5 Steps to Better Manage Your Customers' Expectations

ABSTRACT: You have completed your project on time, well within schedule and with great quality deliverables. You can feel your customer trying to distance himself from you. You are at a loss to understand why. Sounds familiar?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TITLE: 5 Steps to Better Manage Your Customers' Expectations

AUTHOR: Naseem Mariam, Project Management Coach WORD COUNT: 1499 words

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5 Steps to Better Manage Your Customers' Expectations By Naseem Mariam, Project Management Coach ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have completed your project on time, well within schedule and with great quality deliverables. You can feel your customer trying to distance himself from you. You are at a loss to understand why.

Sound familiar? The answer is that you have not satisfied your Customer's Expectations. You can't truly satisfy clients unless you satisfy their expectations. Expectations are your client's vision of a future state or action, usually unstated but which is critical to your success.

Expectations management is the key to successful project outcome. Expectations management is very similar to requirements management--but the crucial difference is that we are managing the client, not the product.

Traditionally project management could be summarized as a triangle with time, cost, and scope as the three vertices and quality in the middle. Today, this Project Management Triangle has given way to a Project Management Diamond with time, cost, scope and quality as the four vertices, and expectations in the middle.

1. Understand Customers' Expectations - Ask ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No two clients have exactly the same definition for "good service." So you will need to ask each customer for his expectations. Hulcher's Second Rule of Client Relations: * You will not satisfy a client unless you meet his or her expectations.

* You cannot meet client expectations until you know what they are.

* And you cannot know what they are unless you ask

2. Set Clear Expectations - Verify ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Controllable by Project Team

Before the project starts, document the following Expectations, Confirm it with the client and Inform all stakeholders including your own organization. Throughout the life of the project, verify that these Expectations are still valid. If not replace them with the current expectations.

a) Write down the project's 'key success factor' (time/cost/quality) and explicitly confirm it from the client. Inform all stakeholders. It is a good idea to list out Top 3 success factors.

b) Make a list of all time/cost/quality deliverables of the project that you think are important, and explicitly confirm them.

c) Actively listen for and clarify any ambiguous statements encountered, whether from the customer or from your own team.

d) Ask questions to ensure that you and the client are on the same track.

e) Avoid qualitative terms like "fast data transfer" and use clear-cut quantitative terms.

f) Ensure that all meetings are minuted and circulated to all stakeholders.

Uncontrollable by Project Team

Once you understand the expectations, find out the sources. The two most challenging sources are (a) the client's personal / professional background and preferences, and (b) expectations set by someone else. The only way to understand the clients' personal/professional background is to spend more time with them till you understand their motivations.

Others setting expectations could be from your own organisation like sales personnel. If you suspect that some expectations were set that you cannot satisfy, try to get help from those who did the "setting". Periodically check that the expectations haven't changed. A brief recap may reveal changes that need to be dealt with anew.

3. Monitoring Expectations - Follow up ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ask yourself these questions and analyze the reply. What are your expectations when you start a project? How and why do they change? See how they influence your actions and behavior during the project. Do this analysis for each stakeholder entity.

Ask your client questions and analyze the reply For example "Angela, when we started this project we had discussed what you expect out of this project and our relationship. You told us then that (fill in the blank) is very important to you. What I'd like to know is, how are we doing? Is there anything we are not doing that you wish we would? Is there anything we are doing that you wish we wouldn't? If there is anything you could change about me, our project or our company, what would it be? Are there any new factors or criteria that is now of importance to you?"

The 3 responses can be:

(a) "Yes. You are doing a wonderful job; a great job. I especially liked how your team handled (situation 1), (event 2)."

Congrats. You are on the right track.

(b) "On the whole I am pleased with your team's performance but I just wish you will (fill in the blank)."

Here you have gained the trust and confidence of your customer. Now provided you fix these gaps, the future looks promising. You should periodically get the feedback and upgrade your services. Surprise and delight the customer with extras.

