As I travel around the country and have the privilege of working with some of the finest firms in the country. Some firms are large, some are small, some compete on price to market their work and others position themselves to be selected on the basis of qualifications. I find that they all have a lot in common. Some of them are good things and some of them are bad things.

For example, they all say they can't find enough good people -- yet they are doing very little to find good people. Many of them say that they need to get more people involved with the marketing effort -- yet the only plan they have is to lecture employees about the need to get involved with marketing. However the one thing they all have in common is their belief that they give the best possible customer service.

I have to say that most of the firms I have consulted with provide a very high level of customer service. They always return phone calls and e-mails. They rearrange their already overloaded schedules to accommodate their client's wishes (or whims). No client request is too small, too large or too unreasonable. They sometimes seem to be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

I think our efforts to accommodate our clients are extraordinary and often go far beyond the call of duty. I also think this is a great way to do business and a great way to build long term relationships with your client.

The only problem I have with this way of doing business is that most A/E professionals confuse client service with free service. When I ask my clients or seminar attendees why they don't charge a fee for all of their efforts that are clearly beyond the scope services, they couch it in terms of "I don't want to nickel and dime them"; "I don't want to lose them as a client"; "This is part of our customer service"; "It only took a couple of days"&..

To tell you the truth, I don't believe them. The real reason they don't ask for more money is because they are uncomfortable asking for it. They haven't received any training in how to ask and haven't made the effort to acquire these skills. They have a problem justifying it in their own mind so how could they possibly explain it to the client?

Let me give you some ideas on how to justify it to yourself and to your clients. We are in a service business and offer our clients -- our expertise, our time and our level of service. If the client request something that was not contracted for we are entitled to additional compensation.

If the client requests a service be performed by tomorrow for something that might normally take 3 to 4 days, we are entitled to additional compensation for delivering a higher level of service. Think of FedEx. They charge one price for early morning delivery, another for late morning delivery, and another for afternoon delivery and another for 2 day services. Does it cost FedEx any more to deliver the package late morning rather than afternoon? Probably not -- but they are charging for a higher level of service. Their clients are willing to pay for this higher level of service and in most cases so are your clients.

Assume you have a fixed fee contract that calls for monthly job meetings and the client requests meetings every 2 weeks. They are demanding more of your time - time that could be used to earn revenue on another project. In this context time certainly equals money. If you give it away for free it costs you money. When asking to be compensated for additional meetings, don't forget that it is not only the meeting time that needs to be compensated -- there is meeting preparation and follow-up.

Doing work for free diminishes the value of your services and your profession. If you give it away for free, how much is it worth to the recipient. Do yourself, your employees and your profession a favor and don't confuse client service with working for free!