4 Tips to Help Customers and Developers Better Understand Each Other
e-Legion is a mobile app developer that communicates with customers on a daily basis. Roman Beloded, CEO at e-Legion, advises entrepreneurs and developers on how to avoid 4 most common communication problems. Read carefully to keep communication sensible.
Why is it so hard to communicate with them?
Imagine you hire a developer or start a project, and questions emerge. Sometimes the simplest of them take hours to answer, people start blaming each other, and everyone gets rattled. Fortunately, any communication problem can be prevented. This is how we deal with it.
Problem 1. What took you so long to answer?
Sometimes it is difficult to reach out to a customer or a developer:
It Happens When:
A customer and a developer locate in different time zones.
A developer works remotely — response time is slower.
An employee works on a free schedule and is available for communication only during a certain period of time.
Response time isn’t defined.
What Should Be Done
If you are a customer:
Define the periods of time when everyone is available.
The terms of response to inquiries should be fixed in a contract or email history.
If you are a developer:
Assign daily meetings in the morning, so that everybody begins to work in the same time.
Create a chat with a customer. Discuss the work in the chat and make sure your agreements are written down.
Reply even if a problem cannot be solved immediately. Simple “I have accepted the task” would be enough, so that a customer knows you’re on it.
What Should Not Be Done
Sending emails marked “URGENT”. The other party might have already received ten “URGENT” emails before yours, and eventually all of them become not so urgent. People are busy these days and usually get annoyed by anything urgent.
If the situation is an emergency, it’s better to call. In other cases, it’s better to wait.
Problem 2. “Who is in charge of this?”
When areas of responsibility are unclear, communication is brought to chaos:
Now the developer will look for Kate, Sam, Kevin, and Serge. Once he finds them, the chaos continues.
It Happens When:
There are too many people involved in communication and their roles are uncertain.
A customer and a developer haven’t agreed on who’s in charge of what.
Reporting and feedback tools are not configured.
What Should Be Done
If you are a customer:
Find a person who understands project’s goals, creates specifications and takes responsibility for the coordination of developer’s actions.
Introduce the developer to colleagues who take part in discussions as well as provide information, materials, and access.
Agree on the format and frequency of reports from the developer, for example an email once a week, a meeting once a month.
If you are a developer:
Assign a project manager who communicates with a developer and the team, distributes tasks, solves technical issues.
Assign an account manager — a client’s attorney on the development side. They are responsible for documentation and financial matters and handles conflict situations.
Don’t forget about reports.
What Should Not Be Done
Trying to solve all the issues independently or letting communication run its course.
Problem 3. “What’s that?”
You may have difficulties if you use professional slang:
It happens when:
A customer has no technical expertise, and it is difficult for them to explain what they want.
A developer does not care about the understanding of the problem.
What Should Be Done
If you are a customer:
Ask a developer to explain complex words during the conversation.
Don’t use slang of your company or business sector.
If you are a developer:
Appoint a project manager who translates from “developer language” to English.
Don’t start working on a task if you don’t understand it.
What Should Not Be Done
Overwhelming the person you are talking to with technical terms.
Problem 4. “Everything works slower than I thought.”
A customer is like a user who wants everything to work properly. If something doesn’t work, developers are the ones to blame:
It happens when:
The problem is on a customer’s side, for example an application is too fast for the server.
Developer team haven’t adapted the application to the latest updates or rare devices.
A customer has another contractor working on the backend who has not passed the API keys to a developer.
What Should Be Done
If you are a customer:
Make sure that your hardware meets the requirements.
Describe the problem in clear language. The clearer explained, the faster solved.
Ensure the communication between contractors.
If you are a developer:
Coop with the customer to find out the details of the issue.
Contact the customer’s team and offer solutions.
What Should Not Be Done
Blaming each other without full comprehension of the problem.
