Software Development Outsourcing: How To Measure Customer Satisfaction?
Good reviews from your customers show that your business is going on the right track and is expanding its scale. However, feedback is not the only measure of customer satisfaction that tells the full story. There are several ways that can help you convert your customers into loyal ones and avoid unnecessary challenges during the software development outsourcing endeavor.
Overview
When it comes to customer satisfaction and product quality, many of us often get confused between these two terms.
In particular, a high-quality product is not the only needed factor to guarantee customers' positive reviews and references.
For instance, an outstanding mobile application was developed by an experienced mobile development team, however, it failed to be delivered before the deadline, or perhaps, these mobile developers could not communicate efficiently or well enough with their client. These problems might probably leave a bad impression even though these mobile developers managed to deliver a great mobile app that works as expected.
Technically speaking, customers not being satisfied with the result of a business partnership does not always mean that the software product that is delivered is of poor quality. In fact, a number of factors have an impact on how customers feel about working with their software development outsourcing partner.
What are the secrets to improving customer satisfaction?
Getting the job done on time, staying within budget, and ultimately delivering a great product can ultimately enhance customer satisfaction.
Yet, it is obvious that it is always easier said than done. So in reality, what exactly do you need to do in order to achieve your customers' satisfaction and continued business? You can find out the answers to this question by examining the facets that directly impact customer satisfaction.
Align the quality management process of your software development by following the software QA standards as well as applying the coding best practices. This can help keep track of the developed products quality, services, and other processes in an IT company.
Monitoring the quality regularly enables an objective assessment of the level of services. Assuring quality software within a software development outsourcing firm can result in the following benefits:
- The customer is more likely to accept the result of the developers' work.
- A software development outsourcing company does not need to spend time and effort handling complaints about the quality of its products and services.
- No additional resources need to be expended to fix bugs and mistakes after application or system startup.
2. Ensure close collaboration
During the meeting or video conferences with clients, it is better for you to ask more questions to obtain valuable information about your client's expectations. You can leverage this simple method to identify the problem before it actually occurs. Moreover, you can also ask the person in charge of customer success of your company to compile a list of questions to find out whether the software development outsourcing services meet clients' expectations or not.
One of our clients became concerned about completing the project on time. Fortunately, with regular monitoring and close collaboration with the development team, our project manager was able to control the whole situation. As a result, we were able to speed up the timeline of the project without increasing the project workload or exceeding a budget. Our team tried to provide a solution in advance, and the customer was very satisfied with the outcome.
- Carefully Evaluate user feedback
It is indeed true that the ownership of the product belongs to the client and it is the responsibility of the owner to take care of further project development and promotion. However, it is crucial for a software development outsourcing company to continuously monitor even after going live.
The technology partner is supposed to take responsibility for collecting and analyzing end-user reviews. This collected information can bring a thorough understanding of users' attitudes towards the software application and the organization developing this solution.
Our customer (also known as the owner of the product) registered for developing a new version of the mobile application to be released on the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Market (Android). With the huge amount of users' comments, our business analyst was able to work with our client to identify actual user needs, which formed the foundation of a new project development plan.
- Conduct customer surveys after project completion.
There are several ways to measure customer satisfaction, and the Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT) is one of the most popular methods among all. Clients are asked to rate the quality of the service they received from your business on a scale of 1 to 10, for example.
If you want to understand your client's overall experience of working with you, you should use the Customer Effort Rating (CES). By using this method, you can ask your client how easy it was to solve the problem with your assistance and provide your client with possible answers.
Additionally, using the entire questionnaire as a whole, instead of using just one question, can help you get a full picture of customers' attitudes towards the quality of the service.
You can also find out how loyal your client is by using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). You can ask your client question like "How likely are you to recommend our company/service/product to someone?". This will help you identify the ones who are willing to come back to you with your new products/services.
Final words
You can maximize customer satisfaction by focusing on quality assurance, asking questions about their experience of working with your company and supporting close cooperation with your client. If you do so, you can easily find out exactly what your clients need and provide it to them while staying on the same page.
