Exceed Your Client's Expectations

 

Project management is a service industry, and your main responsibility is to ensure that the client is satisfied. At the very minimum, you're expected to successfully complete the project on time and within budget. As in most service industries though, clients are increasingly looking to get more bang for their buck. Doing the minimum is no longer enough; you need to go above and beyond the call of duty. This article outlines three strategies which will help you exceed your client's expectations. And there's an added bonus. Not only will these strategies help your client, applying them will also make you a better project manager.

1. Learn the business
For most of us, technology has taken center stage in our careers. This technical focus has no doubt served you well so far, but now it's time to move out of your comfort zone and make an effort to understand business issues. I don't mean understanding the small area that concerns your project directly, either. What I mean is understanding the bigger picture--your organization's strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

For a project to be successful, the client must clearly understand the problem (or opportunity) and be able to communicate it effectively to the project team. Then, with the client's help, the project team can design, develop and implement a solution to solve the problem (or exploit the opportunity). A …

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