Created with Sketch.
The Austin Company
  • Contact Us
  • Austin Consulting
  • Spanish
  • Why Austin
    • Leadership Team
    • Austin Past and Present
    • Safety
    • Results, Not Excuses
    • Project Gallery
  • Markets
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Food and Beverage
    • Pharmaceutical and Biotech
    • Automotive
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Process Industries
    • Utility Plant Support
    • Commercial
  • Services
    • Design and Engineering
    • Construction
    • Facility Maintenance
    • Location Consulting
    • Planning
    • Development and Financing
  • Subcontractors
  • Careers
  • News & Blog
  • Why Austin
    • Leadership
    • Austin Past and Present
    • Safety
    • Results, Not Excuses
    • Project Gallery
  • Markets
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Food and Beverage
    • Pharmaceutical and Biotech
    • Automotive
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Process Industries
    • Utility Plant Support
    • Commercial
  • Services
    • Design and Engineering
    • Construction
    • Facility Maintenance
    • Location Consulting
    • Planning
    • Development and Financing
  • Subcontractors
  • Careers
  • News & Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Austin Consulting
Home > Building Relationship Equity through Continuous Feedback
NEWS & BLOG

January 18, 2016 posted in Organizational Values, Personal Development

Building Relationship Equity through Continuous Feedback

Headshot of Michael G Pierce

Mike Pierce

President and CEO

Call 440.544.2607 Email Mike View Profile

Recently, Austin made the initial investment in a Client Feedback Tool. This is a tool designed to monitor a client’s perception of the quality of your services and results, especially as you reach project milestones. A critical benefit to this process is that it engages the team in measuring perceptions as they move through a project, instead of waiting until the end. “Postmortems that discover how you could have saved the patient are never an optimal exercise.”

During the orientation to this tool, we discussed the theory of relationship equity. The theory of Relationship Equity centers on the idea that people generally believe that for a healthy relationship to exist, there has to be fairness between the parties. Simple enough, right? The complexity comes in when people have different perceptions of what is fair.

For example, John prides himself on his organizational and time management skills, and never leaves the office until he answers all of his emails. Mary, his client, who is at the jobsite, expects responses to her inquiries about the project throughout the day, and is frustrated when she has to wait all day to get a response to an issue. The job is going very well – on time, on budget, good quality – but the client is not happy.

Now go back to the start of a project. Congratulations, you have been awarded this project. You have shown the client that you are the best value competitor to execute this project. Your winning sales efforts created a greater bank account of relationship equity than your competitors were able to create. Now, what will you do with that equity?

For the purpose of discussion, let’s put a number to it. Let’s say at the contract signing, we have equity valued at 50. It is highly unlikely that at the end of the job, the equity will be unchanged. In John and Mary’s case, Mary expects the project to be completed on time, on budget and with good quality. That is what the 50 is based on. John’s inability to meet Mary’s expectations of responsiveness debits the account. Mary is not expecting perfection. She considers herself to be reasonable, but John is not meeting her needs for response time.

Perhaps at a certain point, Mary’s frustration causes the equity to decrease to 45. It sits there for a while until an issue happens on the project one morning that needs John’s attention. By the end of the day when John gets to it, time and money is wasted. Equity is now at 40 and decreasing.

The likelihood of a repeat assignment from Mary, or even a referral, is dependent on whether the equity is higher or lower at the end of the project. Where is it going to wind up if John continues to think he’s doing a great job, but fails to increase his relationship equity?

So the key, as is the key to all relationships, is that deposits need to be made into the relationship account to build its value. Most importantly, the deposits MUST have value in the eyes of the client. If John nicely documents monthly reports with lots of color pictures that Mary doesn’t even look at, it is of no value to her and adds no equity.

So, how do we know what is valuable to a client? Simple – we ask. Regularly and follow-up. We make sure we are addressing the subjective expectations, as well as the objective ones. We listen, we care and we follow through. It’s a great formula for success. I look forward to adding relationship equity to our continuous improvement initiatives this year. Think about how much we can learn.

“If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we’ll turn out all right.”

Jeff Bezos

“Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most will never bother to complain. They’ll just walk away.”

Marilyn Suttle

“Instead of selling to your customers, help them buy.”

Mahyar Mottahed


Looking for an expert?

To connect with one of our knowledgeable team members for a media opportunity, please contact Leslie Panfil via phone or email. We look forward to sharing our expertise!

440.544.2255 | info@theaustin.com

MORE NEWS FROM THE AUSTIN

The Heart of the Matter

March 13, 2023 by Sean Barr, PMP

Winter Construction Safety Guide

March 9, 2023 by Charlie Engel

Two Books and a Podcast that Inspires Service, Leadership, and Purpose.

March 8, 2023 by Mike Pierce
Austin®
Transparency in Coverage Privacy Policy Employee Resources
  • Connect with The Austin Company on LinkedIn
  • Follow The Austin Company on Facebook
  • Follow The Austin Company on Twitter
  • Subscribe to The Austin Company's YouTube Channel
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Manage Cookie Consent


This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember you. We use this information in order to improve and customize your browsing experience and for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy.

If you decline, your information won’t be tracked when you visit this website. A single cookie will be used in your browser to remember your preference not to be tracked.


We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “ACCEPT”, you consent to the use of all cookies. For more information, please visit our Privacy Policy.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}