Client Assessment Traps
Posted: Monday, August 30, 2010
by Helen Ewing
The Ewing Group, LLC
Have you ever been excited to fill out an assessment wondering how your business, your personality, or your leadership style fit in with the business world? In reading the questions you analyze how your answers might be interpreted and select the best answer that has the highest probability of giving you the best result, right? Let's be honest, most people do exactly that. Our own personal filters typically prevent us from confirming the raw truth about what the assessment is trying to evaluate. After all, we would not be going through the assessment process at all if we did not already recognize the need for help in an area and the assessment is just the first part of the "paperwork" to getting that assistance. We already admitted we needed help by signing up for the workshop, the class, or the consulting. Putting it in writing just increases the anxiety.
Perhaps, it is time to evaluate our assessment methods by asking ourselves some difficult questions.
- How often was the results of the assessment referred back to by you and your clients?
- How did it really direct the client relationship after learning the results of the assessment?
- How long did it take to interpret the results and summarize them for the client?
- How could the assessment method be improved number of questions and relevance?
- What was the cost involved to interpret the results your time as well as any external processing?
- Is the client masking significant issues in order to fit the range of assessment results?
- What is the overall value of the assessment for you and your clients?
Many consultants and service providers believe that if an assessment is not offered as part of their deliverables then the services they provide are perceived as less legitimate by the client. While this may be true to some degree, it is not a reason to avoid the evaluation of the assessment tool itself.
If the effectiveness and authenticity of using the assessment can be improved, the client would feel like the assessment had a positive effect on the client / service provider relationship versus supplying superfluous information. The assessment method could be used as a real tool during the client relationship to enrich it verses gathering dust in a client file. Lastly, the assessment process could be streamlined to afford the service provider more time to spend with clients.
What is your next step?
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Thanks for a nice article..I am glad you enjoyed it.
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