I’ve written before about how setting expectations with your customers drives customer satisfaction… there’s also a way that you can help drive your own satisfaction – build an acceptance agreement to set the tone with your third party relationships.
Acceptance agreements set some game rules for the vendors you work with before even starting. Acceptance agreements contain things such as:
- Who owns the intellectual property on a project.
- Who owns the resources (graphics, code, etc.)
- Whether or not payment delays or penalties will be implemented if work is not completed within promised timelines.
- When and how resources will be transferred in the event that the relationship goes south.
- Whether or not the third party can delegate the project and work to other companies or resources.
- Whether or not the third party can promote the work they are doing.
Perhaps you even have some personal likes and dislikes when working with vendors, meeting timeliness, dress codes, documentation, formats, etc. Having a standard acceptance agreement to initiate a relationship with your vendors will save you some headaches and even avoid some legal issues down the road. I would recommend them!
Much like an employment agreement with your employees will avoid conflicts with employees, an acceptance agreement can avoid issues with vendors and third party resources.
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