“I’m literally asking for today 😉 we need to get these done by tomorrow morning US time. So it’s only if you have a person with the flexibility to work on this today, your time, rather than whatever they were planning to work on. If that isn’t possible – absolutely no problem! I will knock it out first thing in the morning myself. But figured I’d check.”
What you see here is an email from one of our clients where he wanted a deliverable of 7 claim charts in 9 hours.
There wasn’t any compulsion from the client’s side because he understood this was a very last-moment thing.
Well, Ajneesh and Tenzin could have replied with won’t be possible, need some more time, we will try, but that is when their ‘we need to do it for him’ feeling kicked in. So after having an internal discussion, this is what they replied with:
“We’re starting with this right away, Tim. We believe we should be able to do all these charts (tentatively) ~ by 9 AM your time.
But that said, considering that there’s a total of 7 charts (1+3+3), could you let us know if you would like to receive any of these charts on priority? We could send these charts as soon as they’re done (and then carry on with the remaining low-priority charts later.
Let us know if it works for you.”
His response-
Pumped up by his response, they kicked off the project full of enthusiasm!
7 hours later…
How about reading Tenzin’s email and seeing what Tim had to say about us? But, the email is not just about our client’s experience. It is about very critical learning – Good Client Experience isn’t built in a day.
Instead of creating any more curiosity, here is Tenzin’s email.
SUB: Good Client Experience isn’t built in a day
Tenzin Karma
Team Lead, Search Team
What a Madlad 😐
That’s all that comes to my mind when I see this client response – which is the culmination of a series of events that started this afternoon at 12:15 PM.
Rewind to that time –
Yeah, the client had reached out to Ajneesh (PoC for this case) with this request at around midnight his time. So one can imagine that it was rather important to him. And it was indeed a tall order, to say the least – about 7 claim charts.
He needed them by morning, his time, so, long story short – the clock was already ticking, and we had roughly 9 hours max from when this request came in.
The Planning:
Who am I kidding? You can’t plan for this kind of stuff :/
But one thing both AG and I were on the same page within our ‘planning’ discussion: “Man, we gotta help the guy.”, even though we both knew what a marathon would entail. So, we decided to check with the client anyway whether this ‘worst case scenario of 9 hours’ is just something in our heads (we tend to take the worst-case scenarios rather often. Surely we’re not alone on this).
What we sent: “Meanwhile, could you also share the deadline (time) at your end – That’ll help us plan better”
What the man replied: “I’m literally asking for today 😉 we need to get these done by tomorrow morning US time.”
So, after several uncomfortable planning discussions (where I even started questioning my decision) – Ajneesh and I came on the same page:
We must do it.
It’s not just that our clients come to us with crazy requests. It’s more like they come to us BECAUSE it’s a crazy request. And they know: If anyone can get it done, it’s those crazy folks over at GreyB.
And while that’s a good [almost necessary] ego boost, it’s moments like these which back it up. This made our friend Tim feel like he made the right call to bet on us.
Now, was it my proudest moment in planning? Absolutely not, because it still feels like throwing my teammate in the fire. Almost like:
“Here, this is where you shall burn for a while, but trust me, and it’ll be worth it because the client will be happy. And I’ll also try my best to see if I can get someone to join you there, so you burn a little less J.”But it was [another one* of] my proudest moment for my teammate’s vision and willingness to show the client the “GreyB Standard.” When you sign us up for your work, we’re not just gonna “give you our best” – but you’re gonna tell us that yourself. Case in point:
Is this what we call a 7-star client experience? Perhaps someone else can comment on this. But I will say that it is indeed a step in that direction. You know what they say: ‘perfection is a direction, not a destination’. (I heard it somewhere, I really don’t know who ‘they’ are)
All in all, Thanks AG. You’re a Madlad. And in the client’s own words – you’re now Ajneesh “The Best” Goyal.
Best Regards,
Tenzin
When you work in an organization, a win from one team is also a win for others. The appreciation expressed in the email made me realize our work’s impact and how fulfilling it is to know that our efforts are recognized.
As for delivering high-quality results, regardless of the deadline, the answer is quite clear – we will go to great lengths to ensure that our clients get what they need.
But why just hear it from us when you can be the next Tim?
