Client Satisfaction

Client satisfaction might differ from time to time during execution of the project especially in construction industry. Priorities of client organization should be identified and analyzed. For instance, timely completion might be one of the first things the client can impose before project starts but the priority might be changeable during execution of the project, sometimes quality and grade of project product can be compromised due to change of priorities in client organization when cost and time requirement are increasingly uncertain.
It is very important to identify what the client organization sets its first priority during project execution when the contractor decides the ways satisfying the client.

However, in general, short term client satisfaction might be obtained by compliance to project / product requirements and long term satisfaction might be from fitness to use the project product.

One thing more which I really consider the most important is that project participants should communicate with the client based on four values in PMI's code of the ethics and professional conduct which are "responsibility", "respect", "fairness", and "honesty".

Sungjoon, thanks for your input. This is all great but it is by the book. Do you have an example from your own project experience for something you've done that did satisfy the client (Other than t he big picture) ?

Well, these might be out of the project scope and too domain specific. When we planned the project, we were looking for the various ways to satisfy the client and upon several discussions with the client, we were able to possess the large space to spoil waste soils and to prepare the working yard for the client's future use in the R.O.W. The other things were to increase the opportunities for periodic or ad-hoc informal meetings during the project execution and to increase training period for the client during the defect liability period. They were definitely believed to enhance the client satisfaction with minimal impacts on time and cost of the project.

But I still believe that high quality of project product and ethical conducts are only the ways to obtain the client satisfaction eventually.

CRM act as a major role. Key factors are Good communication skill, Professionalism and Quality.

I think that one of the things that matters the most is Transparency in submitting reports and deliverables.

You need to keep your stakeholders informed and don't hide the bad results under the carpet

Hello Rami; Thank you for this question. It made me stop and really think and look back on successful projects for the things that brought client satisfaction. I agree with what my colleagues have written above. Client satisfaction occurred from my experiences with reaching the desired outcome, clear communication throughout the project, respectful and insightful interactions and avoiding risks.