It Takes All Of Us: Building Trust in the AEC Industry

In the A/E/C industry, our reputation and client relationships are our strongest form of marketingand securing new work. The process of building and maintaining these client relationships goes far beyond the marketing and proposal process and requires consistency and participation from everyone, from our administrative staff to corporate leadership.

Client-Centered Approach

Our clients need to be consistently at the core of everything we do, beginning with the pre-positioning phase and through to project completion and beyond. As soon as we are made aware of a potential project that we want to pursue, we need to have an open dialogue with the client to discuss their needs and how our approach and services can benefit them, and why we are the best firm for the project. We need to be mindful of any gaps in our experience or staffing, and have these gaps filled whenever possible by the time the RFP advertises. Sometimes this means spending monthsor years building a new client relationship through smaller, lower-profile projects or on a subconsultant level, and other times this can mean securing a strategic key hire with the existing relationship in place to lead our team to a winning proposal. In every interaction we have with our clients, this client-centered focus should be apparent and obvious; we want them to clearly see that we are adaptable and well-positioned to exceed their expectations.

Transparent Communication and Open Feedback

Perhaps the most effective way to earn our clients’ trust is by consistent, ongoing open communication and welcoming feedback at all stages of the project. Beginning at the pre-positioning phase (and before the cone of silence), it is important that we communicate our interest in upcoming projects and openly discuss any feedback from past projects or changing needs we can help the client to meet. Once the contract is awarded, our project teams need to maintain this lineof communication and provide regular, honest updates about the status of the project, even if we are facing schedule delays or setbacks. This honesty is imperative in maintaining this trust – even if it isn’t what the client wants to hear, they know that we are always going to tell them the truth. On the other hand, sometimes we can do all the pre-work and have all the conversations, submit a great proposal, and ultimately not win the project. Aftera loss is perhaps the best way to receive constructive feedback – what did we do right? Where did we fall short? This can help us determine next steps to better position ourselves for the next project. Most importantly, when we do propose on our next project with this client, we need to clearly demonstrate how we have acted on this feedback and made efforts to improve our approach, to show that we are listening and value their feedback.

Consistency in Branding

Too often, our technical teams can overlook our brand standards as unimportant and “nitpicky”. However, consistency in our branding and external marketing materials is of the utmost importance and helps to build our brand identity and reinforce trust in our brand. If our brand identity is strong enough, our clients will be able to recognize our proposals and other materials basedon our brand elements alone, even without our nameor logo present. This branding should also be a strong reflection of our values, mission, and quality standards – our strongest advertising in this industry is by embodying our core values and commitment to quality every day, in every client interaction in every project and proposal. Additionally, every deliverable and every staff member on a job site or client meeting are representing our brand with every interaction. Regardless of the circumstances, we should project a professional image that aligns with our brand’s mission and core values.

Professional Integrity

Finally, given the ethical guidelines and requirements in our industry regarding public work, our reputation for professional integrity will follow us from client to client, project to project. All staff members need to act with integrity and follow all ethical guidelines and legal standards while conducting any kind of work on behalf of a public-sector client. In the rare occasion that oneof our staff falls short in this important area, we need to take accountability and demonstrate to our clients that immediate action has been taken and show that the staff member’s actions do not reflect those of the firm and that the situation has been dealt with internally.

Overall, there are many ways to build, maintain, and lose our clients’ trust. The firm’s culture and core values need to be deeply ingrained into everything we do as a firm, and clearly demonstrated across projects and clients – our reputation is the strongest tool at our disposal to build our client base and to secure future work for our firm.