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Customer Excellence Through Effective Communication

Even before attending the EVS Business Council, participants prepared for the customer excellence workshop by providing us with their biggest challenges in running their businesses today:

  1. Growing my business
  2. Expansion: Obtaining new funding
  3. Future markets: Am I selling what the market wants?
  4. People: Employee motivation and communication; staff development
  5. Insurance/Risk Management: Minimizing risk while providing cost-effective professional services
  6. Competition, Cost and Client Retention

Ann M. Tomalavage, P.E., PMP, President of Malarkey Consulting, Inc facilitated the workshop.

Focus

To begin, Ann presented the findings she compiled in response to the question, "It would be most helpful if the workshop focused on…" The responses were:

77%: Building my business/getting new clients
37%: Keeping my projects on time and within budget
73%: Making my projects, and therefore my business, more profitable
76%: Developing a repeatable project risk management process that all my employees can understand and follow
47%: Keeping the clients I have

Using small group discussions, the workshop was a forum for sharing ideas and learning from peers. Among the discoveries were.

What attendees’ organization’s did well as far as integrating with customers:

  • Partnering with the client
  • Understanding the client’s business
  • Getting to know clients personally
  • No changes in work orders
  • Finding out pitfalls early on
  • Working with clients early on to understand their needs
  • Looking long term for the best interests of clients
  • Responsiveness to customer needs
  • Maintaining customer relations
  • Turnkey services – either providing or coordinating
  • Treating the clients money as if it were their own
  • Finding the need behind the client’s need
  • Understanding the political scene in the client’s business
  • Seamless services
  • Developing multiple clients – both ways – going out horizontally, having many contacts within the client’s organization and the client with their firm
  • Getting feedback when work is fresh in the client’s mind
  • Delivering services that meet and exceed customer expectations
  • Developing "out of the box" solutions
  • Offering solutions instead of simply selling services
  • Reducing costs
  • Offering outsourcing assistance

Things That Aren’t Done Well

Attendees also took time to discuss the things they weren’t doing well and the areas they needed to improve. They were able to not only uncover problems, but also to come up with solutions:

PROBLEM
SOLUTION
  • Training
Develop policies and use them efficiently. Let employees know that if they have a better way, you’ll listen.
  • Supplying employees with enough information and data
Improve listening and communication skills.
  • Documentation
Resist cutting corners on documentation; correspond with clients and lay the groundwork from the beginning
  • Marketing when busy
Time management – Set aside an hour a day to talk with clients; involve senior managers; get involved with trade organizations; work among peers to see where business is going; network; realize the importance of maintaining current clients
  • Following up with clients after job completion
QA/QC – Get feedback along the way; let the client know the invoice is on the way; use comment cards; do QA/QC on projects.
  • Overextending employees
 Keep them satisfied by providing employee incentives for ideas; communicating them. Be more selective on choosing jobs so you are not overburdening employees.

Ah Ha!

Workshop participants were relieved to discover that their peers face similar problems. They agreed that setting time aside for thought and discussion, such as a formal workshop or training session, helps them to get a new perspective on their business, articulate problems and find solutions.

This workshop was facilitated by Ann M. Tomalavage, P.E., PMP, President, Malarkey Consulting, Inc. She has 25 years of professional experience and has been a practicing project manager for over 15 years. She holds BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. Ann is a registered professional engineer and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Ann works with organizations and individuals who are frustrated by overrun projects, missed deadlines and dissatisfied clients. Her specialty is helping technical personnel understand, embrace and apply project management principles.

 
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