How does the way we work with customers affect the success of our independent businesses? This chapter covers the quality of our customer relationships, getting the word out about our services and abilities, educating our customers, and using bottom line thinking to get what we want. Real life examples illustrate both positive and negative effects of the way we work with customers.
When we talk about working with customers, the first thing that usually comes to mind is our relationships with customers. It's true that the way the customer feels about you is one of the major factors in determining if that customer asks you back for a second, third, or fourth project. Keep in mind that "difficult" employees may not get promotions, but "difficult" contractors don't get work!
You can write your own definition of "difficult." And then you can work diligently to be excellent instead of difficult. Here are some items to consider:
You can probably write your own list of many additional items that affect your relationships with your customers. The point is this: Your customer relationships better be excellent if your business is going to be the most successful.
Two buzzwords for the 90s are "networking" and "adding value." Both are part and parcel of letting your customers know what you can do for them. Getting the word out is another factor in working with customers.
Think about this: Your main job for a customer is (fill in whatever you do). What other kinds of work could you do for this customer? Every different kind of work you can do adds value to your services. But you also need to let your customer know that you have many talents.
Let's say that your main skill is writing software documentation for financial products. Perhaps you can also train users on the software. Or you might write an article about the new software for the company's newsletter. Training would be paid work. The article might be unpaid, but it might get you a contract to write a regular column for the newsletter or company magazine, or it might alert the director of another department that you have just the skills she needs for her documentation project.
Finding work is always on our minds as independents. How do you find work? One of the most productive ways is to follow the 80-20 Rule. The 80-20 Rule is also known as the Pareto Principle. It states that you should work first and most on those activities that will yield the biggest improvements.
Research by sales and marketing organizations shows that the 80-20 Rule applies to many business endeavors. Here are three examples I have read about:
The 80-20 Rule for independents might read this way: Spend 80% of your marketing time exploring possibilities with your existing customers and 20% of your marketing time finding new customers.
The exact percentages aren't as important as the idea that your existing customers provide your best source for more work. It also makes sense to spend most of your marketing time finding opportunities with customers where you have the best relationships.
Using the 80-20 Rule can help you get the word out about what you can do for your customers.
We have to work for pay (fortune) most of the time to keep our businesses afloat. In this section, you can explore some examples of getting the word out about paid projects. One effective way to get the word out is to do some work for free (that's work for fame and glory). You can explore examples of working for fame, too.
Imagine that your main project is writing software documentation for the data processing department of a large local company. Here are some suggestions for other paid projects with such a customer and for ways you might apply your skills to work for other companies:
Sometimes networking and adding value takes the form of volunteer work; that is, you don't get paid for it. You need to control the amount of free work you perform, always remembering that billable work is what keeps your business going, but think about these good reasons for doing work for fame and glory:
Here are some examples of volunteer work. How many more can you add?
Put your creative mind to work thinking of other ways to get the word out about the width and depth of your services.
One of the responsibilities of being a successful independent is knowing how much unpaid work you can do and still keep your business viable. Believe me, any independent could be a full-time volunteer worker with no trouble at all!
Potential customers may ask for references from you. This section examines why it's wise for you to ask for references from them before you make the decision to take on a new customer. Why should you ask for references from your customer? Consider these two reasons:
1. Getting paid for your work
2. Learning how the customer treats independents
You need to be paid for the work that you do if you are going to stay in business. Timely payments are critical to your cash flow. Large companies usually have policies about paying their contractors, and this policy varies from "when you present the invoice" up to 90 days. In the case of an independent's small business, a 45, 60, or 90 day wait for a paycheck could ruin your cash flow. Smaller companies may not have a payment policy. You need to be especially careful to find out how a small company plans to pay you.
A friend who is an independent had an agreement with a company to invoice once a month for a new project. She started work on the project on January 1 and invoiced on the 31st. The company's policy was to pay in 90 days, not from the start of work, but from the invoice date, so my friend did not get her first paycheck until early May! When you are working full time hours on one project, you may not have time or energy to take on other work, and a four month lag makes a huge impact on cash flow.
You will be a happier independent if you get answers to questions like these before you decide to work with a new customer:
You can probably think of other questions that will help you decide if you and a customer are a good match.
