Customer Satisfaction

Ensuring customer satisfaction is dependent on facts that can measure performance to established metrics for the project, and on the perceptions of the client. While the facts are easy to compile and are self-explanatory, the client’s perceptions and the overall engagement with the project management team may be more difficult to measure.

To ensure customer satisfaction:
– Pre-engagement, “Know Your Client”. Some clients are seeking a successful contract execution that leads to a long term relationship for future work. Other clients are focused on a one-time transaction with no vision for long term potential on future work.
– After engagement, the project management team needs to identify project success and to assure that the client’s evaluator/writer of the contractor’s/consultant’s performance is an individual that is engaged throughout the project, and is indeed the end-user of the project deliverable.

On government contracts, many clients are required to record internal written evaluations of the contractor’s/consultant’s performance. Similar to corporate performance evaluations, there needs to be some objective criteria so that expectations and results can be assessed. In most cases, the evaluation format restricts ratings to unsatisfactory, needs improvement, marginal and satisfactory. The evaluation process also requires backup documentation for rating attributes for anything but satisfactory. Because many clients are not good with documentation, most contractors/consultants can expect a satisfactory, which it is hardly an endorsement of customer satisfaction.

Lastly, client’s perceptions of the project management team performance, can be influenced by internal politics, person-to-person work transactions, and the client’s culture for acquiring contracts for project work. Regardless of the project outcome, some clients’ cultures are simply focused on finding some outside party to be accountable.

The essential aspect is a good and continuous communication with the primary stakeholder

More and more into this important thread:

1. Understand your customers
Make them feel special, Provide a familiar experience and Create a common enemy
2. Commit wholeheartedly
3. Measure success;
Customer satisfaction and Customer loyalty


Measuring success is important because it lets you know if your current strategy is working. Although success can come slowly and a strategy that works for now won’t always work forever, periodic measures can help a business identify problems before they exacerbate into crises.

Rely on the Availability Heuristic -- where the most recent opinion is the strongest.

That entails in ensuring that the project finishes strongly.