Reliability is closely related to credibility but there are a few important distinctions to make here. We must keep the equation of trust worthiness in mind. If credibility can be thought of as the past track record that gives us referrals and favorable stories, then reliability can be thought of as more of what it is for a client to work with us on the ground level. There are two main facets of reliability. There is the ground level- consultant to client relationships on the day to day. But then there is also at the staffing/contracting level of the projects themselves.
Consultant to Client Relationships on the Ground
This is where we get closer the one on one relationships that amount to a client’s overall experience of working with us. Does the client feel that they can rely on us? Do our consultants do what they say that they will do? Are they working towards fulfilling the statement of work that was laid out in the contract? That last question is crucial. Consultants often times have a tendency to want to go “above and beyond” when serving their clients. But all too often this actually leads to them focusing and prioritizing work that was not even agreed upon in the SOW. While it may seem that the clients on the ground are very appreciative, if we spend too much time on extra work that we didn’t sign on for, it can lead to a messy situation. Let’s say we drafted an SOW and we agreed to add an orchestration layer for a client’s various disjointed API’s. Now let’s say that we agreed that it should take us 8 weeks to do so. During that time, if the consultants go in and find other issues- lets say perhaps even more pressing issues in their eyes, it may very well be in the client’s best interest to prioritize those problems. However, once the work is signed off, it’s crucial that we deliver on what was promised. Stakeholders want to get what they paid for, and if at the end of that 8 weeks, go tell them that we didn’t get everything done regarding the orchestration layer that we agreed upon, but look at all this other stuff we did! This is all too common and I’ve seen it time and time again. We must first deliver what we promise BEFORE prioritizing nice-to-haves and extra work/features. If there really are more pressing/urgent issues that we feel should be prioritized above what was signed in the SOW, then that indicates that there needs to be a separate negotiation and agreement through either adding a new SOW, or editing the initial one. What consultants on the ground can do to avoid this, is be very clear on the expectations of the client they are working with. Familiarize themselves with the SOW, and push towards hitting that deadline first and foremost. Clients to like extra work, but only if the core work has been done.
Consultancy to Client Relationships
Before any project starts, a contract must be drafted, presented clearly, and agreed upon by both the consultancy and the client (obviously). But how all of this comes to be can be very tricky. It gets complicated because of competition. Clients almost always have plenty of choices when it comes to choosing a consultancy and all of these consultancies compete for the work. Because clients have options, what ends up happening is that, in an effort to sell the work, consultancies will say that they are able to get an unreasonable or overly optimistic amount of work done in a too short amount of time. This is all too often sales people that are working on commission and often times don’t have enough insight on the services that their consultancy provides because they are blinded by the cash and personal financial incentives. This ends up compromising the reliability of the business. Overly optimistic agreements in order to beat out a competitor is a common trap to fall into. This leads to future disappointment and a decrease in both reliability and credibility. Reasonable estimations are crucial to sustaining positive b2b relationships between a client organization and a consultancy. Furthermore, signing up for unreasonable deadlines also leads to overly-worked, and stressed out consultants on the project as well. We can avoid this by carefully evaluating propositions or work and accounting for road blocks and some things to take longer then we may expect. This is how we run a sustainable business, keep our clients happy, and set ourselves up for future business from a positive referral or more work with that client in the future.