How can you work with a slow-to-respond client and meet deadlines in construction management?

To work with a slow-to-respond client and meet deadlines in construction management, maintain clear communication, set realistic expectations, provide gentle reminders, and establish a proactive schedule with buffer time for potential delays.

If you are not actively driving and managing a project, working with slow-to-respond clients can adversely impact your schedule but there are work arounds. It is important to identify early on, which client areas of input and or approvals are needed by them during the process. Identify which approvals they want to be involved with and which approvals our company can execute with autonomy. Establish client review timelines and timeframes in order to maintain the schedule and identify a process to resolve if the client exceeds predetermined durations. In the end, actively communicating with the client is important and making crystal clear what are the impacts to the schedule if a decision is not reached by a specific time frame.

In my experience, clear communication with clients is absolutely essential, it is crucial to be transparent as possible. It shall cover project scope with a clear revealing to both parties expectation, this will help to secure the commitment of project timeline for both parties and other stakeholders, in such case also contract shall govern the formalization to any agreement to secure a healthy and professional relationship with the client.

Early engagement with the client is a safe way to facilitate prompt and efficient approval for projects on the Fast Track. It will also shorten review cycles, reduce errors in contractor submittals, and speed up the review process.

Large projects don’t require lengthily emails. SMART is key. Keep to the point go in with no more than 2 questions. Don’t repeat and don’t move on until your points have been answered. Face to face isn’t always an option but personal approach is my preferred option to communicate.

Throughout my experience I found many challenges during this phase that is setting all of our baseline or deadline. During the process of creating initial expectations, plans, or targets that are overly optimistic or unachievable given the resources, constraints, and circumstances of the project. This can lead to significant challenges and negative consequences throughout the project lifecycle. One must have to consider all the other factors affecting the project also having a good historical data or productivity rates while doing estimation helps to create more realistic Schedule and thus deadline.

Man sollte sich mit der Bauherrschaft absprechen und definieren, was realistische Fristen im expliziten Fall sind. Jede Bauherrschaft hat ihren eigenen Ablauf/Prozess bezüglich Freigaben und Entscheidungen. Darum ist dieser Punkt enorm wichtig und immer von neuem bei Projektstart zu definieren.

Setting realistic project deadlines is essential for effective project management. Include buffer time to accommodate potential delays. Avoid committing to unrealistic demands, and explain the rationale behind your deadlines, emphasizing their impact on project quality and cost. Use tools like Gantt charts to illustrate task dependencies and overall timelines to clients. When faced with client-requested changes, assess feasibility and impact, communicating these clearly. If changes affect deadlines, renegotiate with the client, securing written approval for transparency in project timelines.

use "self-serving" communications. i.e. We need a decision on your flooring color by ___ or we will miss the production slot and the project will be delayed by ____

I like to post all known critical ownership decisions in my GANTT chart timeline. I send out advance notices of impending decisions. The contract will typically dictate the timeline for review/approval windows, but other ownership decisions may not be held to the same criteria. Nevertheless; it's important to be vigilant and proactive in reminding ownership of specific consequences of respective delays in decision making - especially project schedule disruption. Accurate tracking of delayed decisions in the schedule will help bolster a contractor's negotiating position.

In my experience, overcommunicating with weekly emails, weekly meetings, etc explaining the timeline of needing answers and risks associated if not answered really helps push clients to make a decision.

Establish governance early on, with a clear articulation of accountability and scope for each party, including the client. Then do an excellent job in facilitating decision making by way of an effective communication framework, bite size information, always conveying the desired/recommended outcome, when inquiring a decision or a direction.

Manage your clients expectations by providing them with as much real time info on all facets of your responsibilities whether it’s materials and or manning the job accordingly based on Contractual obligations. Best time to do this is right away when awarded so the client can properly assess any risk to their schedule and switch any long lead time items to locally sourced options if need be. If not needed then you are ahead of the curb and expect a smooth procurement to project start transition.

This I feel is the hardest aspect of my position. People rarely allot enough time for my industry and have unrealistic expectations on delivery of the product. Too often they feel that they are the only customer we have and our employees are just sitting around until they make their decisions. We have an assembly line of projects going every moment of every day. Explaining our process in the beginning and letting them visit our facility are two factors I find to help alleviate the unreal expectations. The only other thing that helps is brutal honesty. Give them that in the beginning but follow through with great communication and they will trust you with that project and hopefully the others that follow.

The issue always becomes monetary. Most contracts are based on an end date or a construction schedule issued during the tender process. Once dates are past the owner/parties responsible are subject to delay claims. Labour escalation based on union agreements, material escalation, loss of productivity, overtime … can all factor in. The owner needs to be aware that he is making himself liable for these costs through inaction. If they are making late changes to the design, then they have to be prepared for these issues to be reflected in change order quotations.

Flexibility is pivotal in effective project management. Adapt to your client's needs, ensuring it doesn't compromise project quality. Respect diverse priorities and viewpoints, accommodating reasonable requests within the project scope. Transparently communicate limitations if requests are beyond feasibility, presenting alternative solutions. Demonstrate a willingness to make agreed-upon adjustments, thoroughly documenting modifications. This flexibility fosters a collaborative environment, enhancing client satisfaction and overall project success

Meet the client where they're at! No need to cling to the professionalism of email communication if the client doesn't respond well to them. If a client is quick to respond to texts or phone calls instead, adjust your method of outreach! Give a call or shoot a text explaining directly what you need from them, and then let them know you need them to sign off via email so that you still have a written record of your conversations/approvals. Also, don't get too into the weeds of why you need something done unless they ask. 9 times out of 10 customers are in over their head with the technicalities of the construction process so keep it simple and be willing to answer questions.

