What you get when you visit customer

A warm welcome and hot coffee.!... no no no. that is not enough. You get to see a whole lot of different world.

You get to see how your customer looks

Do you have some idea about your customer? Do you think he is great, rich, technically enabled? He knows everything and anything? no. Customer is just like us. he also has limited resources, cost implications and techincal problems. If you can understand this, it will reflect in the solution you provide. You will consider his problems, and use your skills most effectively to benefit the customer.

You get to see how your customer works

Customer has his own problems to solve. He has different soup in his plate. He is trying to reduce his problems by seeking solution from us. If we create more problems by our solution, it adds to his problems. You also get to see what ideas he implements to solve his problems. you can pick some idea in your solution. That will enable the customer to solve his problem in better manner. You also get to see what principles he follows to solve his problems. You can make use of them in your solution. When you visit the customer, you can identify actual problems to tackle and modify your solution accordingly.

You get to see what are his needs

 Does customer need a jazzy, grand looking solution? no. He needs a solution which solves his problem. It can be an independent application, customization of available application, or just a small script. But if even that small script solves his major problem, he is more than happy.

You get to know how he thinks

Customer's thinking style can be totally different than you think. You can incorporate his thinking in your solution. We work in a different domain. Our thinking style is acustomed to our domain. When you visit customer, you come to know his domain, how he thinks in his domain. You can also identify differences in your and his thinking and tailor the solution.

You get to see how much he needs your support

Customer is a user of particular technology but does not understand internals of it. You are the expert in that technology and you know the internals. You can guide customer in obtaining solutions with that knowledge of internals. Such guidance is also considered part of the solution. Customer will be happy to know internals of the technology he is using, to some extent.

You get to see where you stand

Customer's problems come in a lot of variety. you may not be able to cater to each and every need. But it still gives you a chance to judge where you stand. You can be far behind his needs or may have a far advanced technology. Matching your solutions with customner's needs is the key. If you are far advanced, you can quickly provide the solution. If you are behind, it gives you a food for thought and opportunity for business. Yeh dil maange more!

You get to see where you lack

Even if we think we have best solutions available, it is still in our own little world. You may also lack in the quality of solution that  you already have. Customer may ask for more. Customer may want to see quickly, how your technology works. He wants a quick demo, or a quick prototype. You may lack in quality of service provided.

You get to see what all you can do

what all we can offer. During a meeting with customer, it is a good exercise to try to match his needs with our solutions, and our capabilities. You get to see a whole lot of new world where you can use your capabilities, and areas where you can offer solutions.

You also get to see customer's happiness

...and sometimes rage as well! It is a great time when you go to install the functionality at the customer's place. Customer is anxious to see the new baby... what he has paid for! If he sees good results he is happy. He will call for a dinner party, site seeing trip, otherwise hot coffe can be on the your face instead of in the mouth!