The fans
No manuals .. Just a Culture
How to make your team members communicate with clients in a consistent way without a script or instructions? Simply, Create a Culture that is based on client support where everyone on the team seeks the project best interest.
This might seem as a welfare and we know that creating a manual is way easier and cost effective, but when you have programmed employees, you can never nail it with clients. Clients don’t want a corporate and business talk, they need a friend who can help them achieve their dreams.
And that’s what a culture does. creates a harmonic atmosphere where everyone has his own way of expressing the brand but in the same manner. It work as the larger guideline for the company.
In the business world, a culture is the general attitudes that people demonstrate inside the company including how they deal with each other and with different clients on a daily basis.
Being a cultural business contributed massively to the overall client experience of Baianat as our culture was tailored for the support of the client best experience. Having respect as one of the main culture pillars of Baianat, encouraged all the team members to make small acts of kindness everyday to please clients.
We believe that as long as everyone inside feels respected this feeling shall be transmitted automatically to clients. Our values affect our relationship with the clients and strengthen the mutual understanding to a great level. On the internal level, players are demonstrating certain values while dealing with clients. These values yield behaviors is nothing extraordinary or too sophisticated, but simply respecting the client and working out their best to better delight them.
Talk their language
Clients are not interested in hearing your championships with technicalities. And how you managed to wrestle with this code line and tiny pixel of the logo. As long as this is not going to benefit them, you will be talking in vain.
So it’s important to be able to talk your clients’ language. If the client is interested in having a high speed website, don’t talk about your servers qualities. Instead, tell them how hosting on these quality servers can impact their business growth.
Remember to pick an easy language and center you talk on the client business and its end users needs. Keep it a two way conversation where you both share the ideas and think further for the project.
When you feel like the client is not following up, try to describe the situation again until they perfectly get your point, especially when discussing technicalities. Otherwise, you will be having a miscommunication that could lead to drastic failure.
It’s our project
We take ownership of what we do. And with every new project handed to any of our team players, they are encouraged to pour their souls into create something they would be proud of.
It’s not about getting the task done. Earning clients’ hearts requires dedication. After all, someone's’ else’s dream is between our hands and we respect our partners trust. So we tell every player "It’s your project, do the best thing possible and strive for its success".
Approaching projects with this mentality turns issues into challenges, and every success into a celebration feast. We work closely with our clients to better understand their needs and articulate solutions that addresses the final user concerns.
Good morale is always good for clients
Inside Baianat, every player has the DNA of the place and the ability to act and take decisions according to his best judgement. This culture of empowerment affects the sense of ownership of the players and as a result, encourage them to take actions that enhances the client experience without bureaucracy or need for the confirmation of someone else. Usually, players decide the problem and work on solving it immediately without the need for previous approval.
So instead of having employees who follow orders, they feel like brand owners who should strive for the best of their clients. When players feel empowered they are more likely to give the same good treatment to their clients.
It’s hard to do good job when you hate the company you work for. And it has been many times when we were served by people who seemed to hate us for asking their help. And that’s normal. If the team hated the project they are working on, they will shift from perfectioning the tasks on hand to a being quick and dirty.
But when teams are in their best shape and away from any stress that could affect their productivity, they can treat their clients better and do things so we can write made with love at Baianat, Inc.
The overall atmosphere should always remain positive without many team members complaining about how hard the workload is. They should be happy while dealing with clients. So when clients come for a visit, they should feel the energy all over the place.
Success partners
Clients are not moving dollars they are human beings who would definitely hate cold calls and any means of traditional methods that are interruption and annoying. As we believe that humans are what make up the whole game, we don't care about money and aim for making long-lasting relationships with people who would consider us their partners. we deal with every project as if it's ours and with each client as a family member. We advise and educate them on how to perform better and remain honesty in case our efforts won't support their business goals and direct them to what they need. We even reject clients that we might not be ready for as it's not just about doing business, it's about business that takes a good acre of humans.
