Customer/Partner Team

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the “canoe approach” to serving customers.  When it gets down to it, the crux of the canoe approach is as simple (and complex) as taking a team approach to working with customers.  We’re fortunate at IQ Services because we really get to think of ourselves as a member of the customer team.  Because our services fit a niche and many of our customers do not have anyone on staff to do what we do, we become their testing expert.

This team relationship can be especially beneficial during the planning phase of a communications or contact center solution project.  This a critical time in the lifecycle of a communications solution during which each task and the definition of additional tasks require input from several individuals with different areas of expertise. Because performance and load testing of contact center and voice technologies is not typically done on a daily basis, many of our customers do not have internal testing expertise.  These people welcome our participation on their team.  The earlier in the project and lifecycle that we can lend our expertise and services, the more value we can deliver to our customers.  If we can provide some testing expertise and help drive the project forward, we have done our job.

What we have learned over the years is that contact center testing and monitoring done well are not last minute considerations.  These methods should be critical components of even the most basic quality assurance and technical support strategies.  Contact center testing and monitoring can and should be leveraged throughout the entire solution life cycle and related projects.  When we are part of the team, it is a natural part of our role to support and guide our customers with the best practices of testing.  We get the chance to develop a solid customer/vendor team relationship (or as we prefer to see it…a customer/partner team).  A true partner can become just another member of the customer team working toward the same goals and successes.

Gregg Williams