These days it’s easier than ever to offer clients real-time windows into what you’re up to exactly, keeping clients in the loop and consultants on top of things.
If you are a consultant, whether you offer flat-rate, per-project pricing or hourly agreements, if you are keeping track of all your stuff to do in a system somewhere, wouldn’t it be nice for your client to see what you are up to?
For most contractor/customer relationships, the extent of collaboration these days is email and a shared drive. But what if contractors and clients were able to engage each other as something more like co-workers? Not in the sense of rented on-site staff, but in those cases when the customer is sending the contractor a bunch of stuff, then having to wait to hear back how it’s going.
Several online project management systems offer the option to add users with varying privileges, but not most. But if you try out a tool like Teamwork.com or Basecamp, you’ll see this capability, and it’s a great opportunity for consultant’s not only provide transparency to their clients, but to engage and connect with them.
With a tool like Basecamp, a contractor can list key milestones or deliverables, and reveal progess and priority to the customer, who can either login as a read-only user, or login to really get involved and post content and files or edit tasks.
Teamwork.com takes these capabilities even further, enabling a contractor to optionally reveal time charges in real-time, thread emails right into task lists, and share only specific portions of your project with a customer.
The bottom line is that everyone is becoming accustomed to being involved and being aware, and the days of operating in a vacuum are fast fading. When hiring a contractor, customers should enquire to what level of updating or visibility they can be provided during a billing period. There’s no reason not to, the capabilities are all here.