You know those people who can start a conversation with anyone, about anything, at any time? These people are effective communicators. For parties and social occasions, their conversation is lighthearted and fun. For business, it is serious and knowledgeable. People like this are able to evaluate their audience and situation. One skill that crosses all lines of business is communication. Being able to tailor your style is essential.

Chances are pretty good that one time or another you’ve heard the expression, “perception is reality”. Perhaps you heard it while you were watching television or playing a sport. What about the business world?

The truth is that many people in business make their decisions and strategic choices based on perception of value as opposed to utility – time, place, form etc. And while utility is important, it is this perceived value that makes a customer happy, orchestrates a seamless transaction or ensures a successful merger. The truth is, intrinsic value makes people feel good, and the better you are at providing it, the more successful you will be. 

You’ve followed protocol and you’ve executed a well designed and informative client satisfaction survey. Now what do you do with all the feedback?  Understanding what the client has to say about your performance is only the first phase in effectively using your survey results. To get the most from the information, create conversations with stakeholders, engage in knowledge transfer and identify and target lessons learned to guide future projects.

Clients, are forever being questioned on how well a particular service or product lived up to their expectations. And rightly so, because the satisfaction survey is one of the most important tools a provider has for self-reflection and making improvements or shaping behaviour. Whether it’s lessons learned, honing in on best practices or merely gaging how well a new methodology works, the survey is an invaluable tool. But how do you choose the questions to include in a satisfaction survey and how do you engage a client in disclosing information about the process?

The quality of your work is stellar. You’ve completed the project on time and under budget, yet the client does not think that you have exceeded expectations. Why?

Often, from the client’s perspective, perception is reality and value is subjective. For better or worse, what they perceive is all too often the standard by which they make value assessments.