Dear Anonymous,
Regarding clients don't adhere to deadlines for providing content or signoffs, any advice? Many folks, at first glance, might be inclined to view this as a client problem as you have no doubt produced a schedule, they have agreed to it and understand the stages and deadlines for signoff, yet time after time, they don't adhere to the agreed to deadlines resulting in project difficulties, potential delays and cost increases. But at the end of the day, this isn't a client problem, rather a client management problem. My advice would be the following:
1. View this as a customer management process problem, not a customer problem. By that I mean, there is nothing wrong with your customer, rather it is your customer management process or lack of one that is resulting in content and signoff deadlines being missed. If you view this as a customer problem, it will never get fixed.
2. Define your customer management process. Customer management is more than a signed SOW and an assigned PM. Take the time to clearly define every piece of your customer management process, what is done, what tools are used, etc.
3. Define your customer management policies. That is, what are the policies and measurements that serve as the management guideposts for execution of your customer management process? For example, if there are EWSs (early warning signs), how are the EWSs and potential risks mitigated as a matter of policy. Case in point, does the engagement manager assess the likelihood of missed deadlines, are prior actions taken to avoid missed deadlines, is there an escalation process to involve higher levels of vendor management to mitigate such risks with the customer, is there an escalation process to involve higher levels of customer management to mititgate such risks, are there consequences and/or potentially penalties for missed deadlines, etc.
4. Manage the Entropy via both process and execution. That is, a lack of order of any kind will get worse over time. In the case of custom software development, an SOW and project schedule is not enough order. For every missed deadline, conduct a customer management process review to determine what really went wrong and how the engagement manager will avoid it the next time. Consider putting customer management objectives and/or bonus incentives (or penalties) to ensure that the engagement manager executes the process effectively and incurs zero missed deadlines.
Customer management extends well beyond just having a good working relationship and taking the time to foster amicable relations. Great post, I hope we hear and learn from others. Cheers..!
Mark Perry
VP of Customer Care
BOT International
