Today I want to go on just a little bit of a rant. Lately, there have been some really frustrating situations that have been happening for my clients and I am feeling frustrated for them. As someone that helps them through these situations, I will often say, I don’t get it.
I want this message to reach the right person. Maybe that’s you, or maybe it’s not – but either way, I hope you read this and take it to heart. The level of service from some service providers and contractors across the board is concerning. It’s hard to understand how the level of service can be so bad. I’m going to cover a few things here, and let me be clear: if you do these things, you are the problem.
The importance of effective communication
It is unbelievable to me the amount of communication issues that I have seen over the past five or six years. And recently, it’s been getting worse. Listen, you need to communicate like an adult and communicate like a responsible business owner. It shouldn’t take days to get responses from people that are working for you. If you’re working for somebody else, it should not take you days to respond. Depending on the contract, the scope of work and communication that has been agreed upon, it should never take more than 24 to 48 hours to respond.. If it’s over 24 hours, that is borderline unacceptable.
If you are in any sort of role where you are closely working with a business owner,and a question is being asked, or if feedback is needed, it is your job to respond in an appropriate time frame. Communication is so vital.
Setting clear expectations for deliverables
When you get off of a discovery call and your next step is to create a custom proposal for that person or to send them pricing, why are you waiting more than 24 hours? Understand this clearly – that is hurting you. People move fast. People are impatient and you can do what you want, but understand that if you give too much of a gap in between the excitement of the discovery call and when you send the proposal, that’s going to hurt your chances of landing that client. It’s going to create some anxiety. It’s going to create some doubt. Once you’ve given a date on when you will deliver anything to your client, whether that’s a proposal or a deliverable then you must hit that deadline.
Meeting deadlines and communication delays
If the person that is paying you sets a deadline that is agreed upon, you need to hit those deadlines. And if you cannot hit those deadlines, if something happens, you need to let them know. Most people are pretty reasonable. But if I had to find out that she didn’t hit the deadline and I had to follow up with her about not hitting the deadline, that breaks trust and creates a lot of friction that doesn’t need to be there.
Take responsibility
If you are a business owner offering services to another person or business owner, you need to take responsibility for what comes with that. Basic communication and hitting deadlines is a pretty simple part of that. If you can’t do that, and you consistently don’t do that, people will not resign with you. People will fire you, and they certainly won’t refer others to you. You might be able to get clients, but trust me – you won’t keep them.
Getting organized and managing time effectively
There’s no time like the present to turn it around. Chances are, that if this is happening to you, you are unorganized. You’re not a great time manager and things are probably chaotic in your business, and in your life. But that is fixable. There are solutions there. You need to get organized. You also can’t bite off more than you can chew. Manage expectations clearly. If you constantly struggle to meet deadlines, then conversations need to be had. You need to talk to whoever it is that you are failing and make adjustments.
Stay in contact with your clients, even if you don’t necessarily need to speak with them because you’re working on a project behind the scenes. Still check in with them. Take some time to look at your deadlines. Look at what you have on your plate. I promise you, your business is going to be better off for it. And if you want some help with this, reach out to me.
