Don’t Leave Clients in the Dark

Years ago, my car had been in an accident and needed repairs. The salesperson at the very prominent body shop said it’d take a week, tops. So we dropped it off, picked up the rental, and moved on with our lives. One week passed. Not a word, so I called: “Oh, it’s taking longer than we thought to get the part. It should be here soon, and we’ll let you know when the car is ready.” Two weeks passed. Still no update. I called again — a little impatient this time. Same answer: part’s taking longer, yada yada yada.

Three. Weeks. Passed. I called again and I was definitely not in the best mood this time. I let them know we’d been waiting nearly a month, the rental had run out, we were living with one car. They apologized (kind of), said they finally had the part, and the car would be done in a couple of days. Ultimately they did a good job, and the car ran well until I sold it. But to this day, when I think about that experience — or even drive by their shop — I don’t remember the repair. I remember the lack of communication and how frustrated I was during that month.

Here is a simple but powerful rule: Always give people more than what they expect to get." – Nelson Boswell, Author of Inner Peace

The reason I tell you this story is because there will be moments in your work clients where you’re deep in the middle of a project, and you don’t have anything new to show. But just because you know you’re working hard doesn’t mean the client knows that. And when clients are unsure of what's going on, they get nervous and start doubting your ability to do the work. You start to lose trust.

There is absolutely NO excuse for not communicating regularly. Even a quick, “Hey, we’re in the thick of it and don’t have anything new to share, but wanted to let you know we’re still on track,” goes a long, long way. That's an incredibly simple way to build trust instead of eroding it. It’s respectful. And it should be baked into your client journey. Oh, and if you don’t have a process for that, it’s probably time to build one.

Because you know what? If that body shop had just checked in once a week to say they were still waiting on the part, I would've had to pick a different story to tell you.