There are only stupid answers
Clients are not aware of what they need, just know their pains and what they want well. So listen to them carefully and pay all the attention to grasping every info they let out. Don't underestimate their questions or consider it silly as if they intentionally here to waste your time and for missing around. Be open to all kinds of questions and see through it. After all it's your responsibility to educate your clients. Show interest and exert effort in providing them with the required data. Provide them even with more than they asked for and go for other topics that might help them understand the whole picture. In Baianat we sometimes recommend books and learning paths as well. This won't only position you as a thought leader but will also create a sense of gratefulness which is more important for a healthy relationship.
Seek criticism
Criticism it as a dear old friend who really cares about you. criticism will escalate your growth and make you avoid many possible future mistakes. Just don't be stubborn and defensive about your idea. Don't fall in love with what you crafted. Let it go to the world and see what happens. Explain it well and the logic behind in a brief way and let the audience decide. It's made for them eventually. Collect all the comments and investigate it carefully. Some might be lacking objectivity but others may be a last piece of puzzle you're missing.
Knowledge is not exclusive
We believe that everyone has the right to learn, to acquire the knowledge that qualifies to do and produce something special in this world; we offer high quality open source products to any human being in any region of the world, and not only we do so, but we share the experiences, tools and methodologies we rely on in the production of these products. Therefore, with all sincerity, science is an authentic right for every person in the world.
Competition is healthy and customers are winners
The market is full of many and many competitors. The choices are many and the time is short for the customer. He chooses the best and the first, only the first ..because, as we said many choices and little time, and the first place in the race belongs to the owner of wisdom and sound thinking. We believe that competition is two-sided, either to the benefit of the client, or to destroy by all parties without benefit, Competition is one of the most important things that every business entity must have. Competition is healthy, competition makes it harder to play. Competition makes people give their best. Therefore, we believe that every good effort is always in the interest of the client, and that is our goal, the customer only. When we see a competitor doing something good, we praise and encourage him,and then we strive and persevere until we do something better. This is our belief in dealing with competition.
Welcome to the world
The most important advantage of any marketer at all is that he can put himself in the place of the customer, think like him, feel the same. For example, We at Baianat present our products and services to the people everywhere, which means to deal with more than one segment of different countries, and each group of people have customs and traditions And different cultures according to the state they belong to so we are keen to deal with each client according to his culture to get closer to him and make him loves us and then believes us, and this is what we seek.
There are no farewells
In today's world there are no running away from clients. Businesses who do that are losing a huge opportunity for expansion and development. It's not like you will drop your product and fly away for the next project. The real work begins after the delivery is submitted. Don't do things that will look good at the store and when taken home will lose its true value. And most importantly don't ignore the client's complaints or complements. Consider every signal transmitted back and work on it.
Build one to one rapport
Clients are nervous, in hurry and caring more about the overall than minor technical details. During your interaction with them, make sure that you're adding a value or removing a burden by building a real bond.
Keeping your language formal and full of “Sir” “ Mr.” could hinder you from creating a deep relationship with the client and breaks the bridges of connections.
Also, Clients won't remember what you said, but what you made them feel. So if you made them feel like strangers they will continue dealing with you as a business firm that is completing the task for them. This might not sound bad as it seems, but it surly makes you less memorable.
After all, clients who are called by name, their favorite drink is always remembered along with the small concerns they mentioned in meetings will always feel more connected to the place. And it's your goal to make the time they spend in your head quarter the most joyful hours of the day.
Because your clients can get your service anywhere else, it’s the brand experience and the relationships that makes them want to linger.
Consistency
Having hassle in your production line can cause bad client experience. When everyone in the project team are not on the same line, disasters can happen like: presentation arguments, commitment conflicts and unclear delivery dates.
This is not the only case of vibrant experience, but when players are not following the values of the brand and talking through its voice, clients usually don’t feel comfortable to talk about what’s happening. There should be a unified experience though different people are creating it.
Consistency is rare and companies who master it, ultimately thrive as they provide a high level of trust. Clients gain stability when they know you will keep providing them with the same experience no matter what happens.
Taking the same experience to everywhere and anytime in this unpredictable world is something that deserves sharing.
Serve, don’t sell
The whole point of your business existence is helping the client. Not selling your services or products. This is what most companies fail to understand.
Once they get in touch with a client, they start with showcasing solutions and talking about themselves. They neglect the client, the end user and the budget. And instead of focusing on building a human connection, they keep bragging about their business budgets and negotiate the possible revenues.
