“Get closer than ever to your customer. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves” – Steve Jobs
Customers are the most valuable part of any business. After all, it is they who are the directly impact the success rate of any business. In order to make a dent in an overfull and competitive market, it thus becomes essential to not only deliver what you promised your customer but also deliver more and deliver better. Customers today are all well aware of the increasing number of vendors and stiff competition in the market and know what they want out of their business relationship. So, delivering superior customer experiences is not an option anymore…it is a business necessity and to a large extent a great business driver.
Being a software services company, we understand the value that a good relationship with the customer brings to the table. While we do pride ourselves on our technology expertise and excellent developer strength, we believe that it is our capability to understand the demands and requirements of the fast growing businesses and then to translate those requirements into business actions is what has won us great customers and helped us build lasting relationships. So what are the things that make the vEmployee relationship different?
The technology challenges faced by a small enterprise are quite different from those faced by large enterprises. Over the 16 years of our existence, we have kept startups and small businesses as our key focus area since it is here that the need for technology and innovation is greater. For us, working with small enterprises gives us the opportunity for technological exploration and implementation to solve business problems and contribute to creating niche companies that can deliver great value.
All startups and small enterprises are focused on ROI. This is quite understandable since such organizations have to function with limited resources, both physical and financial. We ensure that by choosing us as their technology partners, our clients get the maximum bang for their buck and maximize their ROI. We ensure that we provide our clients with the best of the breed developers and technology experts who function as an organic extension of their own team which they can scale up or down according to their project demands. This helps in reducing their cost of ownership which, in turn, reflects positively on the ROI.
We understand that Intellectual Property is an extremely valuable business asset. Being as important as it is, this aspect is also one that is most vulnerable. To make sure that our clients feel completely secure sharing the details of their intellectual property with us, we have designed watertight Non-Disclosure Agreements that are a part of our standard agreement. To demonstrate our commitment these NDAs, we have ensured that all our employees are bound by NDAs and understand the importance that we place on these at the organization level.
Complete transparency is particularly important when you are working with a team which is not geographically located at the same location as you. Keeping this in mind we have developed agile processes that offer our clients complete visibility. We use a combination of tools which provide the details pertaining to the progress of a project. The client can see, at all times, how the work is progressing and work proactively alongside the development team.
To demonstrate that we are committed towards transparency, we also offer clients a two-week free trial, something that is usually not offered by services companies. At the end of the two weeks if our client is not satisfied with our services they do not get charged for the service at all!
We are a CMMI Level 3 certified company and have a lot of pride in the processes that we have developed to service our clients better. Our agile project management practices ensure timely deliveries with shorter development cycles and testing. We place a great emphasis on the quality score of every piece of code and hence our developers not only develop the code but also take complete ownership of testing each piece of code they write thoroughly.
We involve our client in the sprint planning process to align development cycles to the business demand and ensure that delivery cycles are maintained. We also ensure that we provide quantified and timely insights to our clients and ensure that our clients are informed of all project-related developments at all times. It is because of these high accountability levels that we ensure that manage client expectations easily despite the geographical difference.
We believe that if we want to stay ahead of the curve, we have to ingrain improvement into the DNA of our organization. We are not satisfied to rest on the great job that we did yesterday but are focused on discovering new ways to make applications better. To that effect, we have introduced the concept of an ‘Ideas Diary’ where every developer working on a project has to come up with new ideas that can benefit a project. The viable ones are discussed with the client and then implemented to achieve better results. Every developer, thus, is innovating for the client and working towards making the product better.
Communication is the key that binds all great relationships. Given this aspect, we ensure that our communication with our clients happens smoothly and seamlessly. As a part of Agile methodology, every project is assigned a development team and a Shadow Product Owner (as required) who operates as the offshore product owner and works closely with the customer and the internal team. This product owner is in constant contact with the client to ensure all communication transpires efficiently. If required, the clients can also get assistance from SCRUM master to facilitate Agile adoption. Our clients also have access to all communication channels (emails, phone numbers, direct cell phone numbers, Skype id’s etc.) of the developers and can interact with them just like the team was down the hall.
Like everything else, we have a simple contract that is drawn up in an easy-to-comprehend language. Since we have complete confidence in our work, our contract does not demand a lock-in period. Given that most of our clients are based out of the U.S, we have also made sure that these contracts are enforceable there.
Sam Walton, founder of Walmart famously quoted “The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but LEGENDARY” – we could not agree more.