With the dynamic and customized nature of professional services engagements, it is easy to veer off course. Maybe a key person leaves the team and you can no longer hit the original due date. Maybe there was a disconnect about the project requirements. Maybe the deliverable has some defects that need to be corrected. It is hard to know exactly what will happen, but easy to know that something probably will.

As discussed in another section of Compass, the project manager is the most important role on the project team. No other role has as great an impact on client satisfaction, and client satisfaction controls the success trajectory of the firm. The project manager is indeed the “keeper of the relationship”, which is why firms live and die by the quality of their project managers.

One of the most important jobs of the project manager is to build “relationship equity”. A good way to think of this is that for each client your firm serves, there is a piggy bank in your office with the client’s name on the side of it. As your firm earns the trust and goodwill of a client, relationship pennies get deposited into that client’s piggy bank. You want as many pennies in each piggy bank as possible.

Why is relationship equity important? Because there will come a time when you’ll need to spend it. When the project manager has to deliver bad news to a client, that bad news costs some of the pennies in the piggy bank. The worse the news, the more it costs. If the project manager has set and met expectations, overdelivered at every opportunity, and created a good rapport with the client team, then there will be enough equity in the bank to pay for most mistakes (even big ones). But, if the piggy bank’s balance is low? Well, don’t expect any follow-on work or client referrals.

So, what are some good ways to build relationship equity? Here are a few:

• Be responsive. If a client contact calls or emails, respond as soon as you can. If the client sends an email after normal business hours and you can take a moment to respond, then do it. This shows the client that they are a top priority.
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• Be reliable. Set clear expectations and hit those expectations. It sounds easy, but few people do this consistently well.
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• Be personable. Try to build a relationship with your client contacts that is more than just a vendor/client formality. Ask questions about their lives, their kids, their hobbies, etc. Your clients are normal people – engage them about real-world topics.
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• Be honest. Candor goes a long way. If a client sponsor asks a question that you don’t know the answer to, don’t feel bad about saying “I don’t know, but I’ll get you an answer as soon as I can.” Be a straight shooter.
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• Be helpful. Go out of your way to be helpful. Maybe your client contact is interested in a particular subject matter and you buy her a book from Amazon. Maybe she needs to evaluate a product category for an internal presentation and you do some initial research for her. Simply being helpful is a great way to add pennies to your relationship equity bank.
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• Be positive. Have a good attitude! When you are positive, excited, and engaged, people will enjoy working with you. Attitude is everything.
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Mistakes will be made, and clients realize that. Just make sure that you have enough relationship equity to pay for them. Earn that equity now so that you’ll have it to spend later.