ABSTRACT

As shopkeeper, project managers have customers to serve and are in the business of securing customers through total satisfaction and delight. This may seem obvious when dealing with external customers but not so much for internal customers. Delivering quality is not easy and it cannot be delivered unless the operational part of the project itself is right. Delivering quality from a base of inadequate planning is an impossibility—a good customer will feel manipulated if the operation goes wrong and the project manager seems unable to put matters right—regardless of how well he or she is treated. Organisations that delight their external customers have a high regard for their internal customers. Delighting customers is difficult because it is an emotional thing, away from balance sheets and work breakdown structures—it deals with imperfect and inconsistent human beings. Delight is about adding value through enhancing the project delivery to the delight of the customer.