According to Merriam-Webster, approachable is defined as, “easy to meet or deal with,” and if you’ve ever worked with HelloInfo, you already know that we strive to make even the most complex research projects as easy for you as possible.
When Tanya and I founded HelloInfo, it was important to us that the company stand out among a sea of strategy consultants, and to do so, the path to this was clear: Make the whole project process EASIER, more FUN, more PLEASANT, more CREATIVE, and always make sure to give the client EXACTLY what they are looking for.
And with this, our company mission of “Approachable Intelligence” was born.
The history of Unapproachable intelligence
Having worked in the strategic research and consulting field for decades, Tanya and I have taken part in thousands of complex strategic projects. Beginning as researchers, and progressing over time to project managers, consultants, and later managing the teams that execute strategic research projects, we both have performed every possible role on a project team. In addition to this hands-on project experience, we have also:
- Collaborated with other strategic research firms, including the “Big 4”
- Sat in on client advisory sessions, or presentations from other strategic research firms
- Heard feedback from clients about their experiences with other strategic research firms
While all this experience and exposure has provided HelloInfo with key best practices to draw from, it also has provided inspiration for those areas where we saw an opportunity to do things better.
The factors that comprise Approachable Intelligence
At HelloInfo, our mission to deliver Approachable Intelligence trickles throughout our entire client relationships, beginning with project scoping and through the entire project process. At the end of a project, a client’s HelloInfo project team remains on call indefinitely to support with any questions, comments, or follow-ups that may need to be made.
From our perspective, Approachable Intelligence is critical across several points in the project process:
- The sales process – At HelloInfo, we make it easy to reach out to us, to speak with us, to scope projects out, and to get contracts in place. To do this, we deploy the use of software platforms for easy meeting booking, we make sure we are available to speak when our clients are, we keep our proposals easily digestible and to-the-point, and we don’t make clients wait a week to receive them.
- Project kickoff – When it comes time to kick off a project, HelloInfo project managers make it easy, coming to the (usually virtual) table with an organized approach to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page.
- Willingness to learn – Are your existing strategic research vendors willing to learn? Or do they feel that they need to prove to you that they already know it all? We find that the latter is a key risk to clients, and shortcoming of many of our peers. At HelloInfo, we prioritize our ability to be vulnerable with our clients, to ask clarification questions when necessary, and to schedule calls with industry experts to ensure that we deeply understand a topic prior to beginning to research it.
- Project communication – At any point during a project lifecycle, HelloInfo clients always know where their project stands. Whether it is through email updates, formal stakeholder update meetings, project management tools, shared Google Drives, shared Microsoft Teams, Slack channels, or other communication channels, one of the cornerstones of HelloInfo’s Approachable project execution is ensuring that our clients are always kept up to date on their project status.
- In-project flexibility – At HelloInfo, we call our ability to be flexible within project execution our “Tweaks & Pivots.” Anyone that has run a strategic research project knows that it is rarely a linear path to completion. As HelloInfo project managers communicate project status and ongoing research results with our clients, we always ensure that we can flexibly Tweak and Pivot our research approach. Did we find something that you’d like to research in more depth? No problem, let’s explore. Have we gone too far down a path that is no longer interesting? Let’s discuss how to redeploy our efforts. Because our clients are kept up to date, and because HelloInfo can nimbly adjust research parameters on the fly, project outcomes are exactly what are desired by the stakeholders.
- Willingness to accept feedback – As projects begin to surface tangible results, clients often have feedback that they offer, and edits that they’d like to be made. It is our experience that this can be a pain point for our clients when using other research vendors in our field, but HelloInfo strives to be wholly supportive of our clients’ needs during this time. By prioritizing our Approachability in this category, we can best support a project outcome that speaks exactly to our clients’ requests.
- Deliverables – All of HelloInfo’s deliverables are customized for each client, to ensure that they are not only easy to understand, but easy to socialize throughout an organization. Sometimes this means that we take the same detailed insights and package them in different ways for various audiences in a company – such as a 3-page Executive Summary for the C-Suite, or a webinar presentation for the entire Marketing Team.
- Post-project support – At HelloInfo, we are highly motivated to make sure that our research is utilized by our clients. Nothing gives us more pleasure than completing a strategic research project when we hear about how widely used and impactful our deliverables are across an organization. Our Approachable post-project support ensures that clients can reach back out to us at any time, with follow-up questions, edits they would like made, requests for additional presentations to new stakeholder groups, or other comments – for no extra cost.
The positive results of Approachable Intelligence
HelloInfo prioritizes making the project process easy on its clients. And our clients love our approach – feedback we receive after completed projects regularly praises not only our insights, but how easy we are to work with.
From one client, after supporting their thought leadership strategy by examining competitor approaches to key trends:
“Thanks team! Again, it was a pleasure. You made the process easy, and this research is going to be incredibly valuable to our strategy this year. Great work!”
From another client, after supporting their understanding of how businesses use its suite of bundled products:
“I really hope we get to work together again. You are at the top of my list for research shops I’d recommend to clients in need of quality work.”
At HelloInfo, we make it easy for you to trial a new strategic research vendor, by removing barriers and pain points associated with a traditionally frustrating onboarding process. Would you be interested in incorporating our fresh eyes and perspective to help your organization make strategic decisions? Schedule a call with us to explore how we can help you.