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial elements for successfully completing projects and establishing a lasting reputation in the market. The ability to adjust, revise, or tailor the work process in response to unplanned changes, proposals, and external events enables more effective navigation through challenging situations and unexpected surprises during project execution.

La exposición del problema y de las distintas alternativas para darle solución es clave para tomar decisiones desde una posición flexible en la que ambas partes empaticen con la otra.

Flexibility in construction management is crucial when dealing with a slow-to-respond client because it allows for adapting to unforeseen circumstances and delays. Being flexible in project timelines or adjusting workflows enables the construction team to accommodate the client's response pace without compromising the overall schedule. This adaptability promotes a more collaborative environment, helps manage expectations, and increases the chances of meeting deadlines by providing room for adjustments when working with a client who may not adhere strictly to the initially planned timeline.

Keep a record of every communication that has been made so far. To escalate the situation if the client is unresponsive or uncooperative these recorded documents will help. If the client does not respond to messages, calls, or emails within a reasonable time frame, or if they ignore or reject deadlines, deliverables, or recommendations, may need to take action. Contacting the client's supervisor, manager, or decision-maker, and explain the situation and its implications. Request their intervention and support, and ask them to communicate with the client. If that does not work, it may need to enforce the terms and conditions of the contract and apply the penalties or consequences for the breach of the agreement.

Micro management if needed. Everybody hate it but it are a must to finish on time. Make sure the paper work follow and money aswell. If not you have forced something and next time your staff will not assist in this micromanagement

Taking into consideration that you have been communicating early enough and this communication has been through the correct channels as per the contract then the record of delayed feed back can be documented and used as evidence that they have breached the contract.

It is important to be clear with the initial correspondence and set clear deadlines you need the answer by, also mention the risks if not responded to within that timeframe, such as schedule or cost impacts to the project. If deadlines are being met, after setting clear timing and expectations, then the last resort is to escalate. Escalation should be the last resort or effort to obtain the response needed, for the sake of the project schedule and budget.

Do not hesitate to escalate at any point of time especially in reaching out critical milestones, if you cannot cope with constraints within your own team. This is always great work around as it may remove internal roadblocks and allow you as PM to deliver to the promises or deadline

In the book "The Speed of Trust", the 4 elements of trust to build rapport are Competency Consistency Integrity Compassion Master those and you'll build rapport with any client no matter how difficult.

Send them a delay claim - nothing g like consequences to wake people up. Stop enabling bad behaviour by doing nothing and then ending up with the blame anyway The AI questionnaires are a lazy and ineffective way to engage in fact finding

People tend to trust who they like and like who they trust. Small talk and building a relationship is key to building rapport. Be intentional in your actions and take relationship building seriously.

O sucesso do projeto está diretamente ligado à jornada com o cliente. Quanto mais competência em criar um relacionamento maduro e profissional o time tiver, mais resultados o projeto vai entregar. E aqui vale acrescentar que tratamos do relacionamento no mais alto padrão ético e moral, onde as partes defendem os interesses legítimos e no fim do dia celebram juntos os bons resultados do projeto.

The reference by Josh to Stephen M.R. Covey's outstanding book "The Speed of Trust" is on point. Without a trust based foundation your project is bound to have many challenges. I'd like to further expand on trust as I believe it to be most critical in a relationship, business or personal. We all can relate to personal relationships and business relationships are not much different. If you don't have a trusting relationship with your partner you know how that goes. Same applies in business. Self Trust is the First Wave as Mr. Covey states in his book. Self Trust, "why personal credibility is the foundation of all trust". 4 Cores: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities and Results. Then you have Relationship Trust and the 13 Behaviors…

Typically, providing a deadline for response & making a recommendation on the best action deters this problem. There are clients who have impacted schedules so they miss the deadlines. I then schedule a half hour weekly meeting with those clients so that we can resolve outstanding items in that meeting. I had one client that was a top down managed company & contact was reluctant to make decisions for fear of making the wrong decision. The schedule was extremly high priority on this project so, I provided the typcial deadlines & recommendations but also established a protocol that if the deadline was missed, the project team would proceed with my recommended solution. It was the only way to meet the schedule requirements.

Sometimes, the Client needs assistance to analyse and solve problems. Helping Client by bringing them on a journey through optioneering exercise with pros and cons as well as providing recommendation could potentially help to expedite the decision making on the Client's part.

In my experience, everyone on the team (owner, contractor, subcontractors, engineers, architects, etc) want to work together and have an easy project. It's conflicting interest though and understanding what everyone else's angle is helps make the project more efficient leading to a happier client and leading to more profit. Focusing on profit first when doing things like change orders creates hostility with the owner holding a project up and eroding the chance for another project while also eroding profit and trust on this one. Focus on client and owner first and you'll be set.

I have seen some projects with the best talent available perform poorly and also projects with 'less skilled' people outperform the rest. My observation is that the best performers had a culture dedicated to performance, and their individual egos didn't take centre stage. Perhaps the difference lies therein that some teams can get behind the greater good and overcome communication obstacles, location and systems issues, etc. PMs should focus on leading and not managing. People will walk through fire behind the right leader and overcome obstacles that beggar belief. It starts and ends with leadership and enabling each person to be a leader in their unique position. Context is also underrated as a success factor.

To effectively coordinate change orders with other project activities, establishing clear communication channels among team members is crucial. Ensure everyone understands the impact of the change order on timelines, budgets, and resources. Integrating change management into the project plan and regularly updating schedules to reflect these changes will help maintain alignment among various project activities. The primary challenge lies in initiating change orders promptly while concurrently updating the cost and time schedules. It's essential to streamline the process, ensuring that the implementation of change orders aligns seamlessly with ongoing adjustments to the project's financial and temporal plans.