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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?

#41

Post by sirclueless »

JoachimS wrote: post #36
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…

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: (probably) "OK, if it costs the same and is more secure, sounds good to us."

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

#42

Post by davewasthere »

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…

That might be better than what I do. I disagree, perhaps not often, but there are bits of functionality that I think just aren't justifiable/cost-effective. So I try and dissuade them. Although sometimes I might be a bit too vocal. That said, I do try and say that, at the end of the day they can definitely just say "shush... Just build it" and I will. But I'm honestly trying to help them build the best product we can, as effectively as possible.

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

#43

Post by gkoberger »

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) every time. Yet when I went above and beyond, I had no problem getting and maintaining awesome clients.

As someone on the opposite side now (hiring freelancers), I've realized the thing I value most: the freelancer gives me less work, not more. It may seem obvious, but when I was on the other side, it wasn't. When I hire freelancers now, I value one overarching quality: to make my life easier. I don't care about price or hours (within reason), I care about not having to think about it.

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

#44

Post by seanlinehan »

BigJono wrote: post #22
seanlinehan wrote: post #20

Lower their prices, without prompting. At Flexport we sell logistics services. The price of ocean freight is highly variable (less dynamic than, say, the stock market or airline seats, but still fluctuates a ton). We make money by brokering these services. In some cases, the price of freight drops in the time between customers when contract us (and agree to a price) and the service gets executed (when we contract wit…

Interesting, if the price rises do you pass that on to the customer too or do you take the hit?

Depends on the situation. Our rates have expiration dates attached to them, so if the price went up before our negotiated rate expired, we will eat it. If the rates expired, we leave it to the judgment of their account manager on what to do.

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

#45

Post by IndianAstronaut »

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…

This is a good tactic in the workplace as well when dealing with management and internal customers.

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

#46

Post by rebuilder »

JoachimS wrote: post #36
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…

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…

I was just thinking about this an hour ago. I work in more of a visual design field, but the issue of customers "being wrong" seems pretty universal.

There's a sentiment that, if you hire an expert, you should do what they tell you to do - why hire them in the first place if you don't trust them - and that's valid in some ways. Still, if an expert can't communicate to their clients why they think an approach is good or bad, it seems to me something's very wrong with the process.

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

#48

Post by Zyst »

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 specifically. But I've found they are blown away when they see how everything is updated in real time. It just makes the whole thing feel 'alive'.

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.

All in all, I work in consulting. The code I write is meant to make the life of people easier, I want to make sure they get that when possible. A big part of why I'm able to do this is that I have a lot of creative freedom to do whatever I want so long as I'm getting stuff shipped. So huzzah for comprehensive management as well!

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

#49

Post by gpayal »

Consistent updates(mostly daily) on email with screenshots and quick short screencasts. A lot of times a particular feature takes more than a day to complete and be pushed to some server for client to actually see what it looks like. But if I create in progress screenshots and videos from my dev machine it always impresses my clients.

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

#50

Post by chungy »

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…

Neither of those are encryption ciphers. the SHA-256 suggestion doesn't buy anything.
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