BL Companies | Client Care Orientation

Introduction to CLIENT CARE COMPETENCIES

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Introduction

This Presentation is the Outcome of: • Research (books, articles & Ted Talks)

• External Client Care Questionnaire

• Internal Client Care Questionnaire

• Review of Annual BL Client Satisfaction Survey

• Project Manager & Employee-Owner Training and Feedback

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Introduction

Goal of Today’s Presentation:

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Introduction

Goal of Today’s Presentation: • Raise awareness of internal & external client care among employee-owners

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Introduction

Goal of Today’s Presentation: • Raise awareness of internal & external client care among employee-owners

• Establish consistent company wide expectations for internal and external client care

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Introduction

Basic Definitions:

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Introduction

Basic Definitions: • External Client :

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Introduction

Basic Definitions: • External Client : The person or entity that engages BL Companies for a specific service.

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Introduction

Basic Definitions: • External Client : The person or entity that engages BL Companies for a specific service.

• Internal Client :

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Introduction

Basic Definitions: • External Client : The person or entity that engages BL Companies for a specific service. • Internal Client : The BL Companies Project Manager or Employee-Owner who relies on you to perform a task associated with the service to the external client.

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Introduction

Basic Concepts & Misconceptions:

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Introduction

Basic Concepts & Misconceptions: • Although most of us associate the word “client” with the external client, the internal client, as a conduit to the external client, is just as important.

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Introduction

Basic Concepts & Misconceptions:

• External clients value a consultant that understands their needs more than anything else, even more than the quality of service.

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Introduction

Basic Concepts & Misconceptions:

• Although quality is important, most external clients think of it as a given, and not a differentiator between firms.

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Introduction

Basic Concepts & Misconceptions:

• Lack of quality, however, is a disqualifier.

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Introduction

Other Client Dislikes:

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Introduction

Other Client Dislikes:

• Failure to understand the client’s needs.

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Introduction

Other Client Dislikes:

• Failure to communicate.

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Introduction

Other Client Dislikes:

• Failure to meet deadlines.

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Introduction

Other Client Dislikes:

• Failure to understand the client’s needs.

• Failure to communicate.

• Failure to meet deadlines.

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

Effective Communication

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

Effective Communication

Defining Timelines, Goals & Deliverables

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

Defining Timelines, Goals & Deliverables

Effective Communication

Kick-off and Team Meetings

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

Defining Timelines, Goals & Deliverables

Effective Communication

Kick-off and Team Meetings

Understanding One’s Role

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Introduction

Matching BL Companies Behaviors and Expectations to Our Client’s Likes:

Defining Timelines, Goals & Deliverables

Effective Communication

Kick-off and Team Meetings

Understanding One’s Role

Accountability of Team Members

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Introduction

Client Care (BL Companies Definition): The act of providing for the needs of a person or group that is dependent upon our support or the delivery of our commitments while providing an exceptional experience through service.

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Introduction

BL Client Care Competencies:

Be an Advocate for the Project

Understand Your Client

Be Adaptable

Be Responsive

Be Accountable

Communicate Effectively

Act Professionally

Build Relationships

Be a Team Player

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BL Client Care Competencies: Introduction Understand Your Client

Be Adaptable

Be an Advocate for the Project

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FedEx Ground BL Companies has been one of the “Core Four” preferred A/E firms for FedEx Ground (FXG) for the past three years. When FXG introduced this concept, they invited firms that had a proven track record with them. BL earned that right after completing the design for Allentown (the first Flex Hub) and Kansas City (Trident addition). FXG was impressed by our ability to communicate across offices and provide the same or better services than firms many times our size. Our key to success with the FXG program can be summarized along the three listed competencies: Understand your Client : Generally speaking, FXG is a blue-collar firm. Their business model is rooted in RPS, the carrier route they acquired to launch over-the-road delivery service. FedEx successfully super- imposed their package sorting technology onto the existing trucking model, but they have remained a bottom-line driven company. In order to be successful as an A/E firm within that model, BL has learned to curb prices and manage proposals to offer very competitive pricing, despite performing the work from our limited geographical locations, compared to the remaining national Core Four firms. Be Adaptable: Throughout their expansion program, FXG has maintained that the Core Four firms should not only provide services for large hub projects ($500k to $1,000k in fees), but also for their smaller projects ($10k to $100k). BL has been willing and able to tackle those projects as well, partly because we don’t look at each project as an entity, but focus on the program as a whole. This approach has allowed us to develop an inventory of smaller projects that form the basis for a very varied portfolio and library of FXG facilities of various sizes. Be an Advocate for the Project : BL has demonstrated its advocacy approach to FXG projects in many ways. As a representative of FXG in front of permitting authorities, we have often pushed the envelope in land development and building permitting, often acting as the applicant and point of contact. Because of our past successes with FXG projects, they have also hired BL to review other consultant’s work and act on their behalf in matters of design. Currently, we are overseeing AECOM in their design and RFI responses for the Houston Hub, and Stantec in their development of construction documents for the Nashville Hub.

