I had an interesting experience today. I recently left my position as a full-time employee with a company that I have been with for quite a few years so that I could move across the country to be near my family. I now am an independent consultant and work almost exclusively for the company I just left.
Yesterday I had a conference call with a client to kick-off a new project. This morning I received a call from the CEO of my former company thanking me for the professional manner with which I conducted the meeting. It seems the client has had this project under development with two other firms, but the way the developers treated the client made them rethink undertaking the development process. This is not a difficult project, but they were treated like fools for wanting things done a certain way.
This got me thinking. I have seen this in the past in our industry. Somehow developers allow themselves to let their over-inflated egos to get in the way of customer service. They start to believe that because the client doesn't understand the underlying technology that they need us and therefore their opinions are value-less. I have even been in meetings where developers directly ridicule the clients.
I have heard a lot of discussion about Offshoring lately. I am starting to believe that one of the main reasons that offshoring is occurring is that there is such a lack of customer service in our industry. We as developers are a bunch of over-paid whiners that let our egos get in the way of listening to the needs of our clients and solving their problems in a timely, painless manner.
Do we want to keep our high-paying jobs right here in the US? Then I think it's time we learn a little about customer service and begin to practice it.