IT groups have been working harder to please their customers in recent years, but it doesn't always lead to greater customer satisfaction. In some cases, it merely inflates customer expectations, making the IT staff a victim of its own success, writes Jonathan Reichental.

Too often, users judge IT based on how the requirements were delivered rather than on the quality of the product or service, Reichental writes in a post at O'Reilly Radar. In the trade-off between quality and speed of delivery, quality shouldn't be sacrificed to win pats on the back from the business.

Part of the tension between IT and the business stems from a lack of understanding about who is responsible for setting priorities. It may be possible to satisfy the customers' expectations in terms of quality and speed of delivery, but to do so IT departments have to deflect the priority-setting responsibility to the business units, he warns.

"When IT says no to a customer, what they're really saying is that something else is more important. That's IT being an arbiter of priorities," Reichental writes. "When confronted with a priority decision, an IT staffer needs to move arbitration back to the business."

The IT group needs to learn to ask more questions about priorities when they are met with a new request. Rather than responding to requests with "no," it is more effective to discuss current capacity, possibility for new investment and priority. 

"Bottom line: These decisions are made by the business, not by the IT staffer who's just trying to do the right thing," he writes. "If roles are better defined and understood, all parties will be less frustrated, have greater empathy for where they are coming from, and customer satisfaction will be firmly focused on the quality of the product or service being provided."

For more:
- see Jonathan Reichental's post at O'Reilly Radar

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