Customers Expectations

There is a two-way relationship between the vendor and the customer in a service industry that needs to be maintained and monitored on a regular basis. The primary focus of any organization is to understand the perception of the customer, recognition of the needs and wants of the customer, together with knowledge of the changes required to be made such as capacity, outlook, availability etc. It is very crucial to evaluate and express the changes in the current practices followed by any organization. Also it is necessary to assess the requirements of the customer prior to the engagement of any project, since incorporation of any changes in the middle of the project can cost heavily. An incomplete picture presented at the beginning of the project can even fragment the previous efforts leading to encapsulation of the whole system.

A method of designing of the project and its management involves thorough understanding of the customer’s perception and matching the system around these perceptions. The reason for failure of many projects is due to the belief of the system developer that users have no say in the development of the system.

In order to visualize the system as a whole, a list of priorities must be met for facilitating the development of customer’s expectations, such as

• Customer service requirements must be measured internally
• Identifying the types of requirement to be established
• Conducting interview and gathering information
• Designing survey techniques used inside the clients business
• Establishing customer service standards by analyzing previous records
• Realizing the constraints and defining acceptable ranges
• Setting goals to meet the customer service requirement

Once all the requirements of the customers have been reviewed, they must then be acknowledged to keep the customer well informed. The objective is to keep the requirements of the customer properly documented for a clear picture of the demand that may arise in the future. The purpose is to resolve the differences between the customer and the vendor relating to issues of requirements and specifications.

An agreement is designed to define the standard procedures as guidelines to enable the relationship a record of what is to be expected. The agreement therefore facilitates a contractual record of the vendors offering and the level of expectation of the customer.

Outsourcing projects often present a conflicting strategy in vendors business. The client always wants well developed systems, but in order to maintain control of this there must be an option to work under.

Vendor must therefore define the level of service explicitly at the beginning of the project and informing the clients about any type of changes that can cause delay in the completion of the project. Therefore, a clear set of performance measures must be defined at the start of the project to which both the parties (vendor and the client) agree upon. One of the reasons of dispute is when the management does not feel that the supplier is providing the level of service promised at the beginning of the project, which may ultimately lead to termination of the relationship and may also impose litigation.

Alternatively, the company and the supplier should take the decision based on performance measure that have been verified and approved.