How To Manage Client Expectations

In any given interaction with a client (or anyone for that matter) there are always 3 different viewpoints:

1) Expectation - what they expect will happen or should have happened.

2) Perception - what they perceive is happening or has happened.

3) Reality - what actually is happening or happened. 

Now as engineers, we get really stuck on the reality of things - what is actually true, what actually is happening or actually happened - the real black and white. 

Well, I'm about to tell you that your clients actually don't care about reality...

All they care about is their expectation of what will happen and their perception of what is happening (which is essentially how you manage their expectations). 

If you can let go of focusing on the reality (which is hard for engineers I know!) and focus your efforts on managing your clients expectations and perceptions - then you will absolutely NAIL your client relationships and turn your current clients into clients for life. 

Let me give you a classic example that I see all the time. 

You and your team have just won a package of work from a new client. You get really excited and you and your team go straight into delivery mode - you get out the spreadsheets and map out timeframes, deliverables, resourcing and you get stuck into the doing. 

You have 4 weeks to deliver this package of work - so you just go for it. At the end of the 4 weeks you proudly submit your finished package....and get an absolute smashing from your new client!! 

Let’s break this scenario down and explore what happened.... 

1) Expectation - your client had an expectation that they would be part of the solution and part of the outcome. This project was a big deal to them and they wanted to be included in the major decisions. However, in your excitement to get going and start delivering - you failed to check in with them on their expectations and critical success factors for the project and you failed to communicate with them throughout the process. 

2) Perception - their perception was that you were really good to talk to and really engaged in the bid winning part of the project, but as soon as you had a signed agreement - you went cold and stopped communicating. Their assumption was that their project was just another project to you and you were off onto winning the next one. They even started to get worried that you weren't even working on their project due to your sudden lack of communication. 

3) Reality - the reality is that you and your team ACTUALLY DID work really hard to deliver the project on time and to a high standard. 

So can you see that the reality of things doesn't matter to a client at all. What they really care about is their expectations being met (and working with an engineer that clearly cares about understanding and delivering on these expectations) and having their perceptions being managed throughout the whole process. 

In summary - stop worrying about reality and focus on managing your clients expectations and their perceptions and you'll have a client for life! 

Josh 'Client Expectations' Stone 

PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now: 

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