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Uncovering Client Expectations
How “Service Benchmarking” Enables Superior Service Delivery

Want to deliver great service to your clients? First, you must understand specifically what they expect. With every transaction you have with your clients, there is a set of hidden expectations that will shape their service experience. Unless you know what those expectations are, your efforts to provide exceptional service will be hit-and-miss at best. This article describes a process for uncovering those critical expectations.

The Benchmarking Process

Service benchmarking involves working with the client at the outset of a project to specifically define the client’s preferences and priorities relative to the working relationship. This dialogue addresses the crucial client-consultant interactions that ultimately determine the strength of the relationship. Particular areas of interest in the benchmarking process include:

u Communications. What constitutes good communication during the project? Who are the key points of contact in both organizations? How many meetings are expected? Who is responsible for facilitating these meetings?

u Decisions and involvement. What kinds of decisions does the client want to be involved in? At what specific points in the project is client approval needed? Does the client want to participate in any internal project team meetings? At what stages does the client want to review draft work products?

u Information and data. What information does the client want you to routinely report to them? What information will the client provide? What specific records should your firm maintain for the client’s purposes and in what form? What are the best electronic means for sharing information and data?

u Deliverable standards. Does the client have specific deliverable standards? Are there any special document control requirements? How many copies are needed and to whom should they be sent?

u Invoicing and payment. When should invoices be delivered to the client to ensure timely payment? What attachments or backup information does the client require? Are there any special payment methods that might be beneficial to both parties?

u Changes. Does the client prefer a specific change management process? What is the basis for estimating extra costs? Whose approval is needed and how long should this take? How does the client want you to respond should a mistake occur?

u Performance feedback. Is the client willing to provide honest feed-back on your firm’s performance? What is the best timing and process for soliciting this feedback?

These are just a few of the questions you might ask the client in determining service expectations. Be sure to write down the client’s responses and share them with the client to confirm mutual understanding. You might develop a questionnaire for this purpose (or download the "Client Service Planner"), and after filling it in, forward it to the client to confirm that you accurately captured his or her comments. This establishes the “benchmark” by which service performance during the project can be managed and measured.

Guidelines for Effective Service Benchmarking

Because the strength of your client service process depends on how well you understand client expectations, you should give appropriate attention to the benchmarking activity. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

u Talk to every key client contact who will experience our service. Client perceptions of your performance are rarely limited to a single person. Yet it is not uncommon for us to talk about client preferences only with the primary point of contact (e.g., the client PM). Instead, attempt to meet with all key client contacts with whom you will interact and who might have a say in whether you continue to work with the client.

u Determine how many benchmarking meetings are appropriate. There are advantages to meeting with multiple client contacts in a single benchmarking session. Besides the efficiency of getting feedback from different individuals in one sitting, the combined session enables them to better understand each other’s expectations, and to reach a consensus where necessary. But some client contacts (e.g., senior management or accounting) might be better engaged in a separate meeting.

u Take time to plan for the meeting. Having a standard questionnaire provides a general outline for the benchmarking session. But you should review the questions in advance to determine which are appropriate to ask and what additional or modified questions should be added. Different client contacts will undoubtedly warrant different questions.

u Expect to spend as much as two hours in the benchmarking session. This is a reasonable amount of time to do a thorough job. A meeting with multiple client contacts could take even longer, while you will take less time with a familiar client or where some information had already been disclosed (e.g., during the sales process).

u Consider collecting the information in multiple conversations. Some clients will balk at spending two hours—or any amount of time—to formally benchmark expectations. But don’t abandon the process too quickly! You can collect the information in multiple meetings and phone conversations—even without the client being aware that you are doing “benchmarking.”

u Be sure to allow the client to bring up issues you may not have anticipated. One disadvantage of a standard questionnaire is that it could lead you to be too focused, perhaps bypassing issues of importance to the client. Instead, keep the conversation loose enough to allow the client to venture into issues that might not be addressed in your questionnaire. In fact, ask: “Is there anything else we haven’t discussed that you want to talk about?”

When to Perform Service Benchmarking

It’s natural to think of applying this process only to new projects or new clients. But it can be entirely appropriate to employ it later in the project or with current clients. Since great service is primarily about meeting and exceeding client expectations, better understanding those expectations is worth pursuing at any stage of the project or relationship.

u Begin uncovering client expectations during the sales process. This enables you to better address client service issues in your proposal or presentation, and shortens the benchmarking step after contract award.

u Initiate the formal process shortly after contract award. The insights gained from service benchmarking should be integrated with other elements of project planning.

u Revisit the process at key project transition points. Client expectations are likely to change to some degree over the course of the project. You will be wise to check periodically to confirm that the initial service plan is still appropriate.

u Fill in benchmarking gaps at any stage of the project. If the project is already underway, a full-blown benchmarking session is probably tough to sell to your client. But you should still attempt to fill in gaps in your understanding of client expectations. Be careful not to assume too much. Check to make sure that what you think you know is indeed accurate.

u Employ the process when there are service problems. If you didn’t do benchmarking at the start, you should at least use elements of it as part of your response service issues later in the project.

Of course, service benchmarking is only the start of an effective client service process. In subsequent articles, we’ll consider the important steps that follow.

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