Three methods have worked for me: calling the Better Business Bureau, asking fellow STC members, and talking to the references the customer provides.
Once, early in my independent business career, I accepted a project with a small consulting company. The project was specified to take about one month, with a small payment up front and the rest at the end. I was to be paid at an hourly rate. Well, the project dragged on and on, with more and more content added, more and more revisions, more and more responsibilities placed on my shoulders. I dutifully submitted invoices every two weeks, but did not see a paycheck after the first one. I was "too polite and shy" to ask where the money was. When the end finally came, the president of the consulting company stated that the project was unsatisfactory and they were not going to pay me. It took almost a year of letters from lawyers, threats to go to small claims court, and nightmares to get a settlement of about 75% of what I was owed. It was an expensive lesson, but one I intend to learn only once.
I had been too naive to demand payment and discuss the changes in the project before doing all the extra work. During the legal process, I got names of several other independents who has worked previously for this company. When I contacted them, I found that each one had had horrible experiences of one sort or another. Had I asked for references up front, I might have saved myself many, many headaches.
The design stage of any project enables you and your customer to make decisions about the "look and feel" of the final deliverable. While some of these decisions may be modified during the development stage because of new or better information coming to light, be aware that changes often affect the budget. You enhance your value to the customer by keeping tabs on the budget.
Let's say your customer wants a user's guide to distribute with a customized software application. You reach an agreement for writing the manual and get to work. You complete the manual on time and are about to send it to production when the customer says she also wants to put it online. Maybe the application you used has the capability to convert a document to online format, but maybe it doesn't. Converting could be an expensive process requiring redesign, more time, and new resources. You can help educate your customer by asking more questions about media during the design stage so that you both can plan accordingly.
Translating any document involves extra resources on a project. Several years ago, I developed a set of training manuals for a year's worth of training. The set included a 1,000 page scripted leader's guide, a set of 75 overhead transparencies, and a 200 page participant's guide. After the first training session, the customer decided to have the materials translated into Spanish and Portuguese for use in their Pan American division.
I had happened to use a desktop publishing package that the translators could use (WordPerfect 5.2 for DOS, which was state-of-the-art at that time for Pan America.) My page design was such that the new languages fit on the pages, and the captions for graphics and tables expanded automatically. The translators needed explanations for only four items that were "local humor" or American slang expressions. I was extremely lucky on that project, and from it I learned to ask about possible translation during the design stage of any project. Generally, I find that applying good technical writing guidelines requires minimal other alterations for translating.
As soon as you accept a project that has hard copy deliverables, such as documentation or training manuals, the production coordinator wants to know the size of the manual, the paper stock, the type of tabs, and whether you are using any color in the job. Sometimes the production coordinator is you, but the need for this information is the same. Why?
Production takes time. For example, here in St. Louis, Missouri, it takes about a month to get laminated, typeset tabs printed on both sides for standard 3-ring binders. But if you use paper tabs printed on only one side, the printer can run them right with the copying job. The laminated version lasts longer and makes it easy to find things in a manual front to back or back to front. The plain paper version is less expensive but the tabs fold over and the holes tear out.
The production coordinator may need to order special paper ahead of time. I like to include a bit of color in printed training or documentation by using paper with a runhead in color. Sometimes we can use company letterhead. When you make these decisions up front, you can schedule the time for producing special paper, and you may be able to save on costs by ordering in bulk. You also design the job around these up-front parameters.
Last-minute changes to production decisions can drastically affect the budget for a project. In one case, I planned to use a company's stationery second sheets for the pages in a training manual. The second sheets had a company logo in color in the lower right corner, and since we were using single-sided printing, would work perfectly. I designed the margins and a footer with the page number and other footer information to coordinate with the logo. The manager approved the design. We ordered 10,000 sheets of the stationery at an extremely low price because of the size of the order.
Near the end of the project, the manager decided that he wanted the manuals printed two-sided on plain white paper to "make them smaller" and thus less expensive. I pointed out as tactfully as possible that this would require a time-consuming change in page layout, and that the paper should be heavier stock to accommodate the two-sided printing, and that there would probably be no savings. He didn't agree, and the project cost more than the original estimate. I learned to be more definite about these up-front items, including costs as well as various options during the design stage. I also review the design with the project manager at each stage of the project.
