Managing Client Expectations: Deliver and Delight

In my experience of many years of working with clients in the retail industry, I've almost naturally settled on the principle of 'Deliver and Delight'.

Many of the projects and solutions that I've delivered for clients over the years, they could have done themselves, and at a much cheaper rate. I like to think even though the cost in the short term may have seemed more, the client has got value for money, and clearly this must be true to a greater extent or I wouldn't have been successful. So why, when a client can deliver these solutions themselves are they paying external consultants and more importantly, why do they feel they got value for money.

When I say that clients could deliver the projects themselves, there's nothing stopping them of course, but it isn't quite as simple as that.

- They'd need to recruit the right team with a good mix of technical and business skills.

- They'd need to create a culture that allowed ideas to flow and encouraged experimentation.

- They'd need to learn from their mistakes, for they would certainly make a few along the way.

- They'd need to do all this in the timeframe dictated by the opportunity.

Not looking so clear cut now is it....

Explaining the benefits and winning a contract means nothing without delivery though. Delivery stands at the core of consultancy or service provision. My reputation stands on the strength of delivering against the promises that I make. My technical and industry experience allows me to make those promises. Having built the best team allows me to deliver against those promises.

But as I explained in an earlier post on business requirements, to raise yourself above the rest, you need to do more than just deliver. Deliver and delight.

Delight means going further than the deliverables, it means making those years of experience count by doing more. It's delivering the basics and then some. Creating strategic relationships, helping the client shape their vision, bringing in wider industry knowledge, bringing in ideas... I could go on but you get my point.

If your interested in working with an organisation that goes that bit further than everyone else, then get in touch.