New Wit and Wisdom

Statistics in 2008 show that contractors may be losing their edge in the race for client satisfaction. Many leading public and private clients are beginning to assume that projects will be on time, on budget, and completed with high quality. We are beginning to see amongst more sophisticated decision makers that the differentiators today are in the people skills of the firm and of the individual project manager. History has indicated that the advantage of newer construction software (with its better team communication) will be lost if the people skills are lacking or communication is after the fact.

Are you one of these companies? Real-time documented extensive feedback in a constructive and positive environment is one of the answers and one that is becoming an owner and leading edge AEC “best practices”. This would , in turn, mean that the client will need to be encouraged and pressured to give feedback preemptively and in real-time as a “best practice”. In order for this to happen, the feedback mechanism must be exceedingly user friendly, not intrusive and be web-based. Unfortunately, this also means taking project managers with excellent technical skills and making them open to constructive evaluation on a daily basis in order to achieve excellence in their people skills.

In order to accomplish this and to go from a very good company to an excellent one, it is time to focus on becoming more competitive in the measurement and improvement in the skills of communication, responsiveness, accessibility and likeability. How do you accomplish this without going backward first and still being able to deliver the “big three” of time, budget, and superb quality?

Frankly, it is now time to step forward and discover what the clients are REALLY thinking before traditional or CM firms capture the concept, and overcome the natural design-build communication lead.

Contractors need to reach for the real-time experience and emphasize the client’s real-time feedback in various ways:

1) Obtain irrefutable documentation of all past client opinions.

2) Receive actual feedback from the client regarding the performance of your firm, team members, and especially your project managers.

3) Establishment of a totally new, open and receptive relationship by empowering your clients to let you know when you may not be meeting THEIR expected standards of excellence.

4) Ask what specifically you must do to improve to achieve the highest scores. There is a clear need to establish well-documented performance, based on quantitative as well as qualitative measurements. The results will be a major marketing tool – actual irrefutable evidence that your firm is more committed to reaching excellence or has already achieved it.

Contractors can no longer wait on a quarterly basis and ask “How Am I Doing”? To receive feedback on a post project basis is to doom the company to mediocrity in the people skills. Remember in the future, it will not be enough to ask a quarterly or post project question, “How

am I doing”? Practically every design-builder or owner does that and it usually is too late. The owner’s is often reluctant to talk about it or, at least, until the next selection or referral request. Nor will it be acceptable that the PM is a little thin skinned, does not demand feedback, or feels that no news is good news. After all, it says your pursuit of excellence is only every few months and worse, it makes your documentation look second rate and after the fact.

In conclusion, the themes of today are real time feedback, documented excellence and an open user-friendly, positive environment where consistent feedback closes the door on all performance slippages. It is a means to meet new expectations, in a “best practice” and market-centered universe, where the results must meet what the client is coming to expect as a norm.

Everything in the design and construction industry is going to be automated in the future - like Emergency 911… But for the design and construction industry, 1011.

”Thank you for calling 1011. If there has been a violent project argument with blood between contractors dial 1. If your team member is late and missing more than a two hours, dial 2. If the owner is being an obstinate jerk and you want him removed, dial 3. If you have fallen more than 30 ft. and are totally immobilized, dial 4 and somebody will probably be with you within a short period of time.”

There must be more categories! I’m thinking…..

Facility Managers Laugh at Improvement of Services Question
RESEARCH
In a 2007 research study involving private sector facilities managers buying behavior nationally, we identified the fact that 58% of the clients interviewed could not specifically describe what architects and engineers could do to improve their services over the next 3-5 years.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Many respondents considered the question a joke - a humorous question packed with irony.
Is the stress of trying to maintain internal productivity so great that the thinking about the future is a joke and that their laughing at it was stress relief - a way of not dealing with what they considered an ironic laughable matter? Are vendors laughing behind their backs? Is information overload beyond the joke stage? Is there a fundamental desire and will on the part of engineers and architects? The answer is probably a little bit of all the above.

Overcoming Skepticism
Historically, there has been significant success in getting clients to respond to sincere questions on long-term needs. In order to “mega leap” skepticism and not be laughed at, consider the following:
1. Ask about specific ideas that give the client clear and quantitative benefits.
2. Be ready to demonstrate very specific improvements to the client that relates to the above benefits. Then, research the acceptability of this approach carefully and with statistical accuracy.
3. Lead clients to their potential future by:
• Education - making certain the client understands that you understand the specifics of what they want and you can deliver.
• Partnering - joining the client as a team member to ensure “buy-in” and achieve “mega-leaps.”
• Visioning - begin working closely with the contact to develop a long-term vision that is exciting, motivational and promises significant rewards.
Your thoughts?

My company did 4,000 - 6000 third party client satisfaction interviews per year for our clients -which was very dangerous. You see… almost weekly, I had to tell a client that one of their clients had “shish-kebabered” them. One client’s client said” that, “It was hard to believe that YOUR client had beaten out 1 million other sperm.”  I personally felt it was my duty to deliver the client’s clients  messages as softly as I could to avoid the effect-embolisms, coronaries.  After all… I had not been paid yet. Otherwise, you can imagine this scene: “Your client told us that you were the biggest poophead he has ever seen.” You owe me - $2500.”

OH! During this time my staff created the terms SPORE which stood for “SOOO p*ssed off retention eliminated”

My perspective is that it is good thing to do post -project interviews but a vastly better thing to have a real time AND quarterly formal feedback mechanism in place. Empowering your client and critical team members  with simple to use feedback systems is critical if your firm is going to claim excellent client and team success. Most other methods are fraught with risk and hot air. Roger Pickar