Consultant and Client Communication Strategies

Consultant and Client Communication Strategies
Management is a functional business area that needs to have a strong team in order for all functional business areas to integrate efficiently. Stantec is a company that currently is struggling with the management aspect of a project. This organization is a project management company that has been experiencing some setbacks with their project management team. Currently, they are struggling with retention of employees and the availability to keep their clients content. Our consultants have set up a meet and greet with this potential client to evaluate and discuss what the problem might be. It will be interesting to see the challenges ahead as it is not very common for a consultant firm to hire another consultant firm to assess issues.
One of the most important things to do while doing the meet and greet would be to establish the foundation of a good working relationship with the client. A good relationship builds rapport and a true understanding of both parties involved. The meet and greet needs to include questions such as what the client thinks the problem is and what the clients expectations are. A consultant needs to know what the expectations are in order to maintain authenticity with the client and to see if what the client expects is going to be achievable. Just as with any relationship, a working relationship requires investing large periods of time, effort, and understanding; therefore it is important to be honest with the client and with yourself and see if the client’s expectations are something that the consultant feels they will be competent in.
Once the meet and greet with the client is done and boundaries, tasks, and possibly agendas are discussed an effective strategy is developed in order to continually have open communication with the client and a successful management team once again. A letter of acceptance should be issued from the consultant to the client that documents the scope of