And in business world, what is made based on money only can never last. Clients are not walking wallets. So don’t make it all about the transfer and neglect making connections because business is always about connections not money.
Small details matter
Details are what turns a client into a promoter. Welcoming people by name and remembering them from visit to visit might seem insignificant, although it has the biggest impact. And when those small details are missed, even the most patient and kind clients can turn into your brand worst enemies.
Frustrating clients can cause a lot of costly errors including complaints, social media scandals or worse, sudden brand abandon. As unfortunately, only a small portion of clients report their unpleasant experiences with the brand. However, they can still share it with their families and close circles.
By connecting on a personal level, both clients and players find enhanced meaning in ordinary moments.
Waiting for people to remember small details will let you disappointed and on big scale will drain all of your energy in making sure that everything is perfect by yourself. So the best way to pay attention to details is by following a documented inclusive process that shows exactly how things should be done.
Attention to details doesn’t happen by default, it has to be designed.
Competitive advantage occurs when everyone takes nothing for granted.
It’s not about selling a certain service or product, it’s about how fast you responded to their emails when they had an inquiry.
You should always keep in mind that details that might not matter to you might be everything to the clients. And when you fail to fulfill those details you fail to create the experience they crave.
Details matter on both micro level and macro level.
No amount of money spent on advertising and marketing will make up for failed execution on the little things.
It’s not about you - clients know it better.
Yes you are a good damn researcher, designer, marketeer or brand identity designer but trust me you’re not the business owner. You don’t know every detail of the industry and you are not the person who is gonna operate in the market.
You don’t have the full story and your conclusions are not always enough. So there's one thing that you should definitely leave for the client. “ His business”. Don’t pretend that you know more about the client in his business. It doesn’t matter how many reports you have read, you didn’t meet actual clients or investors so interfering with the client business is not your job.
So it’s always best to provide clients with the freedom to choose what works best for them and do yourself a favor and accept that unless its suitable from your perspective as well. Eventually it’s not a fight and there are no winners or loser. You both have the same purpose which is making a successful project.
Create memorable welcomes
Even though we believe that first impression never last and the last impression can erase the previous one if it’s stronger than it, Paying attention to how you welcome people is just the start.
And many agencies think that welcoming people is the end of the cycle forgetting that you can’t just welcome someone for the first time and then ignore them. A memorable welcome addresses all the client questions and concerns.
Go beyond cold greetings and fake smiles.
Never try to beat them, always join them
Coloring outside the line - Perfection - get immersed in the project
Clients are looking for the satisfaction only, like if you gave them what they asked for they would blame you for not exceeding their expectations. That’s why concepts like “ Do the minimum” and “ Do the expected” are not functioning anymore.
Instead, you should always bring the chocolate. Which means, adding the extra unexpected value to your client project. These things doesn’t have to be big like making it all or free, although we did some projects like this in Baianat.
But it could be like doing extra work with the presentation or aiding the client with information that you didn’t agree on providing but you think is necessary for them.
A legnedy service comes from a strong desire to exceed what the customer expects.
Perfection is a tiring and endless process that requires being so deep into the client business that's why and many avoid it for the sake of cutting the coasts and working remotely from clients.
Go beyond day-to-day activities. As long as this will be related to the product or service you are offering.
There is no one perfect approach or secret recipe for perfection as it varies according to clients. Some might perceive it as the extra version you have set of the design or the one hour call that you addressed his concerns during.
Setting a bar will leave you with clients thinking that you’re overreacting or less than what they expected. So it’s always wise to tailor the perfection according to your clients definition that you observed during the communication.
Expectations danger
Today’s consumers are far more discerning and far harder to please. Clients are waiting for the new twist, the unexpected magical trick. And although we work according to “ Of course” not “ Wow” factor, it’s still important to master our work.
Satisfaction is not the standard anymore as clients are looking for more pleasure and luxury.
Clients expect businesses to respond to their purchases to offer more
You should be able to reach the expectations you made the client believe about you. So if your identity and website made the client think you offer high quality service or even able to turn mine into gold, you must do that.
People are pleased when they know that a company will deliver what it promises.
