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Clarity and Promptness. Two steps for a satisfied you and them.

Finishing works the right way.

Usually, it takes me about 5 ‘of courses’ into a client meeting to figure out that a project is going in the wrong direction. Trust me when I say that only so few have changed over the years. Thankfully, with a lot of missteps comes a healthy learning curve and only a few of them have helped me maintain great client relationships than Clarity in action and Promptness. Let me tell you how.

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I have dabbled through a lot of jobs in the past that may have required manual labor, skill, writing, manual labor with skill in writing, and so on. And each time I failed, the resulting void showed me the points I excelled in and the ones I clearly lacked or hated to pursue.

It’s through trial and error from these often failed attempts that I came across the relevance of these two unavoidables. No matter how talented you are or eloquent you sound, agreeing for the wrong task with confusion in the air is a sure sign of a blow-up in the making. Although not perfect, here’s how I try to remain clear, prompt, and sane in my projects.

Clarity

The clarity in doing business is always a tricky task as sometimes our expertise or years of service fools us into giving false promises and overlook simple but obvious important questions. Perhaps you may deem it unimportant to ask because of implied meanings, or wouldn’t like to look like you don’t know the job, should you ask seemingly silly questions.

This should also mean that you must, at all costs, refrain from asking questions just for the sake of it. If you are not sure what to prepare for in a meeting, here are a few flags you could use during client calls:

1. Ask how relevant/urgent the project is for them
2. What are the bare minimums that the project must provide
3. What are the steps that you are going to follow
4. Tentative end dates, based on drawn-out timelines is most preferable
5. Ask about the complete list of deliverables
6. The complete details of a project, even trivia if you need it
7. Intended audience, language, reach, existing patterns if any

What I do at the end of every meeting is to get a recording of it and make a list of salient points that I can’t afford to miss on the final output.

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Start first by asking the basic details such as the deliverables, deadlines, and the level of effort required for each work. Although your clients might ask for top-class work all the time, continue asking a bit more and you’ll find out where the bar is set for the project to be delivered.

As a rule, NEVER fix any deadlines at the beginning of a meeting and work your way back. Chances are, you may have to cramp up tasks just to make up for the time. Deadlines can only be defined after you get a clear idea of the time taken for all the sub-tasks and recovery time as needed, just to stay clear of any delays that you may encounter while working.

Accepting deadlines set by clients can only be accepted if the quality requirements are fairly low and the stress you take is low on them as well.

1. Never assume any details and do not take any task for granted. Often the ones you overlook might come to bite you in the bum if you don’t give enough thought to it. It could also make you look bad to your clients. So hell no to that.
2. It is always beneficial to create a shared task list with your client to let her/him know of the progress and efforts involved in accomplishing your tasks. Don’t bother if you are a last-minute person — just let them know the number of tasks and get on with it.

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Regardless of the weight or repute, projects you undertake should always be a bit above what you can easily achieve but not so hard that you stress so heavily on them. This can be achieved by breaking the project into clear steps and fixing your deadlines accordingly.

Having a rough idea of the tasks and subtasks will help you with this. So next time you work, try making a mental note of the time spent on each sub-task so that you could capitalize more on productivity than on slogging. This would also make your deadlines more credible and worth convincing for your clients.

1. It is quite important to fix the end result of a project and ask doubts that relate to the tasks which could help achieve them. Do not get carried away here as we could easily end up accepting more than what is required. This overwork actually decreases your productivity and obviously increases your work time, something that’s not advisable for any job.
2. Dependencies from the client should also be held accountable as there is only so much energy you can put into a project without client involvement. Reviews, additional dates, and confirming the project’s direction is a key aspect of any successful project.
3. Break ceremony in team meetings and brainstorming. You are in there to get all of your requirements checked, so never hold your tongue when you have something to ask. This phenomenon is often seen in team meetings where the effect of groupthink gets so hard to break that the meeting would see a lot of client talk and a lot more ‘sures’ and ‘oks’.

Promptness

My mentor used to tell me this, “ I would like to have people around me who’d show the audacity to pick up their phones when they know they are behind their work.”

It still rings true to me as I have faced several of them, some very recently where it became so difficult to answer clients for pending work or any other missed deadlines. Though it is true that there could be inconsistencies in work, keeping your clients in the dark is a sure shot for mess-ups.

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When you’ve chosen to be responsible for works or projects for your clients, start thinking of yourself like a one-man business and make every effort to turn and maintain your calls and emails like a business. Keeping in mind a few simple but foolproof steps here will go a long way in client retention and happy work life.

1. NEVER ever try to cut incoming calls from your clients if you are not already in some other task. Don’t forget that they care for the work more than you.
2. Update call/mail timings to keep constant connectivity. This might not be possible for all works, but at least try to get them up to speed once in a while.
3. Continue asking questions, but this time, be scarce and precise on what you need to know. Spamming clients between tasks is never a good way to do business anyway.
4. Fixing the next call during a meeting is always welcome as it creates more vigor on the project rather than fixing a repetitive date.
5. Mistakes can happen at any stage of a project and you may need a change of direction from your client. Never hesitate to call them up and ask for additional info to get things straight. Chances are, they would be more than happy to help. Keep the conversation going to ensure what you are doing is helping your client and their projects.

There are way more things to learn in the process, but please keep these in mind as they will help you be on the clear whenever you are working with clients on a deadline. I have messed up my fair share over silly mistakes, and hope you don’t make the same.

Note: Be wary that not everything that’s been said here might be relevant to you, as clients and projects are pretty much like snowflakes: handle each with the decency and care they ask for.

Hope it helped.