Transparency. It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot these days in corporate marketing speak. Despite the trendiness of the term, actually being transparent with your clients is anything but cliche. In truth, transparency during project work is just as critical to your organization’s success as delivering the desired project outcomes — if not more so.
But what makes project transparency so important? And how can you most effectively increase project visibility for all clients and stakeholders using performance management software? Read on to find out!
Why is transparency important during project work?
When it comes to project work, transparency is key for one simple yet critical reason: it builds trust. And when you earn your clients’ trust, you’re far more likely to earn their repeat business (more on that in just a minute).
The truth is, savvy clients don’t expect every project to go off without a hitch. They understand that sometimes challenges arise, whether due to technical malfunctions or human error. The trick is being open, honest, and upfront with project stakeholders when hiccups do occur and keeping them informed of the corrective actions being taken, as well as their resolutions.
In business, as in life, trust is crucial to maintaining positive relationships. For your clients, it’s a central component of the overall service experience.
What are the benefits of offering transparency for clients?
So, project transparency helps you build trust with clients and deliver more from a customer service standpoint. But why should that matter if you’re turning around impeccable project outcomes on time and on budget?
Here’s the thing: simply delivering desired results is not enough to keep clients and stakeholders happy if they feel they’re being neglected or left out of the loop through the project lifecycle. In fact, failure to engage with clients on a consistent basis can end up costing you their future business, which naturally impacts your company’s bottom line.
Like it or not, customer experience plays a major role in determining overall satisfaction — which directly correlates to retention rates. Small Business Trends found that 82% of customers said that a company had lost their business due to poor customer experience.
As it stands, the probability of seeing repeat business from current clients is 60-70%, while your chances of onboarding a new prospect are only 5-20% This means that it pays to keep your clients happy by providing the best possible experience while delivering great results.
To sum it up:
- Positive client experience involves more than just satisfactory delivery of project outcomes
- Transparency throughout the project lifecycle is an integral component of the client experience
- Performance management software can help you keep clients and project stakeholders in the loop by providing total transparency
Now, let’s dig into this last point a little bit deeper.
How performance management software keeps your clients in the loop
Before we break down exactly how performance management software can foster project transparency and help you keep clients informed, let’s address one question you may be asking at this point: what is performance management software?
Simply put, performance management software is a tool that helps organizations optimize collaboration, maximize utilization, and increase profit margins. Rather than using multiple programs and disjointed tools that don’t always play nice with each other, a solid performance management system can help you coordinate internal teams and external clients in one all-inclusive, easy-to-use platform.
By using performance management software, you’ll benefit from centralized communication, visibility, and accountability — not just within your company, but across clients and stakeholders as well. You see, the right software provides real-time visibility at every stage of a project’s lifecycle, allowing your clients to see exactly what’s going on with their project at any given time. Additionally, all stakeholders can communicate with internal teams through the same platform, making 100% transparency for your clients a reality.
How to choose the best performance management software for your company
Clearly, performance management software can help you optimize client services and improve professional relationships. But how do you go about choosing the best software for your company?
The best place to start is by asking exactly what a given platform can do for you.
For example, can the software:
- Provide you with proven professional services management templates?
- Automate repeatable processes?
- Integrate with your CRM, billing, and invoicing tools to streamline operations?
Here’s the good news: Wrike provides you and your company with all these capabilities, plus much more. But don’t take our word for it — put Wrike through its paces and discover exactly what it can do for you with a free two-week trial. Just tap below to get started!
