I think as our “job” responsibility we should help the customer understand what they need to ask so that we avoid an unhappy customer.
However, I can definitely see where we would want the customer to take some responsibility and understand what they are asking from us as a project manager.
Customers:
At two different companies I moved up quickly to call center supervisor which is a job put in place to handle all customer issues. At the first company I tenatiously fought for the position and did well but eventually got tired of trying to
please everyone. I left that company to run my own business but of course there are always customers to appease. Customers are our lifesblood and where the money comes from.
I eventually decided to play it a safe because of unsteady income and go back to work for someone else.
At this second company they put me in the call-center because I knew how to do the call-center job but I was hesitant from the begining. Agaom. I got so burnt out from trying to please everyone all the time that when the opportunity
to move to a Systems Admin job came up I jumped at it. It was much better but I still had customers. They were mostly internal users on our network. It some cases it was the same old thing, trying to get people to understand the limits and capabilities of a computer system. There is no getting away from it really. You have to learn not to take things personally and to create some outlets for frustration. I am still learning.
Actually one of my goals after finishing the online college im currently attending is to get into writing technical books. I have several colleagues who have been successful in that area. My thoughts are that I will not have to deal with end users as much but I suspect that dream bubble will pop somehow.
You always want to try to make the customer happy. If you can foresee a problem with the project before its completion then you would want to amend the project plan and let the customer sign off on the changes.
If, however, you made it through to closing on the project and the customer is then not satisfied you could consult them on creating a new project or a new phase to the original project.
You want to take personal responsibility for the project as you are the professional and the customer has come to you for your expertise.