Undocumented Features

UF Postings Past: Preparing for the End

January 27, 2008 – 4:56 pm

Sometimes you have to part ways with a client. It may be that the client wants to move on, it could be that you have had enough of the client and need to move on yourself, it could be for financial reasons, or any number of other things. When the time comes, though, it comes. Do you know what to do?

It’s good business to make your client as prepared as possible for life without you. It will save them time and make their life easier. This is likely that this will get you better references from them in the future, which is always a good thing. It will also save you time and effort, as whenever the former customer hits the wall regarding anything you’ve worked on in the past, they are likely to call you. In many cases, they’ll expect their questions to be answered pro bono. A clean cut-off is in the best interest of everyone.

That said, here’s five things you can do to make life easier:

1) Have any and all client-owned project material boxed up and/or burned to CD. Return this to the client as soon as possible. You may consider keeping a copy for yourself, if legally allowed by your contract (if the customer loses it, they’ll probably call you).

2) Have any and all source code, scripts and whatnot also burned to CD and sent to the client. Be sure to keep a copy (again, if allowed) for reference, and be SURE to document everything as carefully as possible. You may have to reference this stuff later, the customer will possibly have to, and who knows who else. One thing is for certain- if anyone in the chain has questions, they’ll likely call YOU.

3) Have at least one (preferably more than one) different provider reference ready and provide it to the client. Try to be sure that the provider meets the clients needs- financial and otherwise. This may seem like a bad idea, especially if the client is firing you. It’s not- anything that you can do to help the client, in the long run, helps your company’s image with them. You may yet get a referral from them someday, and even if you don’t, you never know who is calling them to ask them how your service to them was. The better you are to them, the better off you are.

4) Have all customer invoices ready. Provide them in hard and soft copy. Try to set terms on them that are clear and concise, and bring the financial terms of your relationship to as clean, quick, and polite an end as you possibly can.

5) Document everything you can about the client relationship. Keep up with contacts, who did what, and any notes you can think of that will help you with relationships with these people in the future. Remember, you may not ever do business with this customer again, but people do change jobs nowadays, so you may do business with the individuals who work there later on. You need this info to help protect yourself, possibly build new bridges into new clients in the future, and maybe even know what bridges not to cross later on. There’s no end to the value of good notes.

Stick with these guidelines, and they will help you down the road.

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