Listen.Listen.Listen
In order for any connection to occur, a person must feel listened to on both verbal and non-verbal sides. Any attitude evoking to the feelings of carelessness.
Don’t act like “ I couldn't care less”
Sometimes you have to go beyond just listening and go on a discovery trip. By maintaining the mutual understanding of another person's wants and desires. These relationships stop because one or both parties stop their process of discovery.
This helps them reveal needs they didn’t know of its existence before.
Most businesses collecting data about their clients end up doing a strategy or providing a service that is not related to what they need trashing all the collected data and not acting on what they have learned. Which frustrates clients and makes them feel betrayed or not important. This is not clients being too sensitive, but you gave them a hidden promise that you will take their notes into consideration and never did.
Which frustrates clients and makes them feel betrayed or not important. This is not clients being too sensitive, but you gave them a hidden promise that you will take their notes into consideration and never did.
Sometimes businesses are long on interest and short on effort to handle situations immediately based on what they hear.
Many clients needs are never actually stated, they require you to be open and attentive.
Be knowledgeable - Knowledge is power
Continuous learning is an essential pillar of any Baianater values as by knowing more about what we do we can better serve and impact the world. In addition, Knowing every aspect of our work and having work related-knowledge adds extra value to our clients.
As they rely on knowledgeable people to help them knowing that they are the best in field. And when people rely on you to help them with exactly what they expect, you’re reinforcing the image and strength of your brand in in your client's heart and mind.
Educate the client
Clients are not aware of their needs. They may know the look and feel of the brand they want or the pages of the website but this might not be exactly what they need. So it’s always our duty to educate the clients on their needs and help them choose the most relevant option even if this option doesn’t yield money directly to us.
The ultimate goal is not making money but creating more sophisticated clients who are not easily fraud and have the required level of awareness. And as you educate them along the way you gain their trust and passion for your products and services and willing to explore and extend their partnership for the sake of working with you.
And even if they didn’t take it now, you will always be the first on their recommendation list or when that certain need pops up again. Each person adds to the client experience and helps positioning the brand as the trusted adviser. In Baianat, we use our knowledge to help clients understand and appreciate authentic production and production based strategy.
Clients can experience pleasure and feel better due to a simple exchange of information.
If the client is not aware of something it’s definitely his problem and definitely not because of his stupidity.
Making fun of clients is just unacceptable.
If they don’t understand today they will understand tomorrow. And you will lose all of your credibility in a finger flick.
It’s not one size fits all.
For example, It's the usual thing to respond to client requests and inquiries during the normal business days, but if in case of emergencies you worked the extra time to stay at their expectations that’s what “ exceptional” means.
Values matter
Our culture, Organizational design and process reflects the core values of Baianat. In some companies, these values are just hanged on the walls, but in Baianat, we make sure all of our actions convey what we believe in and that our production reflects who we are as human being.
People love working with those who have a cause and considerate for the environment.
Don’t compromise quality
Even when working on a tight schedule, quality always comes ahead of deadlines. There shouldn’t be any hidden inferior flaws or spaghetti code. Bad quality only represents who you are as a company.
And even if the client's budget is not suitable, this doesn’t justify bad quality work. If the budget doesn't suit the minimum requirements, then you have only two options. Whether you decline the order or bear the costs of your commitment to quality.
Some businesses often choose to free their minds and agree on whatever the clients selects. It doesn’t matter if it’s functional or suitable for the project aims and business goals. Which is a different type of fraud as well as you compromise quality to “ mark as done”.
Management takes pride on the quality of the products.
Quality lies in relationships as well, poor follow ups and careless attitudes can drive away your most loyal clients. And for maintaining quality relationships, you have to maintain the quality of the people with whom you work. Ensure they carry the same values and enjoy the brand sense.
There is no way you can hide poor quality.
Make it a two ways conversation
Engaging in meaningful conversation should be an essential part of the process for developing any kind of websites. And since we are working on a lean approach that allows customer integration into the process of iteration and modifications.
Collecting feedback from clients and browsing it carefully will open the way for better enhancement to the project. Clients insights matter more than your best technicians and having them answer the critical questions that pops up during the process help the teams better think of the project.
