Frustration vent: spend hours writing detailed explanations of complex rate structure issues and tariff interpretations, then get calls asking questions that are answered right there in the report. Anyone else deal with clients who clearly don't read past the executive summary?
Clients not reading detailed sections
Floyd, welcome to consulting! I've accepted that most clients skim at best. That's why I put everything critical in the executive summary and use the detailed sections mainly for liability protection and my own documentation.
I actually budget time for "report explanation calls" now. Bill it as a separate line item for large audits. If they're going to need hand-holding through the findings anyway, might as well get compensated for it.
Randy that's smart. I started doing brief video summaries for complex reports. 5-10 minute walkthrough hitting the highlights. Clients love them and it cuts way down on the "can you explain this again" phone calls.
Tom, video summaries are brilliant! What do you use to record them? I've been thinking about trying this but wasn't sure about the tech side.
Neil, I use Loom for screen recordings. Super easy to record a walkthrough of the report with voice over. Clients can watch it multiple times and share it with their teams. Game changer for complex multi-site audits.
Leslie's right but I've found that good formatting helps. Bullet points, bold headers, text boxes for key takeaways. Make it scannable instead of walls of text. They might not read every word but they'll catch the important bits.