How do you prod your clients to get a move along?

Question

by this i mean; how do you get your client to proactively get involved in their own project rather then you constantly chasing them?

i have a project im doing at the moment which constantly keeps stalling because the client isnt doing 'their part' - i.e. providing feedback on the work i have done for them, making decisions on what and how they want things done.

i have done all the technical work i can do and the project is stuck at 90%. i have tried ringing them at the start of the week to discuss the status of their project and whats needed to go ahead, i have tried writing lengthy emails which outline what has been done and exactly whats needed of them - sometimes this works. commonly their reasons are to do with focusing on other areas of their business, which is fair enough, but they asked/paid me to do this project for them!

how do you guys go about gently prodding your clients to get a move-a-long without being rude? what tactics have you guys developed to handle this kind of situation?

would appreciate any guidance on this matter - thanks guys.

Answer 1

Personally, I give them a couple of reminders than let the be slow.

If they want it next year it isn't my problem.

Answer 2

We do scrum where I work and the stakeholders are required to participate and will show up as progress blockers if they don't deliver what they need to deliver

Answer 3

Talk to him in is own langague... Money talk a lot... Compute the time you lose trying to get information from them.

Show him the number... sometime if they realize how it cost ... the became more available...

Answer 4

maybe they have other projects in a higher priority if you are doing your job accordinlgly and on time also reminding them. let them be since it is their businness unless you are waiting for your payment

Answer 5

If you can continue on some part of the project before getting the feedback, do that. Avoid long e-mails to the client, they likely aren't reading them. Instead, send short e-mails with only one or two simple things for them to do. For example, if you just added a new dialog to an application and you need their feedback, ask them to take a quick look and let you know if there are any issues with that dialog specifically.

At the end of the day, however, if they don't respond, then the project is clearly not a priority with them. Send them a bill for the work you've done, explain that you cannot complete the project without their input, and move on. Once a week or once a month, send them a reminder that they have work outstanding, and you would complete it as soon as they provide you with the information you need.

Be clear about what you need from them. Make a list and check items off as you go along. If you send them a list with 20 items on it, the client may immediately give you the feedback you need for 5 of them, so you can start moving on. By making this list available to them, the client can see what you are working on, and have their tasks broken up for them into small manageable tasks.

Answer 6

I can understand that it would be frustrating to have an unfinished project, regardless of whether you are being paid to do it or not.

All you can do is be polite but honest. Make it clear that the project will not be finished without their input, make sure you get paid, and move on.

Answer 7

Face time with the individuals. Not always possible, but inviting someone out for an informal coffee is going to allow you ask what is going on.

Answer 8

In short: let them feel the pain.

I was working for a client, who only wanted to proceed so far, and then evaluate. But contacting them was hit or miss, and response was slow.

Do everything that you can within your mandate. If its just a decision on how to accomplish something, then that falls to you. (I personally like making the decisions myself). If it is a question of whether you have approval to spend time doing something (and billing for it). Then you can't do it (yet).

If you have approval but are worried about doing something the wrong way, do it the most logical way possible (making some assumptions), and bill for it. The client will come back and tell you about incorrect assumptions you may have made. Some assumptions you have made may be correct, or at least 'good enough' from the client's point of view.

Once you are finished with your mandate, move on to another client. You may hear back from your original client at some point, but you may be pre-occupied. Tell them you have another client, and you hope to get back to them in 4-6 weeks. This may get your approval to proceed on all items. Any 'critical' issues you may have to juggle.

You can consider telling them about (unnamed) other clients during developement. Explain that you have another project to start up, so you need to finish your current one as soon as possible.

Answer 9

It's too late with this contract, but for the future you could always implement a monthly "contract maintenance fee". Fore every month that the contract is open, you get some non trivial amount of money to maintain the contract (nag them to get their piece done, etc.). It could be a couple hundred dollars (I'm sure the time you've put in is worth it). You could also have a clause to absorb the fee if you are sufficiently occupied by their work.

Basically you are putting your self into a Cost-Plus structure for at least part of the contract.

You could even have this fee eat into the budget for the rest of the project. Once the budget is gone, the project is over.

Answer 10

Most of the projects in this part of the world have fixed schedules and payments, the vendors usually schedule 1 or 2 days for getting information or approval from their clients.

When they request the approval/info, their timer stops ticking, and the project's schedule slips daily.

They would remind the clients every other day at first, then weekly.

Answer 11

there's a few different approaches I've tried:

Be Direct - email the group always and within the email provide next steps, when the response is needed and who specifically needs to do it (define the approval rule by Tue. - David R., provide the contact for vendor x - Sue K., etc.) and each email afterward include the date the task was assigned and how long its been outstanding.

Proceed unless told otherwise - The email contains the course of action(s) you will take unless told otherwise within 3 days. We will utilize the following rules and screen layouts. if there are any issues or questions please respond to this email within 3 days.

Deliver the product - declare the product done, put it on a beta server and give them 30 days notice to deliver any outstanding items. and don't forget to send them the bill.

Answer 12

Most of the answers focus on what to tell the client, not how to tell him. In my eyes this is wrong; you don't have an information-related problem (you already tell your clients everything they need), you have a communication-problem.

My suggestion: Do not write a bunch of emails. Nobody reads them; they are easily ignored. Do call them. You cannot postpone answering a call. After the call, write an email with a summary of the call ("Hi $Client_name, thank you for the phone conversation we just had. Here's what i understood we agreed on: You give feedback by $deadline_1; i'll do $task__X. Greetings, $Your_Name").

This way the client cannot ignore you and you still have written proof that you did everything in your power to finish the project.