It can’t be done
Dealing with clients who can’t dream and think big is one of the most challenging thing for agencies. And the world is full of people who are more than ready to tell you that your idea won’t work.
Sometimes you have the vision more than the client which obliges you to show them how it might work. As the best way to examine the truth of your assumptions is by trying to fit them into the business model and see how it works. Transplanting new ideas into the business model body.
Team Setup Matters
For instance, setting the team might seem another expense burden on the agency. After all, why spend so much time and effort on developing people while you can’t link that directly to your profits?
The simple answer is “ because it’s our duty”. We perceive educating everyone - including clients- as our ultimate mission. And on the long term, it’s beneficial to have a ready to fight team that helps your clients through their bad days.
Investing in team development has been always one of Baianat main focuses. After all, team proficiency is always the best advertising a business can have. And the more the team knows about the company and the production in hands, the greater the difference it can bring onto the project in progress.
When things go wrong admit it
We are all humans, even the best technicians and CEOs of the world are made of flesh and blood. They can make mistakes and lead entire projects to its final destiny, but what they do differently is the way of handling their mistakes.
Rather than blaming the client for not clarify his idea or blaming each other for the wrong business analysis or insufficient data and taking this ostrich approach, they take responsibility of the mistakes that occur and hurry to fix it.
These caring acts and attention is what makes clients look over such mistakes. Because after all, clients can let go mistakes but never forget your attitude of handling it. They appreciate how you will go the extra mile to make up for them so we always tell our players that the mistake has already occurred, what matters is how you are going to handle it.
Unhappy clients are opportunities for improving experiences. They are the greatest source for organization development. something you have done might have teased a client or tuned him off, then you have an internal issue to discuss with your team. So you don't only get to regain this client trust but also enhance your process.
Keeping a strict monitoring on every signal coming out of the brand is not an effective way to prevent mistakes from occurring. So instead of taking corrective actions course, they set guidelines and rules making the brand sound more rigid and solid than ever.
Customization
Putting all the eggs in the same bucket is not the best client's strategy as each one has a unique set of needs and expectations. And most importantly, each one should be important equally to your business.
By sending the same reply to all these variety of clients, you're making your client not only feel less important but common. After all, Wouldn’t it be weird to receive a formal mail while all of your communication has been fun and through informal channels like WhatsApp?
If you’re not keeping your treatment same in every interaction clients are likely to feel that you are weird and will eventually abandon your service. It doesn’t matter how great your brand strategy is as long as you don’t understand the client needs and fulfill it.
Selecting technology
As we aim to producing high quality and culture changing products we look for the standards and the best practices to work with. This doesn’t only enable us to work anywhere in the world but it suits our international direction as well. We are in continuous learning process and always looking for the latest technologies to learn. Sometimes we can use a new methodology only after days or months after of its release whether it’s a program, an update or new developing technology. However, we don’t do that to brag about it we are forced to use the best thing possible for the projects we are working on even if not the latest.
Business First
Production that is not governed by strategy is just some lucky assumptions and prayers that it will be fine. Strategy is the bottom line for high quality production you can't let things pass by or happen naturally. Yes, strategy is not the ultimate secure solution for all the problems and Yes strategies fail sometimes but it gives a direction and represents the thinking process behind the product so you can always come back and edit whatever didn’t work, enhance and iterate for a better version. It’s not sacred. it’s just a word document. It doesn’t have to be complex and of 200 pages, just one paper is enough or perhaps a statement. As long as it fully describes what you are doing and how you plan for the long term.
Branding Driven
Brands is what live for eternity not products. People still mention some brands names when asking for a certain product this is called Branding which is about building a connection with the end users. And since users remember what you make them feel, brands is the effective tool for creating sustainable products.
Distinguished products for distinguished people
It’s easy to just fulfill the client requirements as they only in need for a functioning website or app that looks good. But this won’t boost the world one step forward. So we choose playing it the hard way and work on adding value to what we make.
We don’t seek this because of customer satisfaction but our own benefit as well as we work on developing our skills as well. We want to change client mentality and add to the world. Our production doesn't only affect the client but its end users as well. This keeps our business running with the best quality possible attracting new segments and keeping our current clients with us even if they found another lower price offer.
