This is a service industry. Birddog is a service company. We provide professional services. This is a service industry. Birddog is a service company. We provide professional services. Not products. Not widgets that can be picked off the shelf, inspected, weighed, price-checked, scanned and paid for at checkout.

Service companies provide bespoke, specialist, professional services where no two requirements are the same. Every client is different; every solution made to measure. There are similarities and processes that can be repeated, but the delivery is unique every time.

So it comes as no surprise that projects rarely go according to plan. In many respects, precisely because each project is so different, the processes and experience that are applied to them are about the only thing that stands between success and catastrophic failure. And we do this willingly – enthusiastically even. Clients and agencies alike wake up every day, go to work and stand in front of their peers to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the wheel!” We reinvent the process every day – it’s the same, but different.

And the variety, the ‘challenge’ is what keeps us going. But the speed of delivery, the uneven playing field, the twists and turns along the way mean at best, plans change, and at worst it all goes tits-up. Those are the cards we’ve been dealt.

But my point isn’t, ‘shit happens – deal with it’. Nor is this a tale of woe resulting in the aforementioned colonic disintegration. The opposite, in fact. If something can go wrong, it will – the important part is how you respond to the challenge.

We’ve just finished a website. It was a big project for an important client and Birddog was expected to deliver everything required to launch the site. Well, the truth is we don’t deliver everything, not by ourselves at least. We outsource components – in this case the HTML geekery. So far, so good.

And then the changes started. Changes of specification, changes of copy, changes of functionality, changes of content, changes of mind. Changes of underpants. Clearly the changes shouldn’t happen and in the ideal world the project would run without a hitch or interruption. But that never happens so it is at this point we reach the crossroads. Down one road is the ‘contract’ – the small print, holding the client to the agreed specification and the end of a beautiful friendship. Down another is the sucking of teeth, the tut-tutting, the client amendment penalties… and the end of a beautiful friendship. Down the third road is the ability to give the client what they ask for and retain the ability to smile. That ‘third way’ is a hard enough road to travel when the requirement is self-contained. When it requires the willing participation of other parties – well, that’s what separates the wheat from the chaff.

I’m not usually exposed to the intricacies of project delivery. One of the few benefits of my grey, receding hairline accessorised with deepening wrinkles, is the ability to delegate, secure in the knowledge that others more deserving will soon have a similar sallow complexion. But I was privileged to witness this one.

For the first time in a long time, I saw a supplier move heaven and earth to deliver a website that reflected the client’s ever changing mood. They did it without a thought for their safety. They responded positively to every curve ball. And smiled.

I was humbled. Having been on the receiving end of this positive experience as well as on the sharp end of negative ones, we must remember that in a service industry the ability to provide a service isn’t a differentiator or a mandate – it’s an entry point. This is a service industry. Birddog is a service company. We’re going to smile more.