Client loyalty is a funny thing.
In today's A/E industry, where we spend a lot of time worrying about and/or trying to prevent commoditization, we are often told that loyalty no longer exists—that clients are no longer loyal to consultants and vice versa.
Apparently, clients want the consultant that can be bought for the lowest cost and consultants want the clients who can provide the greatest profitability, regardless of how long-standing or successful their relationship has been.
Although it flies in the face of contemporary "wisdom," I still believe in loyalty. I believe it still exists between clients and consultants, in both directions, when the circumstances are right.
First of all, I believe that, no matter what, a consultant must practice a degree of humility, and can't go about always blowing his/her own horn. The client must never be made to feel that the consultant is the star of the piece. In fact, there are many instances where the consultant does the "heavy lifting" and the client gets star billing.
So a certain amount of risk-taking might be necessary and appropriate, but a certain degree of circumspection is also necessary and appropriate.
As David Weber has one of his characters say in "Like a Mighty Destiny,"
". . . while audacity was the handmaiden of success, overconfidence was the handmaiden of disaster."
Second, and equally important, is that promises must be kept. In a number of forums, I have heard clients say that the most important thing they expect from a consultant is:
"Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it."
I take this thought hand-in-hand with the prescription "under-promise and over-deliver." The hybrid situation is one where you do more than you promised and deliver it a day early.
On the "win work" side of things, I always try to deliver proposal drafts to my clients the day before the schedule says, and the final files in time to print and deliver the proposal a day before it's due. This gives the client the luxury of additional review and revision time, which is always appreciated.
On the "do work" side, I encourage my clients to schedule their projects so that deliverables can be given to the client before the scheduled time. Whether the client takes the luxury of additional review time or moves the project forward faster is totally up to the client, but the extra time is always appreciated.
In the long run, when a consultant or client delivers what was promised ahead of schedule, it makes the client or owner aware that they might not be able to count on the same behavior from others. Since time is the one commodity that is not replaceable, the benefits of unexpected additional time are rarely underrated.
So the consultant delivering extra time to the client, or the client delivering extra time to the owner, often finds him/herself valued properly, and their services sought after in more cases than not.
After all, we all want to get more than we paid for, and extra time can be the most valuable commodity of all.