Online projects have production and distribution issues of their own. If a company changes its standard software vendor in the middle of your online documentation project, do you convert everything from old to new? How will you update the material once it goes online? Will the online information be available on the Internet or on a private network? What other online issues should you settle up front?
Other chapters discuss the different ways to work, choosing how to work and what to work with (refer to the Table of Contents for chapter topics). Let me suggest here that you do some hard thinking about these items, and figure out how working the way you want to also provides your customer with a bottom line benefit (See Using Bottom Line Thinking to Get What You Want). In other words, you need to figure out WIIFM (What's In It for Me), only from the customer's point of view.
Let me share with you examples from my own business and show you how I turn my preferences into benefits for my customers:
I prefer to work offsite; that is, at my home office. I like this situation because I can work without interruptions, I can work the hours I choose as long as I get the work done, and I have very low commuting costs. I don't need the social atmosphere of an office.
Here is what I tell my customers when they ask where I will do the work:
I work in my location and save you the cost of a work space and equipment. Most of my contacts with your experts are by telephone or e-mail, but I am available for meetings, demonstrations, and so on when you need me. I work without all the interruptions that can occur in a busy office such as yours, so my productivity rate is very high."
I'm sure you can make just as convincing an argument for working onsite. Just be sure that you are benefitting the customer. The customer really doesn't care if you are happy. The customer cares if he or she is happy. With so much emphasis on the wonders of the Internet, I'm surprised that many employers still feel that if they can't see you, you must not be working. But then, many companies are not even computerized.
I prefer to have a 1099 working arrangement, in which I function as an independent contractor. The customer pays my rate and I take care of taxes and benefits. (LINK to Chapter 3. Picking the Right Kind of Employment) Some customers know the difference between W-2 and 1099, but others never deal with the financial side of projects. When I meet a new customer, here is what I tell them if they do not know the difference between temporary employees and independents:
"I prefer a 1099 arrangement. That way, you and your bookkeeping department do not have to deduct anything or fill out extra paperwork for taxes."
On the other hand, in a W-2 arrangement, the customer pays half of your unemployment tax along with withholding, so you get 7.5% more pay. Theoretically, anyway. Some companies have policies about the status of their outside resources. You need to find that out first. Some will modify the policy if you ask. Others won't. Be aware that only 1099 funds are eligible for tax-deferred contributions in a retirement plan. You can't count W-2 monies as part of your income for retirement contributions. Customers don't care about your retirement planning, but you should.
Some companies have corporate approved software that I must use for everything, even if the software is not the best choice for the task. If that is the case, I have to decide if I want the project or not. You certainly should ask if other software is an option when you feel strongly that a different package will do the job better or faster. Often I take on projects in which the only deliverable is a camera ready hard copy master. The software used to create the master does not matter, just as long as the quality is up to the customer's requirements.
If their software does not have the capability to create HTML codes, for example, and you need HTML to post the documentation on the Web, you should have one or two suggested packages to recommend. Do your homework and be prepared. When you help your customer learn, you help yourself to become indispensable.
Usually my customers agree that off site, 1099, and WordPerfect are the best solution. When a customer does not agree, I know that I can be flexible; you can be, too:
Flexibility about working conditions can help you become and remain successful as an independent.
One of the major frustrations of technical communicators is getting reviewers to make useable comments and getting those reviews back on time.
I've learned that subject matter experts (SMEs), whether engineers, programmers, lawyers, or other professionals, sometimes perceive the technical communicator as "a know-it-all" because we change their words. For example, an engineer who wrote the original specifications may feel that because she understands all these technical items, the end users should, too. The engineer may not realize that end users do not understand acronyms and esoteric terminology. Or a programmer may have written the first set of documentation and have an ownership issue with changes.
Also, SMEs may not get much recognition for their hard work on a project and are reluctant to take on more work just because you ask them to. Their managers may expect them to take time out from what they like to do to read a user manual or to do reviews "after hours."
