As a professional services provider, or any entrepreneur or small business, it is essential to in fact always deliver more than expected if you want to develop, and retain, happy clients.
A common mistake that many professional services providers make, however, is to agree in their client engagement agreements to perform their services “to the client’s satisfaction.” It *seems* like a great idea - you *want* the client to be happy. Who doesn’t?
What you have really done though is to bind yourself to the potential for unlimited re-dos of your services at YOUR EXPENSE. Why? Because with the phrase “to the client’s satisfaction” you have not created any concrete, measurable milestones or goals that the successful completion of your services can be measured against.
Therefore, the client has *all* the power to say “I am not satisfied with the services/report/software/etc., please make this list of changes” as many times as they want.
One of the most important pieces of advice I give to every consultant or other services provider is that you MUST (truly, a non-negotiable) (1) have concrete, discrete and measurable milestones so that both you and your client know exactly what your obligations are, and/or (2) include a phrase along the lines of “If Client reasonably believes that the services are materially deficient, Service Provider shall do no more than X hours of re-performance of services at no additional cost. Any requests for re-performance of services in excess of X hours shall be at the rate of $Y per hour.”
This way both you AND the client have matching expectations - which is key to developing, and retaining, a happy client.
World's Top 10 IP Hotspots
What are the world's top 10 intellectual property hotspots (based on the most scientific publishing and inventive activity), and how many are in the United States? According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, four are in the US (San Diego, New York, Boston-Cambridge, and San Jose-San Francisco) but none make the top 3! Click on the post title to be directed to the WIPO list.
The End is Near!
The end of the year is coming - are you ready? As the end of the year approaches, companies should assess whether they have any existing contracts that are coming up for renewal. In the rush to get new deals done by December 31st, it is easy to overlook a review of current agreements.
Contracts typically have 30-day (or longer) notice provisions to terminate in advance of renewal dates, so it is important to review them to determine whether you have (1) contracts that will automatically renew that you no longer need, or (2) expiring fixed term contracts that you need to extend. NOW is the time to make this assessment, and to either issue timely termination notices, or amendments to extend contracts which are expiring.
As you do this assessment, if you don’t already have a contract management database, you may want to consider setting up at least a simple spreadsheet or other tracking method to note future renewal dates and termination notice provisions, especially for any agreements that may not be on a calendar year basis that you discover during your year end review.
