Are the SMEs satisfied with you?

[Geoff Hart <Geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Genevieve Burt is <<... thinking I should start sending out
some kind of "customer satisfaction" survey to the SMEs
I work with just to make sure they're happy with my
approach.>>

I've tried this before for myself in various ways, formal and
informal, and the Communications Team I work on made this
kind of feedback (all anonymous) part of our annual
evaluation process (since we're a self-directed team and have
no manager to evaluate us). The gesture is appreciated by all
our internal clients, but even with the occasional boot in the
butt by Management, the clients never give us much of
anything useful in writing. On the whole, what's worked best
is the same thing that keeps any relationship, work-based or
otherwise, going: keep in regular contact with your people,
watch for changes in how they respond to you, and build
enough mutual trust that they figure they can honestly
express criticism (e.g., adopt their suggestions every now and
then so they figure it's worth making suggestions). The
second point is probably the most important. Sometimes you
really need the occasional: "Hey, you looked upset by that
edit. Can I do it differently next time to make it easier for
you?" Speaking as the resident Polyanna, I admit that this
fails as often as it works, but it does work surprisingly often.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens,
something just calling out for us to discover it. But I
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George
Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)

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