Let's call it version 1
Why a 30 min task could take 3 hours? Because of complicating the thinking process and falling into the trap of perfectionism. We consume most of the time thinking and imagining how it will work instead of getting into making it work that's why we during our production process we cut off all the unnecessary operations and merge tasks. We don't overthink and complicate the situation. We just want a working prototype that we can test and start working from.
Keep it plain
Adding too much details won't make you smarter and WOW people. They might not get it and think that you're being snarky. Make things look and feel simple as much as possible. No exaggeration or complexity. Design and work like if your product will be used by a 70 years old man who has been living underground for his whole life and it's his first time on the internet. Don't make the experience horrifying and confuse your audience. They will leave if they had to analyze and think of every detail as they already have much things to consider.
We don't think that saying we are the best or number 1 is effective we do what should be done and say that this is version one expect a better version two. We even think abstracted while solving problems, we look at the situation without considering any effects and see it from a third person point of view. However, over simplicity could be harmful and make you look way to simple and less than your own true value. People will remember and talk about how simple you are. Complexity might be tempting at first but simplicity stays in heart and mind of the user always. Keeping things simple is hard and those who preserve it as the easy job never tried it before. We are follow the realistic approach rather than surrealism.
Human centered
We manufacture products to meet our needs. So if they are not need based they are useless. Products should come from the heart of the need. And in order to do that we must understand the pains that we are trying to solve by studying the people with this pain. We see how they behave, think, feel and analyze through four different models. This is how we humanize our production. Your client won't read the code or see how the design was made r using what program they will only get the final result and form his own impression.
Art, wisdom and science
Art is useless until it's used for a certain purpose. This is when it turns innovation. This innovation doesn't come from the nowhere, it's the result of continuous reading and learning and thinking. People who did great things didn't do it by setting on the beach and getting into " I'm getting inspired" mode. They were working and discovered that they need to find solutions to certain problems they faced. Innovation and art that are out of value only brings back harmful results.
The code of breaking the rules
Walking by the manual and according to standard is something that we comply to in all aspects. It doesn't make sense anyway to have 100 solutions to one problem and reinvent a 101 solution that might be worse than all of them. However, when doing something new that people never did before we create our own guides and manuals.
Of course not wow
Wow is not the target. People forget wow, unless they're always wowed and if you wowed them once then resented a small wow they'll think of you as an average person. when people find something or someone that matches their ideas and beliefs it's rarely they forget about it as ideas is what brings people together or apart. So if you got them to say of course to your product you gained them already by your side. In addition, creating a wow is easy and doesn't necessarily impose authenticity. And although seeking of course is not easy it's satisfying for both sides.
Inspire to be inspiring
We use everything around for inspiration however we never let what we see affect our vision and direction. We know that if we got amazed by what we see we will lose our own identity so we just look and tell ourselves " well, that's good let's see how we can use the concept and create our own art". We never imitate or redesign or go with the trend. Instead we create unique piece of art that are so inspiring that it becomes a trend like what happened with our old website.
The source of invention
Invention comes with the lack of resources, urging needs and desire. Basic keynotes that creates extraordinary symphonies is the live proof that using the same ingredients differently can result in beautiful outcomes. Even our ventures started as internal need then turned into full project. So when working on projects we always set ourselves in the mentality of lack of resources and ask ourselves How we can get the job done with what we have? And this is when the bulb flashes!
The glasses and the telescope
Humans look at the world wearing their own glasses of ideas and beliefs. However, this glasses are not perfect as it doesn't show all the perspectives and only reflects one side of reality. That's why when developing products, wearing different glasses is essential for a having a better 360-degree view. Assumptions and guesses will not provide a sufficient evidence or a full understanding of customers because none of us are the targeted audience. You need to stop poking your customers with a stick and get into conversations.
Relativity
Everything in the universe has its own concept, which is shaped by the place and time it is in. What works now does not necessarily have to succeed a year later, and what works in US does not necessarily have to succeed in UK. Therefore, when manufacturing and producing products do not comply with the opinions of anyone, just analyze the environment in which the product will be presented, and be aware of the reality of the rules of the game regarding the time a which the product will be presented. This is relative, there is nothing absolute, all subject to experiment and analysis, and everything relative and experiment is.