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BL Client Care Competencies: Introduction

Understand Your Client

Be Adaptable

Be an Advocate for the Project

Be Responsive

Be Accountable

Communicate Effectively

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Amazon Program The Amazon program began late in 2016 and developed quickly. The capacity of the architecture department was soon pushed to its limits and presented challenges related to meeting our commitments to other clients. The Amazon program also represented a significant expansion of our services in the warehouse/industrial sub-market of the Retail/Commercial/Residential market. Our initial introduction to this sub-market was through our work with FXG. This sudden windfall of work also arrived after several years of struggling to find work during the “great recession”. This also represented an introduction to a new market, and ramped up very quickly. This program required the commitment of numerous employees to dedicate extra hours of overtime and to work on weekends and holidays. In addition, it required immediate attention to manpower needs and resulted in a focused effort to find new employees that would allow us to increase our capacity. The Amazon program tested the abilities of our team to meet its Client Care obligations; specifically, we will look at three: Be Responsive: The rapid acceleration of the Amazon program quickly consumed our resources, and the aggressive schedules left no time to wait for answers from one another. We were challenged to keep up with our internal and external clients’ needs. To meet this challenge, the team worked extra hours and explored other ways to assist with the demands. This included sub consulting some of the work, providing some of the services in measured steps, rather than a single package, and discussing potential schedule adjustments with the client early in the process. The team was also careful to provide answers that were definitive and complete rather than providing responses that they weren’t certain of, or partial answers to simply defer the question, which is a dangerous practice and can lead to much more work in the future if the response results in errors or inappropriate actions. For schedules as tight as these, it is also important to respond promptly to emails, voicemails, and meeting planners. Responses to these requests were made as soon as possible, but never more than 24 hours after receiving them. At a minimum, a quick response to simply acknowledge receipt of the communication and provide a timeframe for when you can attend to it can be an effective way of assisting our clients to manage expectations.

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Amazon Program (continued) Be Accountable: The Amazon schedules were inflexible. We had to make sure we understood all the variables involved such as our internal clients’ schedules, and available resources before we committed to the schedule. We were able to keep our promises, because we did not make promises that we could not deliver. From our first meetings with Amazon, we made a commitment to constant improvement, exploring possibilities and making suggestions for ways to improve. Our team immediately began looking for efficiencies that we could apply to our services. Creating a detail library, project tracker, and soliciting input from the client rather than waiting for it helped us to improve quality, accuracy and efficiency, which increased our capacity for work. Communicate Effectively: The internal project teams met frequently to discuss the project schedules, deliverables, and individual assignments. In addition, the entire team met with the client for key discussions using our smart screens. Everyone on the project team as well as the client was kept apprised of the schedule and the status of the project with respect to the schedule. Surprises were kept to a bare minimum. Changes to the schedule, or deliverables, were communicated to the design team and to the client as soon as possible. The project team was also made aware of the need for confidentiality with respect to our client and the individual projects and kept this top of mind. Communication is a two-way activity. If we did not get a response to a question from our client or an internal team member the mantra was to follow up rather than waiting. This was critical to keep the projects moving on their tight timeline.

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BL Client Care Competencies: Introduction

Understand Your Client

Be Adaptable

Be an Advocate for the Project

Be Responsive

Be Accountable

Communicate Effectively

Act Professionally

Build Relationships

Be a Team Player

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Rite Aid Program BL Companies has been a longtime partner of Rite Aid on several programs over the years such as; new store development, corporate environmental management and sale/leaseback support. Several years ago, Rite Aid decided to initiate an aggressive remodel program across their organization. They hired an internal team of Construction Managers to facilitate these projects, many who were not familiar with Rite Aid’s standards or procedures. During this potentially chaotic time, BL reached out to the East Coast Director of Remodels and offered support and expertise to his inexperienced team. ( Build Relationships ) • As the program accelerated BL utilized several client care competencies to ensure continued success, for example: • BL employee owners visited completed projects and conducted workshops with Rite Aid personnel to be sure they JOINTLY fully understood the project scopes. ( Act Professionally ) • We also proactively researched permitting requirements for the many of the identified markets (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh) to ensure our Rite Aid partners were educated as to the expected timelines. ( Be a Team Player ) • The BL team spent time with Rite Aid project managers during semi-annual workshops to ensure that expectations were being met and changes were being communicated. These workshops often included a “social” event to strengthen team bonding. ( Be a Team Player, Build Relationships )

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Rite Aid Program (continued) • BL Project Managers took the initiative to begin providing “standard” weekly schedule/milestone updates on plan deliverables and permit status. Including tracking “work by others” (fixture plans) to ensure that the Rite Aid project managers would have “no surprises”. ( Build Relationships, Be a Team Player ) • The BL team also worked collaboratively to streamline the Rite Aid Construction Managers’ projects via offering “single source” environmental services for asbestos and moisture testing. ( Build Relationships, Be a Team Player ) Because of the above activities, despite significant Rite Aid personnel turnover-including two Directors, BL has continued to be the Architect and Environmental consultant of choice for the Rite Aid Eastern region remodel team.

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Further thoughts on acting professionally: Introduction

Some things to think about… • What is the difference between a technician and a professional? • What defines attitudes? Behaviors? Actions?

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Acting professionally – take-aways from the video: Introduction • The value of the service that is being delivered. • The value of judgement.

Actions

Behavior

Attitude

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Further thoughts on building relationships: Introduction

Some things to think about… • Wouldn’t it be neat if someone actually told us what the formula was? • What is the role of trust in a business relationship?

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Building relationships – take-aways from the video: Introduction

Trust = Credibility+Reliability+Intimacy Ego

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Further thoughts on being a team player: Introduction

Some things to think about… • Examples of where one person went above and beyond their normal role? • Examples of where the team “trusted” each other?

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Further thoughts on being a team player: Introduction

Some things to think about… • Were you surprised which teams were most successful? Least successful? Why? • What was the impact of offering a “high reward”?

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Introduction

Questions Anyone?

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BL Companies Client Care Competencies Introduction

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BL Companies Client Care Competencies Introduction

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BL Companies Client Care Competencies Introduction

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BL Companies Client Care Competencies Introduction

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