Scheme will allow fully looking at the process of working with clients in terms of creating the quality of services in the broadest sense of the words. The implication is that the reader is a qualified specialist or at least aspires to be him.
First part.
Visual separation of the modifications of interface elements
We adhere to this rule: all interface changes in the typical and foreign objects must be highlighted in colour. We chose a neutral blue colour. The idea is not mine, I honestly spied it and added to my armoury.
It may look something like this:
Select the headlines like on the picture, names of columns, buttons, etc. It may seem a minor point, but when different teams work in the project, then during showdowns and subsequent maintenance it is much easier to navigate visually whose work is it. Any question of the client with demonstration of situation in the program significantly saves the time for consultants. They do not understand is it a typical functional or not. If the colour is blue, they immediately escalate the problem further or automatically view documentation on the project objects.
Although this is not for the interface, but the mandatory standard is to comment the made changes in the typical configuration. Who, when, under what terms of requirements specification made them, what was, what became and other information. I do not see the reason to describe this point in detail.
Subsystems
The practice which practically does not occur is when we take the objects to maintain after other provider services of 1с.
For the project or maintenance, the subsystems are always created fir any logical block. If this is a project, such system will be easier to maintain later. If this is a maintenance, then such modifications are also easier to maintain subsequently when extending the functionality or making some modifications that intersect with earlier modifications.
In the sequel, it is easy to select the objects related to any particular modifications.
Inside the subsystem has a short description.
Enclose the client users from developers
Many scores of times I was faced with the fact that the 1с programmers are far away and not always people who are pleasant to communicate.
Firstly, 1с programmers… are the programmers with all the ensuring consequences. They can be grubby, have poorly delivered speech. They can be not obliging, haughty with usual users. Everyone else in most cases are the exception. I will repeat myself that I tell about the ordinary programmers and 1с programmers specifically. If a person gets out of these characteristics, it is likely a conformance exception.
Secondly, the programmers are lazy. If you have encountered in your work with freelancers, you realize that these are people who may safely produce a row product. They do not care that the product is not ready. The deliver what came out, now you should test and return annotations. They can easily break the deadlines, etc. It is hard enough to motivate and encourage them. All these difficulties are valid for staff specialists, inside franchisee and for the clients.
Thirdly, if your business is the customer services that use 1с programs, then such specialist is easily to be gone. You will not only lose a programmer, but you risk losing the client too.
All these factors predispose you to create the system in which the effects of these factors can be significantly reduced.
When I retired from franchisee in which I started my path in 1с, I already understood that the main problem of franchisee is a high personnel turnover. The specialists went to the clients or in the freelancers. Branched off into independent franchisees. Franchisee in which I started to work at that time existed already more than 15 years and this question still was not solved.
I understand that the personnel turnover is inevitable, but the consequences of this turnover can be and should be eradicated systemically. The reason itself for this state in many companies lies in the fact that the specialist is connected directly with the client. The job of this specialist is easily alienated from the executor company, because all the main processes of interaction with the client are closed on the specialist. Actually, the opening of interaction processes and assigning these processes for different services is the exit that leads from stagnation to prosperity and natural growth.
This is a very slow process, so I only focus on the concepts. It is important that between 1с specialist and any client representative there was a person. He can be a business analyst, account manager, project manager, etc. It does not matter how you call this position. The essence of the function to be performed is to make a product of 1с specialist activity alienable. In the future I will call a person who performs this function the account.
For example. 1с programmers do not deliver their job directly to the client. They deliver the job first to the account who very censoriously accepts the work, reveals all the inconsistencies. For the programmer he simulates the client. And only after such internal testing, everything together with documentation is sent and delivered to the client.
What happens? How is the normal development process going on? The client describes the needs, programmer executes, sends the first version to he client, the client views, describes annotations, additional requirements and returns for modification. And it may happen so several times. Finally, the modification is accepted in operation.
But we complete this in 1, maximum 2 iterations, where only very minor strokes get in the second iteration. Although inside our structure the same iterations on the internal testing are going on. It turns out that we took the pain of client and solved this problem. Coming in any company after any maintenance executors, we automatically get to such level of the quality of service which is not achievable neither the internal company employees nor the external contractors who do not use the internal testing. The clients think that we are super-professionals, although in fact this is a merit of the system in which a very mediocre specialists can work.
Bonus here is that the specialist can not go away just like that destroying the relationship with the client, leading the client away, etc. The specialist simply does not have such opportunity. The users of client may not even know that we have changed something.
Similarly the situation is with the consultants. Their work can be also alienated. For this, there are a video tutorial which they do. We avoid the live consultations. All our consultations are either remote or in the form of video tutorials where the particular problems of users are considered. This allows again for the mediocre consultants to work on our side, but due to the provided service this factor plays almost no role.
Intermediate video surveys
Quite often it happens that the client requirements are changed in the process. The requirements are changed for design, logic of use actions, new ideas appear.
We regularly request the developers to give the video surveys of their products. These 2-5 minute clips with explanation of how and where to click in order to get the required result. Such videos are made based on the testing scenarios which I described in the previous part.
We do not wait until the end of development and require immediately to chuck together the interface part and send not yet operable first model in the form of video to the customer. this will not take a long time, but will allow us to forestall large deviations from expectations and vice versa, detecting these expectations, we can easily exceed them.
The clients love this part of interaction, because they do not need to break away from their duties in order to open the test base, go into it, get some data to view does it work or not. They just watch and listen to a short video, make conclusions and give feedback.
I wrote on this subject a little because idea is simple, but this little thing has a disproportionately high value to create an «all inclusive» atmosphere for the client!
Do more than expected
During the work, regardless on the fact whether you are on the project or maintenance, it is always required to adhere this rule. The service and quality of services, provided that they are redundant, are able to accumulate for executor the influence effect. This effect is accumulated homeopathically. And if you are able to systematically provide redundant service, then you automatically get an access to the impact on the client.
After some time, when the project will start in operation, you will need the allies on the client side who will be loyal to you and which can be even suppressed if necessary. You will struggle to cope with the owners of client company, people who sign the documents, common users who can arrange a lot of thins in the process of delivering, etc. You can manage all of this thanks to your abilities of leadership, manipulation, etc. You can collect all into a first and proceed the project spending a bunch of your own forces. But you can accumulate a power in advance which will help easily solve the complex situations. A call it the force, because it really is felt like the confidence in complex negotiations.
You can call this a CRM element or whatever. In fact, you build with everyone around the «friendly» relations using the system redundant service. And build these relations also systemically.
When you provide redundant service, then flow tap of this service is in your hands. Like dragdiller, you begin to give free doses of service forming the regular consumers. People very quickly get use to the good. And this tap is easily to close. You do not owe anyone to provide the service over agreements.
This approach has a nice bonus. Appetites of clients always grow during consumption. Very often it happens that by making some free report or exchange rules, or some another function, we have been asked to develop this tool for suddenly appeared requirements. In this case, we immediately make sales. If the first was done by our good will, under good relationship to the client, then his requirements are already for some money. I have never met with objections in such sale. And nobody can produce anything in terms of the fact that this is «expensive». Usually, if the need is extended by the client, we include in the value everything developed for free.
It is important to understand that the redundant service must be a system, not a property of particular person. This is just a set of steps. If a person who has a negative attitude to the client will execute this set of steps word to word, then the client must have a good impression that he got more than he expected. This is very important!