At Clarkson Alliance we care about success, about exceeding our customers’ expectations and providing an excellent service that gives them confidence. We’ve studied workplace methodologies, worked with psychologists to better understand what makes people tick and invested in becoming better leaders, teammates and project managers. Studying the theory is great, and we’ve now spent years putting it into practice.
We’ve shared five tips to ensure you have happy customers – plus the real-life activities going on in the Clarkson Alliance office every day of the week to ensure we are delivering.
- Your customer’s priorities are your priorities
Help your customer to define their vision at the outset and then help them stick to it. Revisit and review the agreed outcomes vs the project’s position on a regular basis. On every project we use our rigorous Gateway Process which – aligned to RIBA stages – enables us to do just that. Providing confidence in this way is invaluable.
- Every project is unique
Every project is unique – a unique set of circumstances, risks, and probably people. What worked on one project might not work on the next – even if they have similarities.
We share learning across all our projects on our Company Improvement Register which is updated monthly. That way, we benefit from our experiences, whilst recognising the same solutions might not work twice. Whenever possible we ensure our customers contribute to and learn from our lessons learnt workshop.
- Communication is key
We meet with all our customers every six months to review our progress in relation to agreed project outcomes and identify opportunities for improvement. In 2019, we received an average customer satisfaction score of 85%.
- Never assume technical knowledge
We work with a wide range of customers: some are experienced in delivering capital developments for their organisations, while others will be working on a one-off project and may have a strong reliance on their project and cost managers. We tailor our communications on a project by project basis, once we understand their unique needs.
- Invest time building your team
We believe that people are at the heart of projects. A strong team, united around the customer’s vision, is key to delivering a successful project. We commit time to building our project teams and developing relationships at the outset, building a culture of disclosure, openness and clarity.
In our next blog post we will share our advice on building a high performing team – with more practical tips for putting the ideas into action.