Name: Janelle Brittain
Title: Chief executive
Company: Dynamic Solutions Group
Type of company: Management consultants
Founded: 1989
Employees: 35
After working for other companies for 20 years, I saw a consistent need to have a fresh perspective on how to make more sales, be more efficient and build stronger teams. Companies become stagnant in their own comfortable ways of doing things. But to advance sales or increase profit, they need some new approaches.
So 12 years ago, I started my own firm to address this issue. I began by delivering speeches, running training programs and writing business books.
It didn’t take long to learn one of my biggest lessons: Clients can’t read our minds.
As obvious as that may sound, it is a lesson I learned the hard way. I learned that keeping the client informed each step of the way, prevents all kinds of problems later on.
For example, we knew we were doing a great job for this one client, and that we were on track with the time schedule. We were seeing exciting results and looking forward to presenting the final report at the end of the monthlong project.
Then I got a call from the manager who had brought us in. “You aren’t doing anything,” he said. “The deadline is a week from now, and you haven’t even begun. Do I need to get another firm in here to do the job?”
After recovering from the shock, I explained that we were indeed almost done, and that the results were looking good. It took awhile for me to convince him that we really were on top of the situation.
Because we were doing a large part of the work offsite and with his staff at a different location, he had no way of knowing the status of the job without us telling him. We assumed that because we said the project would be done on time and be focused on results, he’d know we’d keep our word.
It was a lesson well-learned. Now, we have created a complete system focused on keeping the client informed. At the end of every day when a consultant is on-site (or at the end of each week, in the case of offsite work), the client is presented with a project progress report.
The consultant discusses what’s been accomplished, shows the client the written status report and gives the client the opportunity to approve the work or raise concerns. This practice also has enabled us to clear up any misunderstandings early, before they become problems.
To underscore our intentions, we include a section in our client agreement describing our commitment to keeping the client in the information loop and in the control seat.
Keeping the client informed throughout each project has helped to build trust and a better working relationship with our clients, thereby preventing any surprises on either side.
