We have all kinds of tools to get information concerning our project distributed to the right people, don’t we?  We have MS Project or similar projects like Seavus’ Project Planner to use for managing our project schedule.  Word helps up put together project status meeting notes, project document and plan deliverables, and status reports.  Sometimes Excel can do the same – plus it’s great for project budgeting and forecasting.  For resource management it’s back to MS Project or another project scheduling tool or you can do it the old fashioned way with a spreadsheet like Excel.  And Visio helps us put together meaningful flowcharts for functional and technical design documents and other related project materials.  Finally, email is often our primary communication tool on projects. 

Since communication is probably the most critical function of the project manager, email is in heavy use throughout every engagement. Throughout the project, the project manager and the rest of the project team are utilizing these tools to create visual, professional, and hopefully meaningful and useful project documents to give to the customer and show to the organization’s executive management.  In fact, if the project manager is overseeing five or six or even more projects at once, the creation of these documents and files with these tools can end up taking most of his available time. 

Especially if accuracy and perfection is a goal – and it should be. Don’t forget the personal side What we need to always be aware of, however, is that our customer needs more than just information about the project.  And for communication they need more than daily emails.  It isn’t always about what we can produce for them and how professional it looks.  The project manager must be able to connect with the customer on a more personal level than with schedules, charts, and reports.  In order to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction, the customer must feel like they are ‘in touch’ with the project and the project team.  That isn’t likely to happen if all they see are emails coming their way with information and professional-looking document attachments. When we’re busy with multiple projects and many deliverable responsibilities throughout the week on each project we’re maintaining, how do we as the project manager keep it personal with the customer?  Here are a few tips to maintain that close link with the customer even when we’re overloaded with projects:

- Go beyond the weekly status call and reach out by phone to each project customer at least once a week

- Go onsite for key phase kickoff meetings to keep face time high with each customer

- Touch base informally – not just formally – with the customer several times per week via email to ensure they feel like there is always an open line of communication

- Get someone from your executive management team to sit in on at least one weekly status call with the customer so they know their project is visible and getting attention in the company

Summary

The tools we use are great – and running more than one project at a time would be nearly impossible without them.  But we must always remember the personal side of project management – the grass roots customer service side.  To maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, it really is a requirement.