Good Work doesn't always mean Happy Client

A lot of developers and consulting firms think that doing exceptionally good work is the only way to make a client happy. But, I think this is not always the case.

Sometimes, for example, a client asks for a small feature that technically requires a lot of effort due to its nature or complexity or architecture of the application. And, after putting some serious drill, when developer completes that, the client doesn’t like the implementation. The client is not happy even after developer puts sleepless nights to make it happen and asks for moving back to original implementation. This is just one instance. There are many instances due to parameters like process or communication etc that even after a lot of really good work, the client is not happy at the end of project.

I think its very important to track client happiness along with project success. Having a weekly retrospective to gather regular client feedback is an important step. It can be some very small issues to bigger issues within the project.  You will be surprised if you regularly gather their feedback on everything related to the project.