Poetry in (Business) Motion

I recently ran across a quote by a poet that I have grown to love over the years, and was surprised to discover how applicable it is to everyday business. Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

While we might not all immediately connect feelings and business, when it comes to service providers, it really is all about the feelings. Does your client feel like you took good care of them? Do they feel like you are working in way help them reach their various goals?

For a client to feel good about us, it means we have shown them the respect and concern we show others that we care about. We listen. We ask questions to try to understand more. We respond quickly. We check in often to see how things are going and if there is an issue, we work hard to solve it.

We’re all imperfect human beings. Mistakes will be made. But if we take good care of a client they will remember the care, not the errors. This level of client care builds strong business relationships that last, which lead to referrals and more clients for years down the road.

Ask your clients for feedback on how they are feeling about the processes you are using. Find out their thoughts on your level of care, and be willing to make small (or big) changes in your process to make them feel more cared for.  You will find no better investment than investing thoughtfully and purposefully in your client relationships.

Feedback Tool – A Video Introduction for your Clients

Not sure how to tell your clients about the Client Feedback Tool, and what their role is?  Pass them this short video to quickly get them up to speed.

Feedback Intro for your Clients

Who Should Be Asking For Feedback?

One of the most common questions asked when we help organizations establish a feedback process is “Who should be asking for feedback?”  Somehow, the common perception has become that an independent third-party facilitator soliciting the feedback will produce “more honest” results.  Whether an outside consultant performs the surveys, or whether they all come “from the CEO” – this mindset is based on perceptions that differ from what we’ve actually observed within our Client Feedback Tool.

There are many components at play in the dynamics of feedback exchanges, and it’s important to understand what the ramifications are for your feedback process design.  We can categorize feedback into three general groups:

1. Peer Feedback – this feedback happens between peers working closely together.  Typically these will be members of the same team within an organization, however highly integrated project teams (IPD, etc) and very close/long-term clients may fall into this category.  Here, feedback is given from one person to another within the context of a safe,  environment.  Regardless of the feedback, these two people will continue to work together – either by choice or by force – and therefore any disruptions to the relationship are critical to address and fix.  You’re “stuck” with each other, so there’s a high incentive to optimize the work processes between you.
2. Self Collected Client Feedback – these relationships are a bit more distant than those with your peers, and yet the people actually doing the work with a client are the ones gathering their own feedback.   The client has invested time (and money) into the relationship, and may consider you to be “up to speed” with his processes, preferences, and needs.  He has great incentive to continue the relationship, but can freely end it if the value proposition moves in the wrong direction.
3. 3rd Party Feedback – third party feedback almost always comes from “the boss” of the persons doing the work.  While this may mean a principal or executive, often times a hired consultant (hired by “the boss”) is engaged on their behalf to collect feedback.  Ultimately, the client perceives the interviewer to be in some way able to affect the destiny of the people being measured.

It’s important to understand these distinctions when designing a feedback process.  With this understanding, we can begin looking at the incentive and motivations for the person giving feedback, and from there, begin to understand where they will be “most honest.”

What we’ve found, over seven+ years of research, is that your clients generally like you (and/or your staff).  They value working with the people doing their work.  If they didn’t, you would have received their feedback by their departure as clients.  Since they have trained you/your staff to their ways, there is an investment that, if lost, would be costly to recover.  They are typically motivated to maintain continuity in the relationship.

Here’s where we turn common perceptions upside down.  Giving feedback to “the boss” doesn’t create more honesty.  Instead, since the clients like the people being reviewed, they tend to hide problems, gloss over problems, and heap praises for what’s good.  If they didn’t, then perhaps the boss might assign a different resource to them.  Even worse – the person they like might get in trouble, or at least in some way penalized, for doing less than a great job.  Not wanting to rock the boat, or get their “expert” in trouble (and maybe face retribution?) they provide moderate to positive scores, and rarely identify issues.

