Quality service is a default function in IT
Project Manager of the IT company, who deals with digitalization, is always associated with quality service.
Maksym Prokhorov Founder and IT manager of PM Partners
To be fair, that is not always the reality. Often «contractual» attitude to the client happens, and such approach can result in the loss of a good customer. What should the real IT Project Manager be?
I think every digital company has encountered the situation where unexpected nuances emerge at the final stage of the project.
This may apply, for example, to both program issues and to the filling of certain sections of the site with text. And if there is a misunderstanding about the hours paid by the customer, here emerges a conflict.
Here you can check whether your IT Project Manager is customer oriented. If he immediately talks about a contract and lawyers, there’s a huge possibility, that you’ll lose a client. Of course, the employee is primarily responsible for defending the interests of the employer. And if customer obviously does not right, you don’t have to bow. However, the situations are quite different and not always straightforward. Accordingly, compromise often becomes the golden middle, which proves to be profitable for the digital company, because the client does not leave.
In our company, in controversial and conflicting moments, I require the project manager to focus on a number of rules. Below I will describe them in more details.
Rule 1: To determine what’s more can be done by the specialists of the department who have urgent tasks to perform in order to avoid conflict with the client.
For example, in the case of texts, the content manager will certainly be able to find additional resources. Clearly, something can be postponed or one or more employees are not fully loaded at the moment.
Rule 2: If the customer does not come directly, but through an agency, it is this agent that should first be talked to.
It is sometimes not the fault of the IT company, because the agency did not transfer the latest information or gave work the final version of the technical assignment. However, even here the project manager should not communicate in an ultimatum form. It is better to offer to find a joint solution to a problem situation, at least by giving the agency part of the unfinished work (but better, of course, all). It is important to remember that such agent is able to bring you more than one client, because «to build» is definitely not an option.
Rule 3: Establish the relevance and importance of the client to the company.
Understanding this aspect will help the project manager to make the right decisions. Let’s say the project is a one-time project and not very monetary. Here it is important not to get rid of the client (remember, any customer is your advertising, image and a good name), but to turn the situation in the most advantageous way for the company. For example, the workload could be reduced or deadlines could be extended.
Based on such rules, our project managers are able to find a way to keep the customer and solve the situation with the least losses for the IT company. At the same time, all acceptable solutions for solving the problem must be discussed with the customer (sometimes through the agency), specifying in detail the conditions, nuances and deadlines for performing additional works.
And if your IT Project Manager keeps the client at difficult moments with the least damage to the business, you need to value him. You can always lean on this person.
