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In today’s market the customer should always come first.  This has been the bread and butter of many industries throughout the ages.  A satisfied customer is one who will keep coming back.  The customer is the one who helps the bottom line.  This is true in the field of business analysis.  It is the customer’s   needs which the business analyst is fulfilling.  The business analyst should help to strengthen customer relations.  Time put into this is time well spent.  Finding the customer to be unhappy is never a good thing.  Ask any good business manager what their number one priority is and they will answer customer relations.  Sometimes it does not always show.

Many of today’s corporations utilize a big part of their budget on improvements in operations.  The target is the bottom line.  What they fail to realize is this can and will drive customers away.  Targeting the needs of the customer is first and foremost in any business.  The same holds true with business analysts.

When going in to trouble shoot a system, the business analyst becomes a production manager.  If he or she does not put the needs of the customer first, the project will undoubtedly fail.  Listening to the customer to determine what is needed and desired is the start of a good relationship.  When the business analyst fails to listen the entire project could not only start on the wrong foot but end in disaster as well.

The business analyst must encourage feedback.  He or she must understand just what the customer is wanting, even if they do not know themselves.  The customer may know what he or she wants the project to accomplish.  They may know how they want something to run.  The customer just may not know how to say it.  He or she may collect data imperative to the project program.  It is the business analyst’s job to determine if the data is even relevant.  He or she is the liaison in this relationship.  He or she must have good customer relations skills.  The business analyst must speak the customer’s language.

Putting the customer relationship first can be a daunting task at times.  The bottom line is critical to success on any project.  There are times the business analyst will be caught up in keeping cost down and compromise the relationship he or she has with the customer.  The customer will be much happier if you go a little over budget and keep him or her happier in other areas of the project.

Sometimes it is easier to prepare reports and allocate spending to IT to accomplish a task than it is to spend time or money developing a plan for customer satisfaction.  The price any company could pay for this is a high one.  The business analyst is no different.  Customer satisfaction means keeping them informed of progress.  Speak in a language they understand.  Consult with them when a roadblock is met or when a progress point is passed.  Either way, keeping a constant rapport with the customer ensures a satisfied client.  This can lead to repeat business.  This helps the business to grow.

If you really want to make a decent living and want to have a good, successful, viable computer consulting business, sooner or later you have to narrow down your focus and develop a keen intuition. Additionally, you have to become good at spotting the best small businesses accounts.

The Small Business Myriad

There are millions of small businesses in the U.S. and there are millions of small businesses abroad. There’s a pretty good chance that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies that would qualify as small businesses in your local area.

The sad fact is, if you latch onto the wrong ones, you’re not going to have a very good computer consulting business.

Finding the Best Accounts

You need to know where to find these best accounts. In the computer consulting business you also need to know how to say “no,” and when to say “no.”

It’s extremely important that you know where to look, and how to verify that a small business is going to be a gratifying client for your computer consulting business.

You obviously want to feel a certain sense of career satisfaction. That’s probably one of the reasons you’re looking at starting your own computer consulting business as opposed to sticking with a traditional corporate IT career.

Keep the Financial Aspects in Mind

Your computer consulting business also has to be lucrative financially because you need to have a profitable business. You want it to be a stable source of recurring revenue.

Remember, all small businesses are not created equal. Your job is not to be the Mother Teresa of PC support. You are not starting a computer consulting business as a charitable organization.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

Of course, you want to have empathy for the people you support and you want to do a great job for them. At the same time, you have to look out for your own interests to make sure you’re going to be there for them six months to a year down the road.

Perhaps you have followed the trend in business to create an internet web site for your business that can be used to supplement your marketing efforts.  If so, you have joined the momentum to create a corresponding “place” in cyberspace that can be used to reach customers online.  The need for such an internet presence is entirely market driven.  Internet sales have soared, particularly in certain market segments and more and more, the first place people go to in order to learn about your business is the internet.  If they find a well designed web site that is full of features, that works fast and draws them in, that can be a tremendous tool for promoting your business.

When you set up a marketing tool outside of cyberspace, the first concern is how will that new marketing effort get noticed.  So we are drawn to places where there is already an active traffic of people who would qualify as our customers.  That may mean putting up a billboard where it will be seen by people going to work.  That target audience may be the best population to respond to your message.  Or if your business appeals to youth, advertising on MTV or on popular radio stations is a natural place to put your marketing money because the traffic is already there.

We have to approach the internet differently.   Yes, the traffic is already there but we have to enter the world of cyberspace marketing with a different kind of strategy so we can reach the customers who are traveling certain “internet roads” and make sure those roads lead to our web site.

There is whole a cottage industry that has sprung up around the need for knowledgeable internet marketing gurus.  And, yes, it’s a good idea to use their talents to make sure the search engines put your web site in front of the right kind of client or customer.  These talented internet geeks can put your business web site into the flow of web surfers so you get your fair share of that traffic.

That said, you don’t have to wait for the internet marketing experts to make your web site more successful.   If the business has made the effort to put that web site up, you want to see it start to pay off right away.  That is why you should consider some creative ways to drive people to your web site from your traditional markets thus educating your current customers, clients and partners about the site.  Ways to do that include…

§    Promote the web site at the retail level.  Some creative signage at your retail locations can create some momentum and interest in customers to go see your exciting new web site.

§    Put the link on all correspondence.  If you have flyers, a magazine or other current means of communications, your URL should always be listed there.  Add your URL to your email signature and on business cards and all other forms of communication so your community of clients, customers and partners get used to associating that web site with you as much as they do your business name.

§    Create excitement.  It is easy to operate a business contest from your retail sites that drives people to the web site for clues or to claim their winnings.  That kind of momentum can create huge surges of traffic through your web site with the corresponding surge of sales and leads.

The modern customer or client is used to seeing the promotion of a web site included with other forms of promotion and advertising.  You are not “assaulting” your customer base with this information. If anything, when your audience sees that the business has burst into the cyberspace world in a big way, they will be thrilled and as likely to respond with, “It’s about time.”.

You know how much you depend on the internet to keep you informed about areas of interest and about businesses you like to patronize.  So you can see that not only putting up a good web site but letting people know that it is there and that there are big things there for them to enjoy is doing them a favor as much as it is creating new marketing opportunities for your business.