The closer the relationship, actually, the more low scores tend to be given.  When a project manager gets feedback directly from his client, the client now has real incentive to nit pick, identify little opportunities for improvement, and generally tweak the process to better meet his needs.  The client doesn’t fear getting anyone in trouble, and he knows that the right person will get the feedback, interpret it more correctly, and most importantly - take action on it.  Where this interaction tends to be challenged is when it’s forced into a face-to-face interaction.  Conflict resolution is an acquired skill, and many people are not very skilled at it.  Thus, in-person feedback exchanges tend to be lightweight and avoid raising issues.  When issues are raised, the person receiving the criticism must also then be skilled at responding well – not getting defensive or creating excuses.  Here’s where an electronic system for feedback exchange presents a key advantage – with just enough separation to allow comfortable criticism, the Client Feedback Tool enables discovery of even little nuances in project delivery.  With time to process the results before responding, you and your staff can craft an appropriate and measured response that is helpful, constructive, and designed to build better results for everyone.

Peer feedback takes this even further.  Being “stuck” with each other, both parties are equally incentivized to create a healthier, more productive working relationship.  When these people can share feedback openly and systematically, directly to each other, they build bridges upon which to base strong, lasting collaboration.

But don’t just take my word for it.  We have data to prove it!

Click to see larger view

This data comes from a consistent set of our Client Feedback Tool results.  Over nearly 1600 responses are broken into the three groups, from left to right:

1. Peer Feedback
2. Self Collected Client Feedback
3. 3rd Party Collected Client Feedback.

No wonder so many people like third party feedback – it produces the most positive results!  And yet, this shows clearly that self-collected feedback increases the usable, critical feedback by over 300%.  The top-of-the-chart feedback is also reduced, helping clarify exactly where real value opportunities have been created in a more focused manner.  Remember, the goal of feedback isn’t to get the best scores, but to find the best ways to actually get better.

The data shows an even more interesting trend – when electronic surveys are sent to a client by the person doing the work instead of by a third party, five times more free-form comments are added.  Again, the more personal relationship invites more candid, open, and strategic responses.  A score isn’t enough – the clients go one step further, investing more time in their reply, to really fine-tune the results and drive better performance.  Even when they give a high score, corrective actions will be referenced in the comments – so even those who are most fearful of criticizing find a way to have their voice heard.  Response rates are also higher with self-collected feedback versus third party (65% / 53% / 47%).

Which brings us back to where we started – what is the incentive for someone to reply to a feedback request?  Ultimately, their only motivation is to have you do a better job for them.  The more likely they feel the time spent providing feedback will actually help them, the more likely they are to provide honest, genuine, helpful information.  The best person to do that, is you – the person doing the work.

Feedback Action: Be in the Top 3%

Our research shows fewer than 15% of firms collect feedback regularly.  Forrester researchers indicate fewer than 20% of firms take any action on the feedback they collect.  These indicators suggest only 3% of firms have an effective process to both collect feedback and turn that feedback into action.

And yet, without action, collecting feedback is really a futile and useless activity.  Turning feedback into action requires a framework and a process to support an effective, simple, feedback collection/response mechanism.

Our Client Feedback Tool captures and automates the entire feedback process, and is customized for professional services organizations.  The latest release (v4.3) includes new, extended capabilities to confirm your feedback reactions were effective.

Feedback begins with the questions.  We’ve designed each to be focused, specific, and concise in order to collect clear metrics.  Survey designs must then collect an appropriate number of questions in a relevant manner, so that you only ask the right questions when needed – minimizing wasteful efforts.  Your clients don’t have time to waste, so answering questions that provide them no tangible benefit ultimately discourages their participation.

When someone responds to a feedback request, action can only happen if someone is alerted to the results.  Particularly for professional services firms, feedback works best in real-time.  Immediately after someone responds, our feedback process alerts everyone who needs the alert, based on what kind of scores were provided.  Don’t limit feedback to just the president or someone in marketing – action happens best when the people doing the work get the feedback.

Which brings us to the action.  The people taking care of the client – those actually doing the work – must know what the feedback is before they can take any action on it.  The Client Feedback Tool’s real-time alerts link your firm’s team members to the feedback they are responsible for.  Upon reviewing the results, each person can document, within the tool, what their follow-up actions have been or should be.  They may even respond to the client directly from the tool, tracking that response as part of the feedback record.   By responding to the client (in any manner) and logging the response (using the tool), we have demonstrated an 83% reduction in further client-identified problems.

Now, in the latest version of the Client Feedback Tool, you can take this process one step further, completing the feedback cycle.  Beneath each feedback response you can click one button which initiates another follow-up survey in the future.  By linking these two surveys, you can track your progress and confirm that the actions taken to respond to a client have indeed been successful at better meeting client expectations.

