Absence Makes the Heart Grow Cold: Ensuring Regular Client/Service Provider Contact

Much of project management (and business management in general) involves understanding human nature and putting practices in place which safeguard against problems—especially expensive problems! Human nature can make it easy to slip into a comfortable sort of complacency that may—and perhaps, inevitably will—result in hard feelings and dissatisfaction between a client company and service provider.

The beginning of a new business relationship is rife with meetings, discussions, presentations, proposals, and kickoff lunches. There are often signatures and handshakes between senior management as well. Then, the real work begins. The service provider’s team members have their assignments, progress reports are sent, review meetings are held, and things (hopefully) move smoothly along the project timeline.

Clients and service providers alike know it is important to keep a close tie between the two partnering companies. Complex projects often involve a wide variety of client and service provider participants. Team members on both sides may be spread around the globe, which can cause disconnect. However, much of the practical day-to-day work can be efficiently reviewed and discussed via web-based meeting software and video streaming. Some would even say this technology obviates the need for face-to-face meetings.

This is where a client company, particularly its senior managers, should be wary of the fickleness of human nature and make a habit of visiting their key service providers in person. Long absences can lead to the decay of the strongest relationships and the best of intentions.

Key Management Objectives of the Client
Before examining the benefits of a personal visit, be reminded of a client manager’s tasks during the course of an outsourced project. The following objectives are true of any outsourced effort or activity—be it for design and development work, component supply, or product manufacture.

1. It has the best possible team from the service provider.
2. The service provider is still aligned with the goals and priorities.
3. The service provider is expert in and demonstrably capable of doing the work.
4. The budget and the schedule are being well-used by the service provider.
5. The service provider’s senior management is sufficiently involved in the oversight of the program.
6. The team is constantly assessing and retiring risk-to-success of the project and of the business proposition in general.
7. If adjustments are needed to work scope, budget, or schedule, they are planned for appropriately and, whenever possible, proactively.
8. If problems or conflicts arise, the client manager has an open connection to key leadership at the service provider.

Benefits of Visiting a Service Provider in Person
Some things just can’t be captured in a phone meeting or web-based presentation. A good manager needs to get below the surface and ensure the project and service provider are moving forward properly. Even for highly trustworthy and well-proven service providers, visiting in person will help to reduce risk and ensure a better project outcome.

Seeing is believing. Being at the service provider’s facility enables an experienced manager’s “sixth sense” to absorb and assess things digital meetings can’t convey. Even if the service provider excels in the work, the phrase “trust but verify” still rings with meaning. In the event the service provider isn’t quite as excellent or ethical as they should be, being at their facility and witnessing feasibility testing or pilot manufacturing can reveal potential trouble that may have otherwise been left undiscovered.

Shuttle Diplomacy. Project teams benefit from being appreciated and inspired. Making a regular habit of visiting demonstrates the value a company places on the work of the service provider and the project. This may not reveal readily tangible benefits, but there are benefits nonetheless.

Bonds that bind. Visiting in person helps to establish a relationship with the service provider’s team members and senior management before problems arise. It also drives senior management to stay engaged and aware of the program.

Whisper campaign. Sometimes there are delicate matters that need to be discussed like concerns about staff or budget or project direction. Face-to-face meetings allow for more subtle and diplomatic conversations—especially when there are concerns. (E-mails don’t/can’t/shouldn’t try to convey emotions and complex issues.)

Informal checks. Being at the site in person allows the client to request a “spontaneous” review of records and receipts (i.e., billing receipts, inspection records, test data, etc.). This can help assess risk and confirm claimed transparency is real.

Keep them on their toes. This article opened with the notion that a client manager needs to control a project by understanding human nature. Outsourced service providers can fall into bad habits that may hurt the well-being of the client’s project. Therefore, it’s in the best interest of the client manager to watch out for those pitfalls. Here are a few to consider:

• Problem projects or “squeaky wheels” from other clients may take too much of their time. To some degree, you want to be the squeaky wheel—albeit a polite and professional one.
• Management at the service provider may be tempted to concentrate too much on future clients and growth instead of taking care of current clients.
• Sometimes key leadership at the service provider is not hearing or being told about issues. Your visits will keep them better connected to the project.
• The resources of the service provider only have so many hours in the day. Visiting will give a sense of how busy they are.
• Sadly, some service provider managers use the “no news is good news” management style, which is not really in the best interest of the client.
• Worst of all, it’s possible the service provider management team or project team don’t care about clients as much as they should. This is much more readily recognized and dealt with when you visit in person.

Visitation Frequency
“How often should a client manager visit a service provider?” one might ask. There is no hard and fast answer to this question. Much depends on the scale and complexity of the project as well as the duration of the schedule and the degree of risk to success. For a project manager managing a project taking over a year, once a week may be too often, but once a quarter is probably not often enough. In that situation, visiting once every four to six weeks might be appropriate. For a senior management team member, once a month is probably too often, and once a year is likely not often enough. As a general rule of thumb, consider once a quarter a reasonable target.

One might also inquire, “Who on the senior management team should go?” For busy senior management teams, the visitation responsibility could rotate between the CEO, president, vice president of R&D, COO, vice president of quality, etc. But make no mistake, the most senior leader should definitely be on the regular rotation to ensure the leadership of the service provider recognizes their importance and how closely the client is paying attention. The time spent, even if just a few hours, will pay big dividends, reduce the risk factors working against success, and lower the chance of dissatisfaction.

Site Visit Planning and Agenda
Unless there is an emergency, visitations should be planned well in advance so the service provider can ensure their team is ready and available. This is particularly important for the senior management visit, since it should include time with the CEO or other senior operations-oriented management individuals (i.e., not just business development—apologies to all my BizDev friends and colleagues).

A project manager will have a fairly obvious agenda to pursue during a site visit. It will likely be very similar to the regular project reviews. But the agenda should include visiting with all of the key team members in person, review of the project space or manufacturing line, and interactions with some of the service provider’s senior management team.

The agenda for a senior management team member is a bit different. While they may want to sit through a general project status review, the bigger reason to visit is to detect unspoken and perhaps hidden issues concerning the general health of the service provider and their attention and commitment to the project. This is a bigger picture focus, which is generally not captured in Gantt charts and project plans. The visitor should have a specific time set aside to meet with senior service provider leadership both in a formal setting and, if practical, informally over dinner, lunch, or something less structured.

Of course, every situation is different and requires consideration of the risk-reward ratio. Perhaps for a small, short, or simple effort, in-person visits are not as necessary. Perhaps the service provider is halfway around the world and the cost and time to travel would have an outsized impact on the project plan. But the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming: visitations and face-to-face meetings always pay off and can’t quite be matched by even the best video conferencing arrangements. It is one of the most practical and reliable ways a client manager can confirm the project is being well run, and the client’s money and schedule are being used efficiently and effectively. 

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David C. Robson, a principal at Robson Advisors, has spent 30 years concentrating on the development of medical devices. The last 17 of those years were spent working for a full-service product development firm where he interacted with both large and small medical device companies and reviewed statements of work and requests for quotation, wrote proposals, and negotiated hundreds of work agreements. Robson and his partners now offer product development guidance and advocacy to early-stage medical device clients.