A client's blunt email about our project reports made me switch formats

They said our weekly PDFs were 'impossible to scan for the one thing they needed to know' and asked for a simple bullet list instead. I swapped to a three line email update with red, yellow, green status flags, and the feedback has been great. Has anyone else simplified their client reporting after a similar push?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara4298h ago

That "impossible to scan" line is the whole problem, isn't it. Did you ever figure out what the "one thing" actually was for them? I've found that can be different for every client, even when they all get the same report. Some only care about the budget number, others just want to know if they need to do something this week.

jake_mason303h ago

Forget the report itself. I started asking them to just point at the one chart they keep looking at. Their finger tells you everything.