Demonstrating this simple, systematic feedback process to existing and prospective clients is a great differentiator in the marketplace, and builds trust that you listen, respond, and confirm your processes are the best they can be for each client.

Project Delivery – SHAZAM!

Shazam! An exclamation we’ve all heard – but most of us (myself included until today) probably don’t know the origin. In 1973 Marvel Comics created a character who, upon shouting this word, became Captain America. Shazam has many meanings, one of which is this:

 S   The wisdom of Solomon
 H   The strength of Hercules
 A   The stamina of Atlas
 Z   The power of Zeus
 A   The courage of Achilles
 M   The speed of Mercury

Now what does Shazam! have to do with project delivery?  Well, who wouldn’t want a little Shazam! in their projects?  Wisdom, strength, stamina, power, courage, and speed – what if we could purposefully and systematically introduce a little of these on every project we touched?

Don’t go into your next project scheduling meeting and shout Shazam! while wearing a cape (though if you do, please let me know how it goes).  Instead, learn what some thought leaders in the A/E/C industry have been doing to bring about real, meaningful, and valuable change to entrenched project delivery methods – with results that have Shazam! impacts for everyone involved.

In 2003 DesignFacilitator grew out of a small A/I firm looking for ways to do things better.  We developed a body of knowledge using client feedback to help project delivery firms continuously improve.  As we encountered more and more organizations who were looking for ways to do things better, with better results, and with better value for both clients and themselves, we began to find other thought leaders doing different, but equally amazing things.

One group leading the charge with a big dose of Shazam! is the Lean Construction Institute.  Don’t let the name fool you – they spend as much focus on the design and engineering processes as they do construction.   The lean movement takes the many lessons learned in manufacturing (as pioneered by Toyota) and other industries, and applies them to every day projects.  This amazingly innovative and yet necessarily practical group of people continue to discuss, promote, and operate design and construction processes that cut costs and schedule by huge margins, while increasing product quality and consistency.  And they do all this with a keen focus on maximizing value to the clients.

For the last year, DesignFacilitator has sponsored LCI and been actively involved in both their national Congress and many regional events.  If you are not yet aware of Lean Construction, or the ideas behind Continuous Improvement – I invite you to join us October 3-7th in Pasadena, CA at the 2011 LCI National Congress.   An introductory day outlines the key concepts of Lean, followed by two days of real-world case studies from architects, engineers,  contractors, and owners; followed by a fourth day of specialized break-out sessions.

DesignFacilitator and LCI co-sponsor Newforma will be hosting a 3-hour breakout session on Friday, October 7th to discuss real-world software tools that are helping firms around the world bring a little Shazam! to their projects.  You’ll hear from actual users and be able to participate in brainstorming sessions to help define a “state of the industry” approach for innovative project delivery.  We will demonstrate our Client Feedback Tool and how the process of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) helps everyone in your organization constantly adjust to meet client expectations.  Newforma will demonstrate their Project Center and highlight the value opportunities found in Project Information Management (PIM).

If you are able to join us, please register here - admission is free to Congress attendees (register separately for the Congress here).

Those who can’t make the trip can’t afford to miss this required reading, and learn how a little Shazam! can change your project delivery for the better.

• Client Feedback – The Power of Feedback
• Lean Construction Institute – A list of recommended introductory readings
• Newforma - PIM introduction

Koontz-Bryant, PC – Client Feedback Journal, Part 3

Join us as we follow Koontz-Bryant, P.C. as they begin using client feedback to improve their business, culture, and overall prosperity.  In the third installment, Martha Shotwell, Controller, describes the process of sending their first surveys, getting staff buy-in and how they put their first feedback responses to work.  Read Journal Entry 1 and Journal Entry 2.

Part 3

At our last report to you, Koontz-Bryant had gone through the system setup with our implementation consultant, and we had conducted a Lunch and Learn training session with staff. We were just beginning to send surveys to clients, but did not yet have results to share.

To jump-start our efforts with the Client Feedback Tool, Koontz-Bryant’s president, Greg Koontz, sent general satisfaction surveys to several dozen clients. These surveys were not tied to particular projects, but instead were designed to gauge clients’ overall impression of our company. To speed the process along, Greg used the Client Feedback Tool’s import feature to bring in contact and company information from Outlook. We were pleased with the results. His response rate was 42%, and feedback was very positive. 

