The Perfect Customer?

The Perfect Customer?

Someone just asked me if there was such as thing as the perfect customer. I immediately said no. In the field of software development and digital in general no customer comes to you in the ideal situation where they know exactly what they want and has the funds to pay for it. It just doesn't happen. It did set me off thinking how I would categorise customers and what stance I would take with each category.  This is how I see it:

The Novice: This is the person who comes to you and in a very honest way tells you that they don't have a lot of knowledge but they do need a website or app and they want you to help them understand what they need and how to get it delivered.

The Wannabe: The old adage is that a little bit of knowledge is dangerous and this is where I see this customer. They have a "friend" who has given them some advice or they "read somewhere" how this all works. They're intent on telling you what they know whether you like it or not.

Mr Busy: This is the person who could do it themselves but they have declared themselves too busy. They did it last time or before, they have made a list of requirements (usually poor) and what ever you do it will never be as good as if they had done it.

Mr Price: This is the person who knows they need you to do it, they understand its difficult and they can't get it done without you but they are going to torture you over the price. Every pound is sacred and they consider it a "win" if they manage to get you down a bit.  

So what is my strategy for dealing with these people?

The Novice: This customer is looking for some free consultancy from you to work everything out without paying for it. If the contract is large then you can tolerate it but if the value is sub £15,000 I send them a load of web-links and video links for them to watch. At the very least I want them to write the use cases from which I can work everything else out, but I'm certainly not going to do all the work for them. I do quote them for the working in case they just want to pay for it but its usually not the case. If you don't start the education process with them then they are continually beholding to you and you've created a risk in their business - you might not always be around to hold their hand.

The Wannabe: This is the one I struggle with the most. I often end up not wanting to deal with this customer type. If they start telling me what "their friend said" then I just want to tell them to go get their friend to do the work. I don't say that obviously but its often in my head. I need to undo the bit they've learned and get them back to the right starting point and then work forward from there. As with the Novice if you don't start to educate them on the process and the technology they are just tied to you and the frustration is never ending. I also get them to do a small amount of work (inside the CMS usually) so they start to understand how hard/long things get. It stops them making unrealistic time based requests.

Mr Busy: This is where the difficulty goes up a notch. The person you're dealing with is often technically competent but is time poor. This means they will set tight deadlines but if you're not managing them properly they will not deliver from their side and therefore you fall behind. You might need text, or a logo, or a decision on red versus blue. They don't have time (or they would be doing this themselves) and that lack of time means lack of progress - and you can end up with projects taking far longer than they should, causing you the problems as projects overlap and payment for completion is delayed. If I have Mr Busy I use an extra document that sets out their contribution and the dates on which its due. If they don't make those deadlines I reserve the right to move on with place holders. I can then keep the overall deadline and they can see that its them that didn't deliver on the timetable not me.

Mr Price: This is the customer that can do the most damage. Giving a discount in principle is not a problem if its a discount on a price provided not one they provided. So if I quote the true cost of the work as being £15k and I offer it for £13k then I know that this is realistic. What I dont do is have the other person tell me the value of the work is £15k and can I do it for £13K. I always establish the true cost of the work and make sure the client knows what that cost is and how it was derived. I can then take a view on a discount but discounting is dangerous if done unscientifically. I prefer to give the client more than they were asking for the same money rather than discount to provide the work as described. If I was selling pipe it would be that if 1 meter of pipe was £1, I would be providing 1.5 meters for £1 rather than 1 meter for £0.80p. I try and keep the revenue up and make the scope of the work the negotiable. Its just a safer way of negotiating.

In digital you just don't get the "perfect customer". Its really just a case of having the guile to see what kind of customer your faced with and having the approach for each customer type nailed down.