Thursday, July 26, 2007

Agenda Goal Met & Client Trust via Champion

Regarding my last blog - Agenda, I did get my haircut in-time! All eight points of the agenda were presented, discussed and decided. However, I did receive considerable assistance from one building committee member. His actions shocked others, but to me it seemed a very practical offering.

Getting to know your Client:

I had ordered a complete survey for a Church project (Shop Local - Anderson Land Surveying of Cambridge, MN) . There seemed to be some missing information from the preliminary survey. Where did all the waste water and "poop" go? Nothing was on this first draft. The surveyor told me there were no visible signs of manhole covers, or connections to existing structures from the building. The city also didn't have drawings, but did indicate that the building is served by one particular manhole. After another trip to the site, the surveyor reconfirmed that there are no connections from the building. I suggested we televise the sewer line to find out where it all the "stuff" was flowing to. This investigation would cost an additional $600. A relatively small fee to avoid a potential $10,000 additional cost, and permit design of the addition to proceed.

Back to the point. This one committee member, after listening to the worries and concerns over this necessary expense stated "Look, if the church leaders later decides that this was not a legitimate expense, I'll write a personal check. Let's move onto the next issue."

It was great. Because this one member stepped up to the plate, we were able to discover that the building was still served by an original septic system. No one at the church was aware of this, it got them thinking "We never did receive a bill from the city for sewer service."

Getting the trust of your clients is often time consuming, but when something like this happens, and one person trusts you enough to take step one with you, that step can re-affirm your position as the expert. Hopefully from this point forward the entire client team will trust me enough to permit the building project to proceed on the most efficient route possible.

A champion on the other side of the table is sometimes all that is needed.

In an slightly related topic. Why do I pay to have my septic tank pumped every three years, when this system went 37 years without service?

2 comments:

Steve Fredlund said...

I have the opposite problem; I get my septic pumped about every 3 months to avoid the catastrophe of basement "stuff" which happened twice in the span of 2 months... now that is joy! I think my septic is about 100 years old but not going to change it until I have too... codes would probably change in there anyway.

Steve Fredlund said...

Good grief... post again.... let us hear about your interesting life....