You can run the best project and your clients might love you the whole way along then destroy the way they feel about you right at the end if you don't manage your handover well.
Handover is where clients decide if they would ever hire you again or refer you, it's a REALLY important part of the client experience.
Clients will form their lasting opinion of you in this final handover period. If you ruin this step they won't remember how good your onboarding was or how great you were the whole way through, they will just remember you disappeared once you handed over the keys.
Across the industry this pattern repeats...designers think handover is done once the styling is finished, contractors think it’s done once the keys are handed over, architects think it’s done once the site is handed back to the client. Everyone moves on with new projects and often the client is left feeling abandoned.
But strong operators finish better than they start. They treat the final ten percent with the same seriousness as onboarding and they know the end of a project is a reputational asset.
Post Handover Checklist
Use this as a base standard no matter whether you're a designer, contractor, architect or cabinet maker. If there's been a big team involved in the project it can be good to arrange this meeting with all stakeholders:
- Book a formal post handover check in. Set a date and make it a real meeting that allows clients to talk through any issues with you or ask any questions (ideally do this after they've had a chance to live in the space for a a week or two)
- Don't wait for them to come to you with issues, proactively follow up with them
- Walk the spaces together and note every defect, adjustment or loose end that needs to be resolved
- Provide a rectification list with dates, responsibilities and next steps
- Coordinate trades or suppliers quickly. Keep the client updated on progress and manage their expectations
- Provide them with a handover pack that has warranties, manuals, paint schedules, maintenance notes and product details (get a template for that in my shop if you need it)
- Send a digital pack of drawings, approvals and variations. Try to do this in a coordinated way rather than send lots of random emails with different pieces of paper for them to keep track of. For example, a link to a Dropbox folder with everything in one space makes it a much better client experience than lots of random emails (your clients are busy, make life easy for them!)
- Add a 6 week and 12 week check in to your diary. Give the clients a call and make sure they are happy
- Request feedback or a testimonial only after all issues are resolved
It can be really tempting to avoid these steps because you get busy with other projects or some of the issues might be annoying to resolve.
But this handover moment is what will determine the way your clients think about you long term and whether or not they write you a great review and/or refer you to friends and family over the long term.
If you finish the project well they will talk about you for the right reasons. If you finish the project poorly they will warn everyone about you.
People will remember much more about how you finish than how you start so take off boarding and project closure seriously.
