Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

Post by andai » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:14 PM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #43

When I did freelancing, I charged a bit more than I felt I should... but went above and beyond. My hourly rate may have been high, but I spent many "non-billable hours" making sure everything worked great and any changes (their fault or mine) were accounted for. I did a few jobs where someone else controlled the billing, and kept us on a tight schedule. Every hour was billed. We were "fired" (AKA contract not renewed…

Post by gk1 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:25 PM UTC

Sgoettschkes wrote: post #52

vcool07 wrote: post #27

I never disagree with a client. Even if I internally feel it won't work in reality, I always start my response with "That's an excellent idea you proposed, let me try if it works and get back to you". I come back after a day or two as to why the proposal won't work (if it was a bad idea to begin with) with sufficient data. Client is happy you that you considered his proposal and you've avoided a potential standoff th…

I'm not sure that this blows the client away tbh. I had much more success with being critical but within reason. If a client suggests a feature I do not believe will work or is not worth the time, my approach is to agree that this is technically possible and it will take X amount of time with Y drawbacks (e.g. harder to maintain in the future, manual effort later on). And then I'll tell them my opinion about it from…

Post by jdmichal » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:40 PM UTC

djmill wrote: post #218

Onsite engineers for UAT and rapid bug fix turnaround. Most bugs reported from customers, during UAT, are fixed by the next morning for another round of testing. This is not always the case, but for most issues, we turn them around in less than 12 hours and the customer is blown away. This happens ~4 times/year for major releases.

Post by JshWright » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:43 PM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #83

justintocci wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is true. We have set up a ping to all our clients external ip. If they go down, we know immediately. Client never fails to be impressed.

Yep. we do this too. Whenever we develop a web service for a customer, we set up uptime monitoring on the server where the app is hosted, but I also set up ping uptime checks on most of their other server infrastructure as well. Just last week, I was alerted at 5am that a client's email server had gone offline. Nothing to do with us, we don't look after their emails at all, but I immediately texted their IT guy to le…

Post by ape4 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:52 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #188

ape4 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then exporting the CSV into Excel and doing something becomes part of the workflow. That could possibly be better done in the application.

Not unless your application aims to encompass the entirety of running a business. Otherwise it's just plain user-hostile greed. Personally, I do love whenever applications allow to export data and lack of such feature is IMO strong negative.