture firm, has developed an electronic survey to keep track of quality issues at all stages during a project.

The survey includes six process-oriented questions, such as “How well does our firm’s process assist you in managing your project schedule.”  The firm takes data compiled from the survey and presents it to clients, and answers are scaled relative to client expectations, Phillips says.

“We help solve our client’s problems with their projects,” he says.  “Our sense is that the downturn in the market affects our clients more than us, and is a tremendous opportunity to show them that we can help.”

To view the entire newsletter, please visit The Zweig Letter.

PSMJ’s Premier Award for Client Satisfaction

DesignFacilitator is pleased to announce a partnership with PSMJ for their Premier Award for Client Satisfaction!

PSMJ has partnered with DesignFacilitator, creators of the only feedback tool designed specifically for the architecture and engineering community, to operate feedback collection for PSMJ’s Premier Award for Client Satisfaction.  The program uses feedback from design firms’ clients to identify some of the best A/E/C firms across the nation.  You can enroll to participate ($495) here.   For a limited time, participants can receive the entire cost of their entry fee back if they subscribe to our Client Feedback Tool.

Upon joining the program, PSMJ will send participants a link to the participation form at DesignFacilitator’s website.

Participants will enter their contact details and the names/emails of the clients they would like surveyed.

The DesignFacilitator team will contact participants with further details and instructions including guidance on how to introduce the survey to your clients, with strategies to maximize your return rate.

A week later, the survey will be sent using DesignFacilitator’s Client Feedback Tool.  Those who would like to receive a sample of the survey may request one by emailing PSMJ@designfacilitator.com.

The results will be collected over 30 days.  Within two weeks of completion, participants will receive a copy of the results, both a summary and detailed responses.   Participants’ results will only be collated and delivered to PSMJ for purpose of the award rankings, and will not be published in any way to anyone else.

When the results from all participants are in and the program is over, awards will be determined based on the quantity and quality of feedback received, using DesignFacilitator’s “Feedback Quotient” formula.  The 2009 award winners will be announced in February 2010 and featured at PSMJ’s Circle of Excellence Conference in March 2010.

All participants will also be entitled to a $495 discount on subscriptions to DesignFacilitator’s Client Feedback Tool purchased within 60 days of program completion.  For more details contact us at 866-4-DES-FAC or answers@designfacilitator.com.

Will Your Firm be Ready?

We all know that good news regarding the business economy has been scarce in the past couple years. Architecture firms have certainly not been spared the downward spiral. In January of this year, the AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) dropped to the lowest level in history. The good news is that a few rays of sunshine may finally be breaking through the gloom. Regardless whether you are trying to survive the storm of a recession or be the front-runner in an economic rebound, to be successful you must know to what degree your clients value your services.

AIArchitect Architectural Billings Index

According to the April 24, 2009 AIArchitect, although generally weak conditions still prevail at many architecture firms (particularly in the West); fewer firms are reporting declining billings in the last several months. In March, the  AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) rose to its highest level since August 2008.  Growth in inquiries is reportedly the highest in a year.

When the economy in general and the construction industry in particular rebounds and growth returns, will your clients come to you for the services they need? Just as your firm’s survival depends on client loyalty in the worst of economic times, your firm’s growth depends on it during economic recovery. In both cases, your staff must strive to meet client needs to ensure client satisfaction and loyalty. First, they must be aware of the clients’ needs. Then, they must respond to those needs. Lastly and most importantly, the architect or designer must know to what degree the client felt his needs were satisfied. They must ask, act and react.

Now, if there was just a tool that could help do all this…  DesignFacilitator’s Feedback Tool was specifically designed to help architects and designers become aware of not only their clients’ needs, but their satisfaction with the designers’ actions in fulfilling those needs. The tool helps you to continuously collect feedback, analyzes it and presents the results in simple understandable reports. See how this simple yet powerful web tool works here.

Source: http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0424/0424b_otb.cfm

Mike Phillips to present webinar with Axium on April 9th