When you can get involved with a project at the beginning, you can encourage the customer to build review time into the schedule. You can also tell the customer, the engineers, the programmers, and anyone else who works on the project that you are not the expert in engineering or programming or whatever, but that you are the expert in how end users think, read, and use documentation or training material. Tell them that you are relying on their expertise for correct content and easy functionality, and you hope they will trust you with the usability of the manual. In other words, honor the talents of others so that they will honor yours.
Sometimes reviewers send document back with a note, "Looks really great!" And you think, "Well of course it looks great, but is it correct?" Desktop publishing packages, Web page design software, and multimedia authoring systems enable us to create truly lovely and exciting pages or screens. The beautiful appearance can fool a reviewer into thinking it is not necessary to read the words and check the figures. You do not want to be responsible for the correctness of the content in your projects, but if your project gets out there with mistakes, you look like a fool regardless of who is responsible. So, warn your reviewers that the pages may be beautiful, but that they still need to check the content.
If you are distributing paper copy to reviewers, you might try asking them to follow these tips:
For groups of reviewers you might try these ideas:
Managers think in terms of impact on the "bottom line" of their financial statements when they evaluate strategy, when they change advertising, and when they make decisions about training, documentation, hardware and software changes. In other words, managers always consider the bottom line. To get what you want, you need to think in terms of bottom line, too. Not yours, but the customer's. Thinking this way takes creativity, but it isn't difficult once you get the hang of it.
In 1993, the STC funded a one-year project called, "Measuring the Value Added by Professional Technical Communicators." The study found that technical communicators add value in two vital ways: we increase benefits and we reduce costs. I've been applying the concepts with great success. The table below, taken from the 1Q95 issue of Technical Communication, summarizes some key examples.
Adding Value |
|
Increased Benefits |
Reduced Costs |
| Increased productivity | Fewer support calls, thus lower support costs |
| More sales | Less need for training, thus lower training costs |
| More proposals won | Less time needed for translation, thus lower translation costs |
| More completed documents | Lower costs for writing, paper, printing, etc. |
| More users' problems identified early in the process | Developers convinced that they did not need all the documentation planned |
| Fewer errors by users | |
How do you turn this kind of thinking into work? By showing your customers how you can make money or save money for them. Here, you have to do your own information gathering, listening, and strategic thinking. Let me give you two examples.
Mr. Smith's Furniture manufactures, markets, and sells a $2,500 electric massage chair that has been available for two years. The instructions for using it are in the form of a single page written at the last minute by the product engineer. When something goes wrong with the chair, consumers call Mr. Smith's customer service representative, who tells them how to use it or arranges for in-home technicians to repair it. The company is ready to manufacture a new, improved version, and the company president has called me, the ID&D specialist, to discuss a new set of instructions.
Among the questions I ask are these:
Q: What are the most frequent problems with the chair?
A: Well, the remote keypad breaks too often. Consumers have difficulty tilting the chair to the upright position, and they complain about the different massage functions not working.
Q: Mr. Smith, it sounds like the keypad problem might be solved with a better design, and I know a graphic designer who could help us with that. Also, if improved, simpler instructions could prevent several of the other problems, thus reducing your cost of in-home service and long distance phone charges, would you be interested in my services?
A: I sure would. That sounds like what I had in mind.
I arrange for my associate, a graphic designer, to meet with Mr. Smith. Among the questions the graphic designer asks are these:
Q: What are the most frequent problems with the chair?
A: Well, the remote keypad breaks too often. Consumers have difficulty tilting the chair to the upright position, and they complain about the different massage functions not working.
Q: When I tried out the chair, I found the same problems. I think that an illustration showing how to tilt the back up and down would help. Also, I'd like to see a the keypad design and the control buttons on the chair that tell the users exactly how to get the various functions to turn on and off in whatever combination they want. We can combine illustrations with the new instructions, and we are just in time to fix the keypad since you are bringing out a new model.
These changes will help the users make the chair work and keep them from needing to call you for assistance, reducing your time on customer service calls. Would that meet your needs, Mr. Smith?
A: Yes, I think it would.
Do you see how both the instructional designer and the graphic designer started thinking about the customer's bottom line? Customer service is the most expensive end of the product cycle. If you can reduce costs, the customer saves money. You improve your relationship with the customer. You collaborate with fellow professionals. You make a sale of your services. Everybody is happy.