Involve customers
Customers must be involved at each step through techniques such as functional walk-throughs, conference room pilots, and frequent discussions about business plans and future needs. IT must assume every system will change throughout its life cycle.
Don't ask customers technical questions. That’s your job.
In a recent meeting, discussion turned into uptime requirement for a new customer management system under development. The project manager was trying to decide if the project needed a high-availability server with automatic fail-over or if an inexpensive, off-the-shelf server would suffice. She said her customers told her 99% uptime would be fine and that they would put it in writing in the specification document. Therefore, she could buy a standard, single server. Wrong answer!
This project manager had fallen into a common trap. She had asked her customers for a technical answer, and even worse, she was going to try to hold them to it. Do the maths! Ninety-nine percent uptime for a 12x5 system implies total outages of about three days per year, which is unlikely to be acceptable to anyone, especially for a customer management system. Having a signed document saying that 99% is okay will not save you when the complaining starts.
Measure the quality of your service, and communicate it with your customers.
There are several important impacts of metrics. First, everyone knows the quality of the work, and often can use the metrics to prevent problems from becoming critical.
Second, metrics become the basis of objective discussions with customers about the acceptability of service, and the cost of making it better. Customers will not support your efforts to improve service unless you can objectively demonstrate what they receive and why.
Test yourself against the outsourcers -- your customers do
Every IT department should regularly benchmark itself against the standards of IT best practices and be prepared to act on the findings. There are many ways to do such a benchmark exercise. Compare yourself against the many surveys conducted in the trade press such as CIO magazine or Information Week. Consultant organisations such as EDS, or industry watchers such as the Gartner Group maintain databases of best practices and standards of productivity and efficiency.
Conduct benchmark discussions with your peers in other companies. As long as your benchmark partners are not direct competitors, most companies are eager to share ideas. One good source of benchmark data is suppliers who are often eager to share ideas so that they may help improve your commercial relationship with them.
Good candidates for benchmarks are your internal service bureaus, such as help desk, or data centre operations, or customer service functions, such as system administration or training. If your results are seriously out of line with industry practice, begin improving them right away. Outsourcers and consultant companies who are anxious to demonstrate their capabilities are continuously approaching your customers.
Keep your attitude positive and your frustrations in check
IT is a service business. When you become frustrated with your customers remember that you are in your job because they have theirs. If you become frustrated and lose your poise you will lose your ability to communicate. You 'push back' instead of listening. Your customers will become dissatisfied with your service. Maintaining a positive attitude is the key to customer satisfaction (and indeed many other things in life).
