Ok, maybe “love you” is going a bit far.  But customers are generally not our friends.  They’re who pay us and we need to please them.  It is their project or product, ultimately, and our overall success on the project will be judged – at least in part – by how satisfied the customer is in the end.  We can develop the best product or system in the world, but if the customer’s end user can’t use it, we failed.



So how do we make the customer love us?  We certainly don’t want to cater to their every wish.  That can get the entire project in trouble because we all know that the customer often doesn’t really know what they want and need.  But how do we completely win that customer over?  How do we guarantee that at the end of the project they’ll be singing our praises and the praises of our entire team?



#1 – Deliver bad news early



We hate to deliver the bad news, but there’s always some bad news.  Whether it’s telling the customer that the project is going over budget, that a deadline will be missed, or simply that a potentially expensive change order is necessary … there’s always some bad news to deliver.  Don’t delay it.  Don’t wait.  Give it to the customer promptly and preferably come with a lot of information and some potential solutions.  It’s always better to deliver bad news when you have some potentially good news to add to it.



#2 – Be on time



Do what you say you’re going to do and when you say you’re going to do it.  Deliver status reports and project schedules on time.  Use products like Seavus’ Project Planner and Project Viewer to stay on top of the project schedule and keep the customer informed.  Stick to the schedule on project deliverables (or give the customer bad news on potential delays EARLY – see above).  You definitely want to be someone that the customer can count on – someone they see as stable and reliable.



#3 – Communicate everything



More communication with the customer is far better than less.  When in doubt, communicate.  Put it in the status report, make note of it in the project meeting notes that you distribute – do whatever you have to do to make sure the customer has all necessary information in their hands.  You never want the customer to come back and say, “I didn’t know that.”  If it’s on something that becomes a major issue on the project - that’s a career killer.



#4 – Show your customer you have some internal clout



If you can show the customer that you’re well connected, they’ll be impressed and they’ll be more confident in your ability to work through issues on the project should they arise.  And they will arise.  Anything that gains more customer confidence is likely to also breed more customer satisfaction.



How do you do this?  Get tech support to work on issues quickly.  Bring executive management to a couple of project status meetings.  If the customer sees you bringing additional and visible positive attention to the project then they’ll know you’re connected and they’ll gain confidence in your ability to perform when things are on the line.



#5 – Deliver