Customer service vs. profitability: To what degree should each be sacrificed?

Engineering MEP Consulting firms (as do other businesses) have the precarious task of juggling profitability with customer service, and to what degree should each be sacrificed. Growing from an independent sole proprietor, into a professional corporation, required a very unique balance between the level of services to provide, maintaining project schedules, and of course, how to maintain profitability. Being a lone star and having to constantly focus on these three items, much attention is required to allocating the appropriate amount of time to each of these tasks and still maintaining an efficient company. Efficiency in this case should be measured as the success rate of being able to satisfy the most basic and also the most difficult client needs, while maintaining profitability. As we know in the construction and engineering industry, time is of the essence, and in addition, most clients who retain our services are looking for a little pampering and hand holding. But how do we attend to our client's needs, while maintaining delivery of their product on time? This becomes an issue many business owners have been facing over the past years, but is critical to the success of a company. Customer service is what clients want, and it is not an option to forgo it. As good an engineer one can be (or other), adding the spice of "customer service" to a project, allows for a more pleased client. This is essential for long term client stability and repeat type business. With the dynamics of the current markets, customer service, combined with quality, is going to be the recipe for success. During the past few years, clients were looking for speed and volume, over accuracy and service. Engineering companies, exasperated with volumes of work, could not afford the client hand holding and babysitting required for marketing the next project with that same client. Companies could also afford to maintain maximum fees and profitability while minimizing project design schedules in this volume frenzied environment. However, in today's markets, business owners need to rethink profitability and to provide a close, client service. Client service can, and usually does, come at some cost to the project. Additional time for phone calls, meetings, designs, marketing, etc. can quickly start to deplete the initial fees. In this dynamic environment, the "pro-bono" work in order to obtain a certain level of service is essential. This is not such a bad thing if this additional service turns into another project with the same client! It becomes the old give and take scenario, but needs to be executed within reason. As much as all companies need to divert more of their attention to customer services, smaller business in this tight market can have a dramatic advantage over larger companies. Larger companies are in the midst of downsizing to stabilize their companies, which can substantially divert from client customer services. Small engineering companies specifically can take advantage of this market to provide a higher level of customer service that clients have not recently been familiar with. Successful small business will typically have direct principal involvement throughout the course of the project. This same principal is typically involved directly with the design, client meetings, bidding, construction and closeout, which provides a strong quality of service for the client and inherent customer services. Clients feel they have gained a better value for their fee payments since they have been catered to by the principal of the company for the entire project. And yes, in a lot of cases, the time spent and costs on the project will increase, but the client is always right, especially in a challenging economy. Ideally, this will also lead to the next project. Client focus and service is a major requirement for many companies during these challenging times and will come at some cost to the profitability of a project or company, but it is absolutely essential in order to maintain a level of stability and possibly even some growth in a tight economy. Joseph Lecce, P.E., P.C. is the president of Lecce Engineering, Mt. Kisco, N.Y.