Study by SourcingFocus says 28% of 1,000 respondents noted bad communication as the top reason for the failure of outsourced projects. Let’s see, how to make your communication work just right.
The most important factor of project success is how communication between the company and the IT outsourcing provider is organized.
How to Avoid 5 Major Traps in Outsourcing
Clear communication guarantees efficient collaboration and resolving problems on time. Let’s have a look at some points that will help you to avoid mistakes in communication with customers and not waste time on a misunderstanding.
1. “Bird’s language”
Often the client is not a professional in your field, he doesn’t have to know the terminology that you meet every day. The so-called “bird’s language” is understandable to a limited group of people. To avoid misunderstandings, you need to speak in a simple, intelligible language for the customer. It’s recommended to designate your terminology in a vision&scope document or in technical task/specification.
2. Summarizing
At all stages of the negotiations, you should ask clarifying questions, make sure that you understood the opponent correctly. At the end of the discussion, it is necessary to summarize all of the above.
Why and How to Be Proactive in Customer Communication
This allows the interpreter to present his vision and make corrections in time. In addition, it fixes you at the position of the leader in communication.
3. Documenting
To prevent misunderstandings between negotiators, we recommend documenting the main ideas, customer wishes, arrangements. The main problems arise when the сontractor takes the task from the customer in oral form. It is obvious that the tasks and terms for their implementation should be in written form, any that is acceptable to you.
4. Use infographics
People speak different languages, but pictures are understood by everyone regardless of language. It is very useful to use different infographics for communication and to accompany the text with visual content. In our work, we really love making screenshots with the help of Yandex Disk and Awesome Screenshot App.
5. Timing for remote command request processing
The development team constantly raises questions about the project and if you do not have the rules, in which the terms of the customer’s response are prescribed, the team can stand idle for a long time and burn money.
5 Ways a Manager Can Boost Team’s Efficiency
You need to convince the customer that it is important for the Team to get answers to questions during the working day. If the client can’t give the answer in time, ask him to notify you about it so that the team can optimally allocate time.
6. Avoid long absence of feedback
You should always keep in touch with the client, not only about the results but also the intermediate stages of the work. If there are no intermediate results, you can report what you’re working on right now. This will save the client from the thought that you have forgotten about him and will increase the customer’s loyalty.
And what do you use in your daily communication with customers?
Share with us in comments!
