Best practices and strategies when managing clients
Good customer service is more than fulfilling the customer’s requirement. Essentially, it is defining strategies to maintain and satisfy the client. Unfortunately, most companies fail at this once the project has been acquired; leading to dissatisfied customers and dysfunctional relationships with vendors.
In this article, we will be outlining effective ways of how good customer relationships can be maintained by offering superior client assistance. These methods have been successfully implemented with one of our clients; for whom we developed and tested an Intensive Care Unit application.
Effective Listening
Consistent effective listening is key! We ensured this was carried out throughout the project, enabling us to competently complete the testing. When acquiring the project, multiple meetings were conducted with the client to fully understand their requirements. Due to our well-developed listening skills, we were able to identify new areas, and our expertise was utilized to suggest more efficient ways of conducting testing.
Build Trust
Customer expectations from their vendors are always high. Surpassing customer expectation to develop trust and building effective relationships is crucial. During the Intensive Care Unit application project, our team went above and beyond what was expected of them. Despite owning a fairly definite list of deliverables, additional effort was injected to ensure quality in testing and re-testing. This helped deliver a superior product. The test execution we conducted, provided suggestions and identified vital defects. This approach was highly appreciated by their team as we exceeded what was required of us.Effective Communication
Effective communication plays a major role when conveying ideas and responding to queries. During the Intensive Care Unit application project’s testing activities, communication was the core factor that helped us build stronger customer relationships. Email is often considered a minimal form of communication, however we ensured all email communications were precise, organized and professional. This resulted in depicting a clear picture of the project status and relevant issues. Additionally, daily sync-up calls gave us the opportunity to plan out our work with their team, so they could clearly understand what was done during each execution cycle.Accountability/Ownership
When handling client queries, it is important to be cautious of reponsiveness. During the Intensive Care Unit application project, we ensured that we responded to the client immediately. Even when we didn’t have enough time to respond to them in detail, we acknowledged their emails to convey we received the information, and will respond to them in detail later. This enabled us to earn the client’s trust. Importantly, letting the client know you have fully understood the problem and requirement should be done. During the Intensive Care Unit application project, we worked on weekends and on some public holidays, to ensure we gave our full effort to meet their needs or surpass them. We also planned our test scenario counts and prioritized them; showcasing a holistic picture of the test execution and related risks. Whenever we stumbled upon any risks, they were escalated to the project team who mitigated them beforehand.On-Time Delivery and Efficiency
When a customer hands over a project, they have a set of expectations, and in order to identify those it is vital to have a customer oriented mindset. This mindset and attitude helped us immensely to deliver the project on time. We often received positive customer feedback as a result of high customer satisfaction; leading to us winning another testing project from the same client. Therefore, as a team we ensure our utmost effort is given to satisfy the customer, by exceeding their expectations and building good relationships. Author: Srikanth Ruban, Senior QA EngineerSubscribe to our blog to know all the things we do
