A Service Driven Business

Chris Hazlett, President of Integrate (www.integratechange.com) wrote an excellent blog post about focusing on client needs. You can read it here.  Though Chris’s business of custom software development differs in many ways from Architects and Engineers, the service delivery nature of work is very much the same.  An excerpt from the post sheds light on the right attitude to have about your clients:

Most recently, I received a call from one of the division heads at Merrill Lynch about the software we developed for them, Account and Account::Coaching. If you have ever gone through a merger at a big company, you know that one of the hardest things to merge (other than the personnel) are the different software systems that run the businesses. So when this director called me to talk about Account, I thought they were going to ask what the best way to decommission it is. To my surprise, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch were so happy with the system that Bank of America’s representatives have made the decision to continue to use it into the foreseeable future.

The reason I tell that story is not for accolades. I tell that story because I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished, not just in the software arena (It’s been running for 2 1/2 years without being touched by us), but because of how proud I am that Integrate got it right for this client. Low-maintenance and ease of use are certainly worth praise, but the service we had to provide to get it right is more important to me. (emphasis by Ryan Suydam).

All to often in service delivery of any sort, we tend to lose sight of the service we provide, and focus instead on how great the product of that service is.  If clients only needed great product – a market would exist to buy and sell products (a completed set of plans, for example) without the added cost of service included.

Rather, clients need care, attention, and a vast array of problems solved. A product doesn’t actually solve problems, and often times presents a host of new problems altogether.  The product is all about ME – and my “masterpiece”.  The service, on the otherhand, is about YOU – the client – and how I can help YOU with the problems you face.

As you compete for work against increasingly desperate competitors – who often have “better” examples of previous product – stay focused on the client’s service needs today.  Take pride in how well the service is delivered first and foremost, and your clients are sure to feel the product delivered is a success.  Measure your ability to provide quality service by collecting feedback often!