Of particular interest were the free-form comments people made. Where they mentioned a particular employee by name, we were quick to pass those compliments along. This gave us an opportunity to express appreciation to the employee, and to reinforce the idea that the surveys were a good thing. One of the comments related to the survey itself. Our client said, “I appreciate your use of the scale. It is a device I have not previously seen.” 

One of the survey recipients was an institutional client for whom we have done many projects. Though we knew our relationship was a good one, this client gave us the highest mark on every measure, and added, “I will take a consultant like Koontz-Bryant any day and twice on Sundays.” This high praise spurred us to build a marketing piece about this institution and our work together, and we included a glowing client testimonial. 

Getting individual project managers to send their surveys still seemed slow. As the “Firm Administrator,” I met with the practice leaders to identity barriers to cooperation. There seemed to be a bit of “decision paralysis” when it came to selecting the survey to use.  The Client Feedback Tool has 96 survey templates, and we had inactivated about two thirds of them. However, there were still too many to choose from.  We agreed that I would identify a few survey templates for general use. 

Most of our project managers have begun to send surveys. However, we were stumped as to how to overcome the problem of a few people not getting on board. We talked with Mike Phillips at Design Facilitator about this. His emphatic advice was to go ahead and send surveys on their behalf.  Regardless of whether the PMs “should” do these themselves, he reasoned, the important thing is to get the feedback, and not create a lot of organizational stress about it. When I offered to send surveys on behalf of a particular group leader, he was enthusiastic. We sat down with a billing register and he chose a batch of clients to survey. If PM participation lags, this is a technique we will use with other groups.

Though some of internal company surveys have shown us where we had opportunity for improvement, all of our client responses have been 4 (meets expectation) and above.  At first blush this looks like wonderful news, but we do have some concern that we have “cherry-picked” the recipients.  A low score, properly addressed, can be an opportunity to forge a strong bond with a client. As our PMs become more comfortable with the process, we will encourage them to send surveys encompassing the most difficult relationships, as well.

In our next update, we’ll share our experience with an onsite consultation visit by the DesignFacilitator staff.

Koontz-Bryant, PC – Client Feedback Journal, Part 2

Join us as we follow Koontz-Bryant, P.C. as they begin using client feedback to improve their business, culture, and overall prosperity.  In the second installment, Martha Shotwell, Controller, describes developing their feedback plan, training their staff and how they got started collecting client feedback.  Read Part 1.

Part 2

When Koontz-Bryant, P.C. decided to embark upon a program to collect regular client feedback, we had some questions about getting started.  We knew that with the Client Feedback Tool we could jump in with already-written surveys, and that compilation of results was part of the program. But how would we get buy-in from staff? What was the best way to train? How would we introduce the surveys to our clients? As Mary Poppins tells her young charges, “Well begun is half done.” We felt that our success with the feedback program depended on a good roll-out.

One of the things we liked about the Client Feedback Tool was the implementation assistance that came along with it. As a starting point, DesignFacilitator presented an outline of implementation steps that included consultation, software setup, training, and review. A pre-consultation questionnaire got us thinking about details such as our goals for feedback collection; who would be in charge of implementation; who would request feedback, and how often; who would review results and how results would be used.  With Ryan, our DesignFacilitator consultant, we scheduled some webinar meeting dates and got to work.

Two of us at Koontz-Bryant were charged with implementation. Our Controller would be the Firm Administrator and responsible for setup, and our COO would determine when surveys should go out, encourage staff participation, and assure appropriate follow-up. In our initial online consultation, Ryan talked with us about our company and staff structure, and our thoughts based on the pre-consultation questions. He helped us think through the feedback work flow, and shared some examples of what had worked with other firms. Ryan gave us a bit of homework and challenged us to come up with an assignment for the staff who would be using the Client Feedback Tool.

A week later, the real fun began. Our account went live and through an online meeting Ryan stepped us through the setup. He had already inserted our logo, and we selected colors for our firm branding settings. He showed us how to set up firm members and teams. Preference settings allowed us to determine default settings for notifications (what range of low/high scores should trigger an email alert?) and message defaults (messages sent to clients with the surveys). We learned how to use filters to narrow down the 96 pre-defined survey templates, and how to set up clients and projects. Over the next week, we completed setup of firm members and deactivated some of the survey templates.