(c) "Fine. Nothing to say."

Beware of such non-committal responses. You are in the danger zone.

To break the ice, respond "I am happy that we are doing fine. We would like to excel at all we do. Do help us provide excellent levels of service to you. What are the 3 most critical things that we can do to take our work from average/fine level to excellent level?"

It is a well-observed fact that customers rarely complain. Whether it is visiting a restaurant or buying some software, customers who find minor irritants will often not complain. They just take their future business elsewhere. Monitoring expectations is the best way to avoid this downtrend and subsequent silent severance of business relationships.

4. Influencing Expectations - Dialogue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(a) Establish trust: People buy only from those whom they trust. And trust needs to be earned. And sustained through constant follow-up and customer care. Read the case studies in "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace" to understand how important Trust is in a client-supplier relationship.

(b) Explain why: "It worked on my last three projects" (demonstrates experience), "It would cost less" (demonstrates partnership), "It has worked for (fill in the blank - mention white paper / journal) (demonstrates sound knowledge of domain)

(c) Educate: The more your clients know, the better they understand the complexity of your work and the impact their expectations have. When they make unrealistic or costly choices, they trust you to help them make the optimal choice. The client is not always right. He should be educated to take the best decisions in the interest of both the Client and the Project Team.

(d) Do it in private: Usually People will not change their minds or admit their lack of knowledge in public. Discuss the implications the pros & cons in one-on-one conversations with the stakeholder and then present the changed scenario as a joint decision. This will get you buy in from the person who had voiced the unrealistic expectation.

(e) Show them the benefits, then sell: Let them experience the benefits of what you're suggesting before attempting to sell the idea. Tell them how their life will change - what will they gain, what is the pain that they will avoid when they agree to the (revised) Expectations that you propose.

(f) Give more than you take: See if you can identify one or two of your client's expectations that you haven't acted on and which are relatively easy to satisfy. Ensure they're satisfied. Then bring up some expectation you would like to change. When the client perceives that you usually give more than what he demands, client will start having faith in your decisions.

Formulate win-win expectations: win for client and win for the project team. And do ensure a win for your parent organization. Inform the concerned stakeholder about a revised expectation where he will get less than what he had demanded. Provided you have done steps 2, 3 and 4 you will face less resistance to the changed expectation.

(g) Be proactive: Expectations get firmed up the longer they are left alone. Pre-empt them as early as possible. Bring up the 'dirty, sticky' ones yourself and do not bury them under the carpet only to spring nasty surprises at the client at the last minute. Remember that as a project manager you need to speak for BOTH the client and your project team.

5. Under promise and Over-deliver - Delight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the expectations have been written down in black and white, do give your client a few extras. Remember that what you give as extras is as important as the act of giving. Do not give cheap freeware or available-everywhere items as the extra benefits. Do not charge the client for the extras that you want to delight him with. Give him only things that he values and cares for.

In order to go this extra leg, you should have good ongoing dialogues with the customer. Maintain a good CRM database of client's preferences, his expectations in previous projects.

Ask yourself: What would you like to see in the product in case you were buying the product yourself. Give the level of service and support that you expect from others to your own clients.

In the final analysis: "Do good and good will come back to you." Treat your customers well - fulfill their need or remove their pain and they will make you rich.

References

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1. "The Concept of Expectations Management" By Jeff Gainer, Cutter IT Journal E-Mail Advisor 08 Nov 2000 Issue http://www.jeffgainer.com/expect_2.html" target="_blank">www.jeffgainer.com/expect_2.html 2. "The Art of Expectations Management" by Barry Boehm, IEEE Computer January 2000 (Vol. 33, No. 1) pp. 122-124

Copyright @ 2003 Project Dioxide Consultants (P) Ltd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About the Author

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Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars" Newsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace". Her writings draw life from her 18 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mailto:projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com" target="_blank">http://www.123projectmanagement.com

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