For those of you who have never heard of these, it’s basically a summary of a meeting, phone call, or even quick discussion you’ve had with a client. (It doesn’t hurt to do this with internal meetings too.) After every meeting, send a summary and list of action items to your team and your client. Trust me. It’s worth it.

The call report does NOT need to be an extensive document. It just needs to cover the basics. If you have a client who tends to “forget” what you talked about, you may need to be a bit more specific. No matter the level of detail, just do one. Every time.

I can’t tell you how many times there has been a conflict about what we decided, a task unassigned, or a lack of follow up on an urgent request. With the call report, this is practically impossible. I have had times where the client was quite upset with a situation and couldn’t believe we chose to go down a certain path for his design. Based on a meeting we had over two months ago, I vaguely remembered him requesting something along those lines, but I honestly had no idea what we decided. I feared we were in for a huge change (and a significant loss of money). Low and behold…the magical call report. I pulled up the old document that was sent to my client the day after the meeting, and copied the exact statement saying he agreed to the change. Not only did he insist on this change, but he also agreed that it was out of scope. The call report saved us hours of headaches and a bundle of money. This is not just a random example. These types of things happen at least once a week, and the meeting report has saved my team, my company, and myself a lot of problems. So, I beg of you. Take the time. It’s worth it. And who knows? It may even save a life or two.

While, I commend companies for doing this environmentally-friendly push, I think they are going about it the wrong way. Most companies seem to be doing this as the next trendy, cool thing to do. They are using this opportunity to be leaders in this category, and if they truly feel that this is the right thing to do, then bravo! However, if they really think it’s the right thing to do for the industry, why aren’t they encouraging everyone in the industry to do the same, instead of using it to prove their own brand’s worth? Consumers are smarter and more cynical than we give them credit for. Personally, I think the average consumer can see right through this.

Attention Brand Marketers: Don’t use this “green” opportunity as a brand differentiator! It may seem like the thing to do now, but if this really is the way of the future, within months every company will be pushing for green and showing off their capabilities. Don’t rely on a one-time fad to be your companies brand benefit. I beg you to look inside your company and find the true differentiating benefit and really focus on that in your advertising campaigns. The green effort is an amazing thing to do, and great to talk about in your marketing. Keep doing it! But, don’t rely on that to get you more business. It’s obvious you found a trend to latch onto and a big following for it. Try to stay a step ahead of the fad and don’t just look to find the next trendy thing. Your company was made for a reason. Obviously there was a need for your product, service, or whatever it is you offer. Once you show consumers why you exist, and reasons to believe that inherit benefit you can offer them, I have no doubt your company will succeed.