Our next step was to train the staff. We scheduled a two-hour lunch and learn webinar for all office personnel. Koontz-Bryant management had been impressed with DesignFacilitator’s “Power of Feedback” presentation, so we asked Ryan to present a fair amount of that background material. He then walked staff through the program, guiding them through the steps of requesting feedback, reviewing results, and managing their personal preferences. An open discussion at the end allowed staff to ask questions. At the end of the session, we asked staff to send a survey to someone – client or internal. A few of the staff jumped right in and sent surveys to their coworkers, and a couple of people sent them to clients. However, some employees did not respond. 

A few days after the training, we sent a survey to everyone who attended the lunch and learn, using a training template that was already pre-established in the Client Feedback Tool. Everyone had an opportunity to see the process from the client’s perspective. More important, we gathered valuable feedback about our training process. We learned that overall our training met or exceeded expectations, the food was great, and our consultant got high marks for responsiveness and quality of presentation. We also learned that:

• the staff was less interested in the “why” of collecting feedback than in the “how”;
• two hours was a bit too long, even though the first half-hour was lunch; by the time we got to the “how” people were mentally tired;
• most people could not see the details of the software projected on the screen.

For anyone going through the process, our recommendation is to focus more on the “how”, and to find a way to set people up at multiple computers so they can see the screens.

The Client Feedback Tool has a section for tracking followup. We followed up with each person who rated an area low, and recorded this activity in the software.

A few weeks after the training meeting, our president, Greg, met with project managers to establish specific points in a project’s life cycle at which a survey should be sent. To increase our momentum, he also sent initial surveys to a batch of top clients.  Results are starting to come in.

In our next update, we look forward to sharing results with you.

How’s Your Kaizen? – Continuous Improvement Using Feedback

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning “change for the better.”  Any LEAN organization, at one point or another, will run across this idea.  Wikipedia summarizes nicely:

Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work, and teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot,  eliminating waste in business processes.  In all, the process suggests a humanized approach to workers and to increasing productivity: “The idea is to nurture the company’s human resources as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities.” Successful implementation requires “the participation of workers in the improvement.” People at all levels of an organization participate in kaizen, from the CEO down to janitorial staff, as well as external stakeholders when applicable.

Note the incredible focus on everyone in the organization, in a very human way, seeking means to improve.  Just as important, Kaizen requires a systematic approach to test and measure efforts.  Without a methodical system to monitor results, changes are often a shot in the dark, and real lasting change difficult to obtain.

Service businesses (architects, engineers, lawyers, etc) face even greater challenges realizing incremental improvements.  The very nature of a professional service is a customized, solution-oriented approach to each unique project and client.  Kaizen comes from manufacturing, where practitioners performed the same function repeatedly.  In an assembly line one can easily measure widgets per hour, consistency of widget quality, and cost per widget – each of which monitors how changes to employee efforts affect production output.

Services are rarely so easily repeatable.  In fact, the only thing “standard” about a “standard” project is that no project ever matches the standard process.  And yet, while services firms may earnestly measure billings, schedule delivery, and quality of deliverables, they very rarely objectively measure the real delivery – client satisfaction.

Professional services, by nature, means we are servants.  And while our “master” (the client) requests a product (technical drawing, constructed building, etc), what they really need is our help – our service.

To truly practice kaizen – and realize lasting continuous improvement in your professional services firm – you must measure how well your service delivery met the clients’ expectations.  Gathering feedback objectively, consistently, and continuously will give you the real-time data needed to always get better.  Employing a system that everyone (from the CEO to the janitor) can use allows everyone to get better.

DesignFacilitator’s Client Feedback Tool is the only tool built exclusively for this purpose in the professional services industry.  Contact us to learn how this powerful and easy to use tool can help your “kaizen.”    www.designfacilitator.com

Power of Client Feedback Webinar

The Power of Client Feedback Webinar is now available online for you to view anytime. If you would like to view it now, please click through here:

The Power of Feedback – Informational Webinar by Ryan Suydam

Client Feedback Tool Integration with Deltek Vision

Since many A/E/C firms depend upon Deltek Vision to manage their projects and financial information, the video below demonstrates very briefly how you can leverage your existing project management processes to automatically solicit client feedback.