In these unique times it’s difficult to be certain about so many things that we have previously taken for granted. It reminds me a little of the Donald Rumsfeld quote about there being ‘known knowns’, ‘known unknowns and ‘unknown unknowns’.

So navigating your way through the ‘remote working (WFH) environment’ will no doubt involve trial and error not least for those organisations that have high value client or customer relationships to secure and (hopefully) grow. The reality is that there is no blueprint to which we can readily refer for guidance of what will be seen as important in this new scenario and/or how the process of engagement needs to shift; so inevitably there will be course corrections required, some of which may not be as effective as had been intended.

And for those that get it wrong, then in the days when we arrive at what is seen as some kind of similarity to what ‘used to be’, they may find that they lose out to those who got it right. In that sense, every service provider right now is already undergoing a process of (possibly unsaid but, in effect, de facto) review and thus potentially facing risks to the retention of their key client relationships and the revenue those relationships bring.

So if you are a service provider with a valuable client relationship to protect how do you identify whether there is a current risk to that relationship? Do you know, or do you think you know? Or would you like to be sure either way so that you can nip any problems in the bud and plan for a more effective approach going forward?

That’s the dilemma which a number of our service provider clients shared with us and asked if we could help them find out how they were doing in the eyes of their clients, recognising that the questions they had historically asked were not entirely appropriate for current times.

The result of these conversations was that we developed and last week launched, a brand new tool called Relationship Pulse™ which has been specifically designed to assess performance and relationships in this current remote working or WFH environment.

The response has been very positive and we already have a number of global and local communications agencies who have signed up to use it, recognising that different times require different questions about business relationship health.

So if you have a real ‘need to know’ about how you are doing with your key clients or customers and how to minimise your relationship risk, then please get in touch. Drop me a line for more details of how Relationship Pulse™ can help you better secure your future at