Who is to blame if the client doesn't understand you?

At a recent client visit to our offshore center, a senior executive at the client side had a very far reaching suggestion to make for the business: To develop a common language, to describe the workload in terms of a tangible unit, which can be understood by both the client as well as the service provider

Let us consider a parallel example. Say you need to get your car fixed, and you take it to a garage. The mechanic studies it thoroughly and tells you the following problems:

1.       The engine needs some work

2.       The tyres need to be realigned

3.       The air filters need to be cleaned

4.       Etc

5.       Etc

At the end of a 10 minute long list, you nod your head and politely ask your mechanic, “So you think I can pick it up tomorrow?”. Expect a blank stare from him and at times, an expletive to follow depending on how exasperating you have been. The problem there is a lack of this common language. And of course, the mechanic is assuming that you know enough about cars to know how long each of these tasks would take to be completed.

And so, to cut a long story short, it is all about setting the right expectations…and a common language just makes that easier. Do you have one with your customers? Perhaps it is time to take the lead and work on one.

It would be unintelligent on the part of a mechanic to expect a customer to know what exactly his car needs. At the end of the day, a customer would want one thing – his car must run well, and should not have any problems. It is up to the mechanic to convert this need into the equivalent list of tasks. This is very much similar to how a team of software engineers translates a client’s business requirements into a list of technical requirements.

For this same reason, a customer cannot be blamed for wishing that his car be delivered in perfect condition at the shortest time possible. He just doesn’t know what is involved! It is up to the mechanic to explain to him that it may take more time – within reasonable limits. But the key is to have clarity in the expectations set. A customer doesn’t necessarily expect the mechanic to deliver the car in 5 minutes. But he would expect the mechanic’s expertise to be good enough so he can make a reliable estimate of the time to be taken and thereby set a clear expectation.

Similarly, when a client talks demands a particular deliverable be delivered within, say X number of days, the team can always inform him/her if that is not a realistic schedule. But this must be conveyed at the earliest point of time possible and not at the eleventh hour, so there are no unnecessary expectations. And of course, there might be technical experts on the client side who could blow the whistle if your schedule is too lax – so beware of that.

Flashback: An End to Outsourcing?

Outsourcing – a concept which took the world of business by storm a few years ago – is slowly becoming a more complex arena, say experts. In the beginning it was pretty simple: Certain business-related activities which are too expensive or cumbersome to be carried out in-house, is taken care of by an external agency specializing in the area. The primary benefits included specialized skills and cost savings – especially if the outsourcing is done to a foreign destination where labor and infrastructure are significantly cheaper.

Asia in general, and India in particular, has traditionally been one of the leaders in outsourcing destinations, primarily due to the savings in labor and availability of certain specialized skill sets like IT. However, this is slowly beginning to change, if recent trends in the industry offer a reliable clue. Take our own IT services scenario as an example - the increased demand for IT skill sets in Asia have driven up the costs incurred in hiring and sustaining an IT professional. Similar is the case with business infrastructure, where the costs have skyrocketed for the same reason. As a result, IT service organizations are compelled to drive up their prices and hence the companies wanting to take advantage of outsourcing are beginning to realize that there is little or no ‘advantage’ left!

Think of it as inflation: Costs drive up prices, which in turn drive up costs – to put it simply. This has recently begun to have significant effects on outsourcing. Last year, New Call Telecom, a British organization dealing in telecommunications, was in the news for recognizing this and actually taking steps towards this. The company has scrapped its plans for a call center in India, and instead set it up back home in Lancashire! Also, countries like Brazil, China and Egypt are the new contenders for ‘favorite IT destination’.

The IT outsourcing industry is changing fast. We, the people, must essentially change with it.