The first two weeks decide the engagement
Almost every difficult client relationship was set up in the opening fortnight, by things nobody said.
Client relationships develop a character early and it is difficult to change afterwards. A client who learns in week one that requests get answered instantly and revisions are unlimited has learned something durable.
Establish the working pattern deliberately
- How communication happens, and expected response times. Stating 'within one working day' prevents the drift toward instant availability.
- Who is the single point of contact on each side, and who approves.
- When updates arrive, in what form, and on what day.
- How changes are handled, in one sentence.
- What you need from them, and by when.
Twenty minutes at kickoff. It is the highest-return conversation in the entire engagement, and it is almost always skipped in favour of discussing the work. For organisations considering stealth monitoring software, expectations about notice, proportionality and purpose should be explicit before the engagement starts.
Responding to a Saturday email in week one establishes that Saturday emails get answered. Nothing you say later changes that as effectively as not doing it once.
Ask what has gone wrong before
Ask directly about the last supplier: what worked, what did not, what they would do differently. Clients answer this honestly and it is extremely informative.
It tells you their expectations, their sensitivities, and occasionally that they are the common factor. All three are useful before the work starts. Where contractor status affects the relationship, GOV.UK guidance on self-employed contractors provides useful legal-context guidance.
Deliver something small quickly
An early tangible deliverable does more for confidence than any amount of process. It demonstrates competence, gives the client something to react to, and surfaces misunderstandings while they are cheap.
This is why discovery phases ending in a document work so well: the client has something in hand within a fortnight.
Name the risks out loud
At kickoff, state the two or three things most likely to cause difficulty: content not arriving, an unclear approval chain, a dependency on a third party.
This feels negative and is read as competence. It also makes those issues discussable later without appearing to make excuses, because they were on the table from the beginning.
Get the administration done first
Contract signed, deposit paid, access granted, invoicing details confirmed. All of it before substantive work begins.
It is much easier to obtain in the enthusiastic opening period than in month two, and a client who cannot complete the administration in week one is telling you something worth hearing.