Client relationships

If you're like me, you will have met, established and built many solid working relationships with clients over the years, and while some of them have seemed 'a piece of cake' others have required more time and effort before there was an easy flow of information. I was pondering this the other day when I was having trouble getting a client to repond to my requests for information.

I asked myself a few questions:
What was going on over at their offices?
Why was he ignoring my requests?
How could I break through this barrier?
What had I done, or not done, to contribute to the problem?

In hindsight I realized several things could be at play and as I had missed some important elements right at the start, it would be up to me to find a solution.

First, I examined what we had talked about at the kick off meeting. We had spoken of the project outcomes, the steps and process to get from where we were so we could reach our target goal. We discussed the people who would be involved, their role, the budget and the reports we would provide each month but we hadn't talked about our expectations of each other. We had not shared our preferred working style and how we liked to get our information Duh! How could I have missed this - clearly it was a crucial ingredient and the failure to discuss it was now showing up and could potentially delay our work.

I looked back at the times when we HAD connected and quickly realised this was a 'phone call preference person' while I was 'an email type'. In the time it took for me to recognize this, a call was placed and we were able to nail down some specifics. This is what he wanted.

He would like it if I would give him a brief phone call once a week to talk about the highlights and update him on progress followed by an email - for his records. He also told me that if I wanted to talk with him he was generally at his desk between 7:30 and 8:30 and again between 4:30 and 5:30.
In response, I told him to use my cell phone instead of the office number if he wanted to get hold of me and that if I was busy he could expect to hear back within 24 hours.
He said he would call if he had any concerns but otherwise I was to keep going on the basis that he was happy with the work as it was unfolding.
With a simple phone call all of our communication challenges were overcome and we went on to have a healthy and productive working relationship. So, next time you are meeting with a client, stop to ask yourself have we declared our communication preferences so that all parties are clear about what is expected. It's amazing how often we assume our communication style will be matched by our client - not necessarily so as I found out.