Client Communication Practices at Think201
We all know how important role communications play in almost everything. The impact it brings for seamless project execution is also something uncomparable.
In an intent to improve the efficiency in client communication, from looking back at our 8+ years run, we have charted out new effective communication practices to help us and as an attempt to help you too. This is in an effort to bring in predictability & increase the quality of everything we do.
Here are 4 Practices We Will Be Implementing in Our Client Communication
1. Slots for Unscheduled Calls
We have now dedicated time slots, 12 noon — 1 PM & 5 PM — 6 PM on Monday-Friday, open for any unscheduled calls. Please feel free to reach out to any of us during this slot & we do not expect you to schedule this. Any incoming calls during this slot would be answered without any delays unless we are on another call.
Any unscheduled calls outside this slot would receive less/ no immediate response.
Know the “Why” part
We are a lean team & we wish to stay like that to be able to ship faster & do great things. That’s how we create awesome products for you. We wish to avoid unscheduled calls to be able to streamlines & focus. The best win-win solution we found was to dedicate a slot between 12–1 noon & 5 pm- 6 pm in the evening to channelize all unscheduled calls. This removes unpredictability for you & for us.
2. We are old-school & love email communications
We love emails. Its formal, detailed & gives a good context. Not just that, it helps us to keep track of things without much fuss. We hear you on calls/ WhatsApp but no matter what any new/change request from you is also expected as an email too for us to track it well.
Know the “Why” part
We understand its easier for you to share data quickly verbally/ through WhatsApp. However, it gets really hard to trackback/ share the information sent over WhatsApp to the team. That requires additional effort from us & that effort is redundant too. Let’s converse over email to keep the information flowing well.
3. WhatsApp Message
We use WhatsApp for quick updates only & this should not be considered as an official channel of communication. The groups we create with you is with the intent of being there for any emergency & important updates only & not for continuous chatting/progress updates. Please do not expect that.
We like to keep the communication well within the working hours (10 am — 7 pm), especially on this channel.
Know the “Why” part
We have two important reasons for this.
During the hustle hours, we are usually away from phones to focus & dedicate time towards work. Hence you wouldn’t see us responding instantly.
Secondly, we all also use WhatsApp for personal reasons. Hence receiving/ sending text outside office hours is one thing which we don’t enjoy much. Doing so, we will end up messing the work-life balance, which takes dominoes effect & hampers the deliverable.
4. Response Priority Matrix
Please find below the matrix which would help you understand our response time across communication channels that we use.
- Email — Expect a response within 2 hours for your email sent
- Unscheduled calls — Expect a response, if it’s between 12–1 Noon & 5–6 PM in the evening
- WhatsApp Message — Expect a response within 24hrs
- Scheduled Calls — No change in the way we handle scheduled calls
Once scheduled & accepted from our end, the person concerned will be present on calls without fail. In case of cancellations on scheduled calls, we will too notify you in advance.
Through the years, we realize that it’s true to say that effective communication makes a whole lot of difference. What we mean by effective communication is to avoid redundancy, unpredictability & increase the quality in turn. This new change in client communication practice is also an effort towards attaining that efficiency, keeping the best interest for your product.
We hope you would understand the “Why” part & co-operate with us.