Dissatisfied Clients Can Improve Your Practice – Here’s how….

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It’s not easy to deal with an unsatisfied client. Typically, they require extra time, effort and expense. But what if you could harness their message to improve your practice? Here’s how….

Any practice lives on the continuum of experience and knowledge.

Whether you’ve just opened your doors or been in practice for decades, your studio is constantly evolving and growing in capability.

This evolution or growth capability is most evident in the early years, often called the learning curve.

Some scale the learning curve quickly while others move more slowly.

The difference? The fast scalers identify problems and quickly implement a system to stop them happening again.

The faster they do this, the faster they grow into a mature practice with less challenges.

So what’s the best way to identify problems?

Listen to your clients – they’ll be glad to tell you and even happy to refer your service when you fix their problem.

Client complaints are like gold because they guide you to the shortest path to having happy clients.

An architect or designer who listens and acts upon just five complaints will be light-years ahead of those who ignore feedback. They just have to implement systemic solutions that address client issues.

For example,

Client Feedback 1: “We requested some changes throughout the project that extended the timeline more than we’d like”

Your Systemic Response 1: Create an info pack for all clients that explains (amoungst other things) that changes during build will be time consuming and expensive. Give this pack to them well before build.

Client Feedback 2: “The builder was good but we didn’t feel we had a full view of project progress”

Your Systemic Response 2: Implement project management software that allows greater transparency OR engage only builders who use this type of system so clients are automatically kept up to speed online

Client Feedback 3: “The cost was greater than our original expectations”

Your Systemic Response 3: Manage client budget expectations by implementing ProCalc – free trial

Client Feedback 4: “Town Planning took way too long. We feel you should have pushed it through faster”

Your Systemic Response 4: Include likely town planning timeframes and processes in your client info pack

If you can master a mindset of harnessing complaints to improve your practice systems, you’re on the path to Nirvana. Also see Download a Post Project Review Meeting Template

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