{"id":657,"date":"2013-03-01T11:40:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T11:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/?p=657"},"modified":"2025-04-15T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T09:10:21","slug":"give-something-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Give Something Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">Let\u2019s face it \u2013 things rarely go perfectly on our project engagements.  Even when we think things are moving along smoothly, we sometimes find out that there is an issue causing a certain amount of unrest with our project client.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><!--more-->\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/platform\/try\/\" onclick=\"ga('send', 'event', 'abtest', 'platform-banner-click');\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"pl-banner\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cmw-platform-banner.png\" class=\"img-fluid my-5\" alt=\"CMW Platform banner\" title=\"CMW Platform banner\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">How we find out can vary enormously:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>It can be an <strong>email<\/strong> to the <strong>project manager<\/strong> &#8211; that\u2019s the preferred way.<\/li>\r\n<li>It can be a <strong>discussion<\/strong> on a <strong>project status call<\/strong> &#8211; that\u2019s appropriate.<\/li>\r\n<li>It can be a <strong>customer<\/strong> showing up <strong>at your office<\/strong>.<\/li>\r\n<li>And, worst of all, it can be a <strong>customer call<\/strong> to your <strong>senior management<\/strong>, possibly even your <strong>CEO<\/strong>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">We really don\u2019t want any of these things to happen, but they can and will from time to time, we just never want it to get to the point of contacting the CEO.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"670\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/customer-relationship-management1.png\" alt=\"customer relationship management\" width=\"293\" height=\"202\" style=\"float:right;margin:10px;\" \/>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">In this three-part series I want to look at several things we can do to <strong>improve customer relations<\/strong> throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer, keep them well-engaged and happy, and most of all to improve relations with the customer so at the end of the engagement they walk away with a feeling that you went above and beyond the call of duty for them while handling their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/project-management-software\/\">project<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Free is never forgotten<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">The first concept I\u2019d like to discuss is one of giving something away. And by that, yes, I mean for free. Rarely does someone forget when they\u2019ve been given something for free \u2013 especially if it\u2019s something they never requested.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">I was at my favorite pizza restaurant for my birthday the other day and my wife mentioned the special occasion to our waitress. At the end of the meal \u2013 to my surprise \u2013 she brought out a cannoli with a birthday candle and wished me a happy birthday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\u201cIt was free \u2013 and it was great. Free is good \u2013 free makes customers happy.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">It was free \u2013 and it was great. Free is good \u2013 free makes customers happy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">Discounting your product or services works, too, but the only problem with that is once you\u2019ve discounted something it\u2019s very hard to ever charge that customer full price for that service again, they\u2019ve made a mental note of that price and they will always expect that price and if you try to charge them more, they may look elsewhere. But free is free, and customers are smart enough to know that it\u2019s a freebie and it\u2019s usually a gift, a one time occurrence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>What can you give away?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">It depends on your industry, your project, and your customer.  But let\u2019s say you\u2019re negotiating a change order on an IT project due to some new customer requirements. Perhaps you price out the entire change order but show a discount of giving them two new reports that they are request in that package for free.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">It may be a $20,000 change order and you\u2019ve just given them $2,000 worth of work free.  It\u2019s not a lot, but it is a 10% savings and they will appreciate it. It shows that you appreciate them as a customer and want very much to work with them long term.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">You can also certainly do things like this when relations are very strained for whatever reason, but I would highly recommend giving the project client a larger free service or deliverable \u2013 it can make the difference between making them feel like you really want to make things right and just making a \u2018token\u2019 effort.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\u201c&#8230;everyone likes to get something for nothing \u2013 especially if it\u2019s something they want or need&#8230;\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">The bottom line is everyone likes to get something for nothing \u2013 especially if it\u2019s something they want or need. You can do a lot to improve customer satisfaction by negotiating something free for them during the project engagement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">It may be a report, an important <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/update-your-project-plan-automatically\/\">project plan<\/a> or document that was already planned into the project workload, or it may just be 40 hours of free technical assistance during user acceptance testing on the project. Whatever you choose, it will stick in their minds and it certainly won\u2019t hurt relations and it will likely improve relations with the customer overall.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/\">Part 2<\/a>, we\u2019ll examine the importance of getting your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/\">senior management involved in the project<\/a> as a way to improve customer relations and satisfaction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<section class=\"author bg-light border\">\r\n    <section class=\"row p-3 p-sm-5 align-items-center\">\r\n        <aside class=\"col-sm-3 col-4\">\r\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author__img img-fluid rounded-circle\" title=\"Brad Egeland\" alt=\"Brad Egeland\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/brad-egeland.jpg\">\r\n        <\/aside>\r\n        <article class=\"col-sm-9 col\">\r\n            <p class=\"author__text\">Brad Egeland is a Business Solution Designer and IT\/PM consultant and author with over 25 years of software development, management, and project management experience. <br\/>Brad is married, a father of 9, and living in sunny Las Vegas, NV.<br\/>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bradegeland.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Brad's site<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n        <\/article>\r\n    <\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s face it \u2013 things rarely go perfectly on our project engagements. Even when we think things are moving along smoothly, we sometimes find out that there is an issue causing a certain amount of unrest with our project client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-popular-topics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CMW Lab Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cmwlabinc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hazard-register-workflow.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"449\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"begeland\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CMW_Lab\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CMW_Lab\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"begeland\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"begeland\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/58412967628eadd05821d898157f3353\"},\"headline\":\"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Give Something Away\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\"},\"wordCount\":742,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Leadership\",\"Popular Topics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\",\"name\":\"How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Give Something Away\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"CMW Lab Blog\",\"description\":\"Plan. Manage. Collaborate.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"CMW Lab\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cmwlab-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cmwlab-logo.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":239,\"caption\":\"CMW Lab\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/cmwlab\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cmwlabinc\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMW_Lab\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/58412967628eadd05821d898157f3353\",\"name\":\"begeland\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/author\/begeland\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away","description":"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away","og_description":"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/","og_site_name":"CMW Lab Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cmwlabinc","article_published_time":"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":650,"height":449,"url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hazard-register-workflow.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"begeland","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CMW_Lab","twitter_site":"@CMW_Lab","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"begeland","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/"},"author":{"name":"begeland","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/58412967628eadd05821d898157f3353"},"headline":"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Give Something Away","datePublished":"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/"},"wordCount":742,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Leadership","Popular Topics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/","name":"How to Improve Your Customer Relations: Just Give Them Something Away","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-01T11:40:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-15T09:10:21+00:00","description":"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations throughout the project life cycle to keep things fresh with the customer.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Give Something Away"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/","name":"CMW Lab Blog","description":"Plan. Manage. Collaborate.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"CMW Lab","url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cmwlab-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cmwlab-logo.png","width":1200,"height":239,"caption":"CMW Lab"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/cmwlab\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cmwlabinc","https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMW_Lab"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/58412967628eadd05821d898157f3353","name":"begeland","url":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/author\/begeland\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7276,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/7276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}