Project Management: Managing the Client
April 14th, 2008 | Posted in Clients.
Managing your team is one thing, but what about managing the client? Getting the client involved in your next project can be very beneficial to the overall success of the project. To keep your project running smoothly and to avoid any miscommunications, here are a few tips on how to manage your client.
Know Your Role
In the beginning stages of the project, it is imperative to have the entire project team meet with the client. Explain to the client the roles of each person involved. Also be sure to explain the role the client will have during the process as well. By letting everyone know what they are doing throughout the project will allow less confusion down the road.
Keep the Client Involved
By keeping the client involved in the process will prevent any surprises or unexpected reactions down the road. Be sure to give them the role of providing feedback on your work. Have them throw some creative ideas into the mix. Remember this is their project. Always make the client feel that they are part of the project team.
Milestones
Set task deadlines as milestones throughout the project. This will allow you to inform the client how close you are to the project’s completion. For example, if you have five web site design tasks (mockup, homepage, interior page, build-out, testing and go live), and you just completed the interior page’s design, you can inform the client that the project is roughly 60% completed. Of course this all depends on the project’s scope of work. Setting milestones is not only helpful for the client, but helpful for you, since you know what still needs to be completed.
Creative Conflicts
Ever hear the phrase “the customer is always right”? Same goes for web design projects. It is important to remember that this is the client’s web site and not your own. When speaking the client’s over the phone it may be difficult to fully understand some creative requests. That’s where web conferencing software comes into play such as GotoMeeting. With GotoMeeting, you can show the client your computer screen during a live conference call. This way, both of you can see and discuss the same thing.
Although calling up a client and scheduling a GotoMeeting can get very time consuming. You can use ConceptShare, which is a great online project collaboration tool that allows you to setup a concept and allow the client to login, write comments or even draw their intentions. This is a great solution for team members that are not on the same schedule.
Closing the Project
All good things must come to an end. Make sure that the client is satisfied with the end result. If the client hates it, they probably won’t be spreading much praise about your company. Double check everything to avoid anything falling through the cracks. Once you have passed quality control, it’s time for the project to end and the site to go live.
Be sure to thank the client for being a great addition to the project team. This can be done with a simple letter or card signed by everyone involved in the process.
Conclusion
First you let the client meet each team member and explained their roles in the project and the role of the client. You’ve kept your client involved and by doing so you have shown that you truly care about them and their project. Then you set goals or milestones to show the client your progress. Next, you have avoided any misunderstandings that would have held the project back by utilizing web conferencing and project collaboration tools. And finally you brought the project to a successful closing.
By managing your client throughout the process, you’ve eased up the headaches and gained your client’s trust. Hopefully, their involvement in this project will allow them to spread praise about your services to everyone they meet.
adelle
April 15th, 2008 at 6:31 am
nice post, you make very good points that sometimes we probably all forget when we get caught up in the work.
Dube
April 15th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Really great post. Keeping the client informed during all stages, like you describe, can really head off possible issues down the line.
Allan
April 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@adelle & @Dube – Thanks.