I went rafting with my daughter last week. We paddled down the Nantahala River in western North Carolina. Delaney was a champ and did a great job navigating the river. That’s me in the picture.

From the moment we called to rent the rafts, we knew we were in good hands with the Nantahala Outdoor Center. In fact, we’ve trusted them for years. They opened back in 1972, and I rented from them very early on.

From the time the young woman on the reservation line picked up the phone, it was clear what was happening and what was going to happen. She explained each and every step of the process from booking the raft, to payment, to how to get to the river.

Upon arrival at the river, we walked up to a desk with a clearly marked sign. The young guy explained what he was doing and what we should do next. He handed us a piece of paper, told us where to go for our wetsuits, and then told us exactly where we needed to be in ten minutes for our briefing, equipment allocation, and bus ride. There was never a moment when we didn’t know what was happening and what was next.

Do your clients know what’s happening? Do they know what’s next? Are they feeling in control and informed? When we know what’s going on, we relax, even in the face of whitewater. We know we can trust you, and we feel confident that we’re in good hands.

As we walked up to the life preservers, someone explained that they were universal in size. He told us we could use them if we weighed between 100 and 400 pounds and directed anyone over or under to a different space. On the bus, the driver explained what would happen on the ride and what would happen when we got to the put-in. Everything was explained step by step. Even as we started down the river, we knew what was coming. We’d been shown a video of the first rapid and told which path to follow.

Do your clients know what you did for them today? Do they know what you’re doing next? Or are they facing unexpected surprises?

Are they being served with documents they didn’t anticipate? Are they being asked to gather information at the last minute? Are they being told they need to come to court without lots of advance notice and time to prepare?

The situations we navigate with our clients are challenging, but we’ve been down this river before. We know where the rocks are and where the waves are and aren’t predictable. Sure, sometimes things go differently in a particular circumstance, but we often know which parts of a case involve those tricky situations, and we can predict the range of variables. The more we explain, the more secure our clients feel. Step-by-step explanation needs to be our standard operating procedure. We need to provide as much, if not more, certainty about the process as the whitewater river operators at the Nantahala.