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

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

#71

Post by BjoernKW »

Speaking as an independent IT consultant: Listening and trying to truly understand the problems they have (at least I try to do that as much as possible). Then solving those problems in perhaps unexpected ways. It might sound a bit trite but from my experience business software development often tends to get stuck in a rut and less than optimal or even harmful practices are perpetuated because "it's always been done this way". Cargo cult is an eminent problem in business IT processes that goes unchallenged far too often.

Effective knowledge transfer is another aspect. Not just coding up a solution but teaching others how to solve specific problems by themselves is highly valuable.

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

#72

Post by Rainymood »

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 caught my Macro professor doing this and it works wonders. It really encourages people to ask questions, even if they might think they are inane. He always started with a ~sincere~ "X, that is a really good question." It makes everyone feel really welcomed to give their input no matter how small. Even though it might not be "sincere" at all it still feel like it is. How would you feel if you asked a question in class and the professor said: "That's actually a really stupid question but I'll answer it anyway."

Good job.

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

#73

Post by p0nce »

sirclueless wrote: post #41
JoachimS wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. We usually say that a good consultant should be senior enough to stand up to the customer and at least be able to inquire the basis for something. And also disagree when the customer is clearly wrong. But your way of doing it clearly removes the initial head-on. One could always reason about things. But to promise to investigate (and then deliver) looks (and is) professional. But I will never say yes whe…

So, to follow the diplomatic approach here: Client: "Encrypt our data using the md5 cipher." Consultant: "I will investigate the feasibility of this." ... two days pass ... Consultant: "I have considered your proposal. I believe we should encrypt your data with SHA-256. md5 is insecure, here's several references. SHA-256 is much more secure and more popular. It is a NIST standard, and just as cheap." Client: (probabl…

Except you can't encrypt with a hash function.

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

#74

Post by majewsky »

Zyst wrote: post #48

Most of these seem to be very on the side of "I'm a company", so as a sole developer what I like to do for clients is implementing sockets into their apps. Adding sockets for, say, the 3 newest logs they get in real time. Or if they have anything that maps to a graph/app-overview just make sure that will always update in real time. It's not a huge time investment for me. Customers usually never request it specificall…

> Another thing which I don't personally love, but I do because I understand industries have differences is just exporting whatever can be exported into .csv files or .xls files where applicable.

Working on an in-house application, this has been one of the most common types of requests. "Can we add this field here to the CSV export?" It's a three-minute task for me, but a huge time-saver for the manager of the team using the application and thus highly appreciated.

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

#76

Post by wapz »

Rainymood wrote: post #72
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 caught my Macro professor doing this and it works wonders. It really encourages people to ask questions, even if they might think they are inane. He always started with a ~sincere~ "X, that is a really good question." It makes everyone feel really welcomed to give their input no matter how small. Even though it might not be "sincere" at all it still feel like it is. How would you feel if you asked a question in cla…

My biology lab instructor (she was a grad student at the time) started the first day of class saying "don't worry there are no dumb questions." About 30 minutes into the lab someone asked a fairly unintelligent question and the instructor goes "well that was a dumb question.." I think she learned her lesson after that though. You gotta start somewhere!

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

#77

Post by zielperson »

julienmarie wrote: post #68

Something we were doing when I had a web design agency was to have awesomely beautiful and detaild proposals where we summed up the context, constraints and goals of the project. We considered them as our first deliverable and spent time creating beautiful indesign templates. It allowed us to stand out from the start. Another thing is while our competitors were usually not showing anything yet at this bidding stage,…

This is so important.

We had this experience (as a client) when we went around to find a venue for our wedding (100 people).

The restaurant that got the bid wrote us a personalized letter, included information on the town and hotels that would be available for guests nearby, etc etc..

The rest just sent short notes.

As a leader in an IT department, I asked for proposals for a 40K software review.

All of them responded with no-brainer copypaste letters. All but ONE, who took their time to make a good, detailed offer.

They called me, we met for an hour with their experts, THEN they made a thoroughly thought out offer.

Guess who got the job?

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

#78

Post by wiz21c »

alltakendamned wrote: post #33
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…

Depending on the context in which you do this, you've also just wasted 2 days of billable time. If you know it won't work from the start, you're not providing value to your customer by fake considering it.

You assume that your customer values things like you do. If the customer is happy he'll feel better; the fact that is happiness is economically viable is an entirely different matter.

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

#79

Post by omarchowdhury »

elorant wrote: post #62

Build much better UIs than my competition. It's a known issue, we developers rarely take the time to bother with UI and it's a shame because it makes all the difference in the world, especially in web apps. Clients can't tell technical superiority, they can only judge from what they see and if your UI is stellar you'll make selling a lot easier. And you know, judging from the fact that so many of us are afraid of the…

Portfolio, please.

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

#80

Post by wiz21c »

loteck wrote: post #39

Look at how many of the answers in this thread are simply about communicating effectively. That mirrors my experience when I was on the service provider side, and as someone who is now consuming those same services, I can confirm that I am most impressed by my providers when the communications are focused, helpful and timely.

>>> Look at how many of the answers in this thread are simply about communicating effectively.

spot on

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