Back when I was working full-time as a direct practice social worker while building my consulting business on the side, I had two types of clients. The clients I had at my day job who wanted me to help them with tasks such as applying for Medicaid, finding housing, or accompanying them to their medical appointments. My business clients, on the other hand, were executive directors or program directors wanting assistance with facilitating a workshop, designing a program or evaluation, or implementing an evaluation. Two different types of clients, two different sets of challenges and opportunities.

It didn’t matter whether the clients were seeking services on their own or where coming to me by referral. The common thread with these clients was that, eventually, the relationship would end.

In social work and in other helping professions, there’s a process that takes place when working with a client:

• Phase One: Engagement, Assessment, and Planning

• Phase Two: Intervention and Goal Attainment

• Phase Three: Evaluation and Termination

This process also takes place when you transition away from working one-on-one with individuals and begin working directly with nonprofits, community groups, and government agencies. Today, I’m focusing on Phase Three and how I’ve been applying it to how I reflect on the work I’ve done with my consulting clients.

Regardless of the length of time I’m contracted to work with a client, at the end of each relationship, I use this process. It’s very simple, and sometimes it’s more about quiet reflection, though I may write or type up how I’m feeling. I highly recommend using this process as it helps you to not only be reflective, but also be more strategic in how you choose your clients moving forward:

1) How did I feel about the overall project?

When a potential client fills out my client questionnaire , it gives me the chance to screen them before speaking with them face to face or by phone.  It’s very encouraging when you’re contacted to gauge your interest in working for someone, and sometimes I’ve jumped at the chance to work with a client simply because I’ve always wanted to work with that group or organization. When a potential client tells you what they need and why they feel you’re the person for the job, it’s very flattering but I try to gauge my interest in working on the project based on my own interests, and if I can actually provide value to the client. Some questions to consider:

• How did I find out about this project, or how did the client find out about me? (Did the client contact me directly or was the client a referral?)
• Did I enjoy the focus of the project?
• Have I worked with this population before or did this project give me the opportunity to work with a new population?
• Did this project provide opportunities for me to learn new skills?
• Was this an opportunity for me to work with a group or person that I consider my ideal client?

2) How did I feel about my work/role within the project?

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After reviewing the responses to your potential client questionnaire, meeting either in person, virtually, or by phone, and putting the finishing touches on your contract, you’ve landed a new client.

This is part of the on-boarding process, where you’re brought on as a consultant or contract worker for a new project. And since I do most of my consulting around program design and evaluation work, I’m going to speak within the context of working with a new client who has hired you to either develop a program theory model or to design an evaluation specific to an existing program.

To start, most evaluation projects tend to last for an agreed upon length of time. If you’re hired as an external evaluator, and you’ve never worked with this client before, you’re already at an advantage.  An evaluator works with program directors and executive directors to “tell the story”  of their program through identifying potential outcomes for the program activities, creating a data collection process that aligns most with the program and what questions the organization is expecting to answer, and analyzing the results. As an external evaluator, you’re the ideal person because 1) you’re the expert, 2) they may not have the staff capacity to do what you’re about to do, and 3) you don’t come with “baggage” (i.e. you’re not intimately involved with the goings-on of the program, thus being more objective and impartial.)

Despite this, being an external evaluation can also work against you if you don’t make good use of your first days with a new client.

Before you start discussing qualitative versus quantitive data collection or what to highlight in an executive summary, you need to understand what’s going on with the program you’re evaluating and the environment you’re going into. It’s like your first day on the job as a full-time employee. The more you know, the more ahead of the game you’ll be. (more…)

Note June 2019: I’ve updated my client questionnaire. Take a peek here.

Starting off on the right footing with a potential client is important. I do this is by using potential client questionnaires: one for potential clients that are interested in my program evaluation consulting services and one for people who want to invite me to be a speaker for their event. Today, I’m going to focus on the questionnaire I’ve developed for individuals who are interested in my program evaluation consulting services.

A client questionnaire helps you get a snapshot of where your potential client currently is, what problem they’re hoping you can solve, and how they see themselves using the final product in the future. A client questionnaire also helps you to gain clarity on what the client needs, so as to avoid repeatedly going back to the client throughout the project to for more information.

I use a client questionnaire as a preliminary way of connecting with the client. Some people are good at responding to a request, getting on the phone, and taking it from there. I like to at least know a little about the organization/agency, their experience with working with external evaluators, and what programs or services they want me to assist with before I have contact with them.

I also use the client questionnaire as part of my client connecting phase before I start a project:

• Client questionnaire
• Phone conversation
• Face to face meeting (this can be done in person if the client in located near you, or over Skype, Google Hangout, and the like)
• If all goes well, review and sign contract
• Get to work

If you don’t have a client questionnaire, I highly recommend you create one. You don’t need any elaborate software. Mine was created using Google Docs. If you don’t know what questions to ask, here are the questions from my questionnaire. Feel free to use the questions that work best for you, and update it after every couple of clients to address any recurring issues you’re having:

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