**Updated** What Clients Need To Know When Hiring A Web Design Company
posted in EntrepreneurshipBack in October, I asked you guys for some answers and thoughts on the topic of "What Clients Need To Know When Hiring A Web Design Company ". You can read the comments made here
The article in the business magazine (Gulf Shore Business) has now been published and you can read it here
Only a few of my comments made it into the article. It is interesting to read the first section about the client, "Carbon Net" talking about his poor experience with the first web development company. The company he is speaking about is now out of business, and being sued by some big companies for failure to carry out the work in some agreements with them.
Another interesting note about the "Carbon Net" client mentioned in the article, was that some time ago, he actually contacted my company requesting a quote. After I spoke to him on the phone, and then provided a quote and proposal, I did not hear back from him.
Whether or not our quote was within his budget, another part of "What Clients Need to Know When Hiring A Web Design Company" is the fact that clients are interviewed almost as much as clients interview us and our company. Web designers and any other service providers that provide estimates and quotes appreciate it when a client notifies the company about their intention to move forward with the project or not.
There are many reasons for this, and as a consumer, everyone should attempt to practice this. If you request a quote or estimate, notify the company even if you are not going to move forward with them. Thank them for their time to speak with you and for providing a quote. Better yet, you can even give them a few reasons as to why you did not choose them. This helps the company and enables them to grow.
By simply not replying to an estimate or proposal, you never know when you might want to receive another quote from that company in the future, and by then, the company will have a red mark next to your name.
Designer/Developers, how often do you receive an email or phone call from those clients that don’t end up going with after you provided a quote? Do you attempt to contact them to learn the reasons why they didn’t choose you? I am interested to hear if most of you do want this information.
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Answer to the question, almost never. I would say about 5% of the time I might receive and email or a phone call from a client simply stating, “We’re sorry but this is a little out of our budget range, we have decided to go elsewhere.” I would say of that 5 percent about 90 percent are doing so in hopes that they can talk me down. I think it is unfortunate that the practice of politely turning down an offer has gone by the wayside. Time and thought put into a quote or proposal aside, it is just part of establishing good business relationships.
You hit the nail on the head, you never know what might happen the future. The company you choose jumps ship, their product is lacking and you need someone to fix it, etc. Whatever the case may be you might be kicking yourself for having “blown off” a few of the other companies you originally requested a quote from. I know from experience that I would be very reluctant to put in the time to work up a new quote or proposal, most of the time I will not.
I think it is important to add two things here. One, if your proposal is turned down react professionally and reciprocate the courtesy. Two if one of those clients comes back, knocking on your door and you choose to turn them down, do so professionally. It works both ways.
Great article, I think I needed to vent a bit.
Jeremy’s last blog post..The Making of a New Papertree Logo
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I think I’ve become confident enough in my pricing that I approach offering an estimate from a “take it or leave it” standpoint. I always attempt to leave potential clients on the best possible terms. I’ll often even recommend other designers and occasionally will send them resources or links in connection with their original request, just to be nice. It’s part of going the “extra mile.”
At the same time, I’d rather be a creator than a salesman, so I don’t reach back out to those who don’t hire me. I don’t maintain a database or email them in the future – I just move on to the next potential project. So far (fingers crossed) I haven’t hurt for work.
Brandon’s last blog post..North Lake Church Logo
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J. Todd Bennett says:
I certainly appreciate and expect the call– and if we don’t get it, we call. Most of our work is in higher education at an enterprise scale– and if we make the final cut, we generally travel at our expense to pitch to a committee somewhere across the country. When you invest thousands of dollars in a pitch (which is common in this vertical where clients seek national firms and require a local pitch), it’s the least they can do.
We have gained terrific feedback on our messaging, our pricing, our presentation and the quality of our proposals by simply asking for it. We have yet to meet a prospect that hasn’t provided it.
Sometimes clients practically assure you that you’re a shoe-in, then something goes awry in committee and it goes to your competitor. I think in those cases, our contacts have been embarassed to tell us. Recently, we discovered that we lost a bid that we travelled cross-country for and spent hours in consultation with the client over the phone. We found out because the winner of the bid post it on their website and we learned through Google news. Our many phone calls to them had gone unanswered. That told us a lot about what they would be like to work with.
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There is a useful article at http://www.design-quotes.com.au which looks what customers should look out for when sourcing web design quotes.
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Congrats on getting yourself published!
As far as a client ignoring a quote, it happens all the time. Even worse are the ones that respond to the quote and try to barter – I had someone try to trade me some concert tickets for $xxx worth of work. A small amount, to be sure, but if I want concert tickets I’ll buy them with the money from the project!
George – LogoDesign.org’s last blog post..7 things to do to help your company survive during a recession
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Unfortunately it’s a common practice for clients to never contact in the negative to a proposal and just move on. Like you said though not getting back, and especially when there is a follow up from the vendor, to your vendor to say you’re moving forward with a different company (for whatever reason) causes there to be a red mark. However, what a lot of businesses don’t think about is how vendors talk to one another and network. A red mark in one vendors book could ultimately be a red mark in many vendors’ books.
I actually have experienced that with printing resources where I have in fact picked up a client who has had a flag put on their name with printing vendors. Turns out they had to be hunted down by a collection agency to pay for a large printing order which caused one printer to talk to all the printers they knew to be on the look out for company X. Upon learning that I was wary of the client as well.
Actions, or non-actions, against one vendor can have a far reaching impact.
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We rarely get a followup call if a client chose to go elsewhere. But then, we also decline to bid on a project if we know that the job is being shopped around via RFP to the lowest bidder.
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@ Daniel
Great link, just saw it on Twitter too, I’ll find this most useful in the following weeks. Added to Delicious!Andrew Kelsall’s last blog post..Happy Christmas to all my online friends
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Zach Katkin says:
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the great post. I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve written here as well as what was mentioned in the article. I think it is best for us all (developers) to keep in mind too though is different clients/businesses have different priorities. Some haven’t had a bad experience, don’t care about up time, turn around, design, functionality, etc. and are simply looking for the cheapest simplest site out there to which companies or freelancers who do provide these things can’t (and really shouldn’t) compete.
After reading the comments I am really interested in what John said about not creating proposals if it’s being shopped around. This might be something we too have to implement as there are a lot of tire kickers out there, which detract from the overall quality existing, or definite future clients receive.
Finally, as someone in the sales process I’ve realized how important it is for you to let potential vendors know that you will not be using their services. Although if the person isn’t in sales this may not be obvious. Additionally 100% of the time we make an effort to get a definite yes or no. Even if the yes is “yes, but later.” Sometimes the time is not right (budget, key personnel time, etc.). And, if it’s a no we have hopefully built enough rapport to be told exactly what the problem was. This has been very effective and many potential clients (that turned out not to be clients) helped us grow and refine our process.
Zach Katkin’s last blog post..How To Get People to Respond to Online Surveys
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I think you need to make sure to research the company and find out what others are saying about their services.
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Timothy says:
I completely agree.
It’s important for both parties to understand the entire process before they settle on an agreement. Each must know how to work with the other. Just as the client is “interviewing” potential web design firms, the design firms are doing the same with the client.
Great post and very informational.
