We love our clients. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege to work with some amazing, amazing people, from a variety of perspectives.
A question I’ve received over the years goes something like this:
Steve, tell me how I can make this easiest on you and your team. Tell me what to do so I get you what you need and stay out of the way.
I love this question!
It tells me I am working with someone who understands that we are professionals just like them. We have a process to plug clients into that just works, and nothing makes us happier than working with clients who get that.
So—I thought we might have a little fun. 🙂
If I tell you all the things that frustrate web designers, I think it will help you know “how to act” while a project is going on.
As you read the below, keep in mind I am not writing this not out of frustration at all, just a genuine desire to help you make the most of your experience!
Ok we go… Want to bug us or another web designer/team to death? Just follow these 7 tips:
1. Don’t respond to requests
The fastest way to crawl under our skin is to lose touch.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot here. Most web designers are guilty of losing touch and leaving clients high and dry.
We take this very seriously, though, and make our commitment to communication the very top priority.
So if we communicate with you, and you fail to communicate with us, it’s going to get under our skin pretty quickly.
If we need something from you, be timely!
The deadliest sin of all is to hold us to a deadline after you’ve dragged your feet in getting us what is needed to meet the deadline.
Deadlines work two ways! We’re both bound by any deadlines we set, and should stay in communication should problems crop up.
Don’t leave us hanging. We can only hang for so long.
2. Take forever getting your content to them
Content is the lifeblood of your website.
Without images, videos, and text, you don’t have a website.
And while we can offer our services to help create these items, many choose to write and create the content for themselves.
This is fine with us… but not if it makes the project take six months.
Entire companies have been formed to help solve this because it’s become such a problem for web designers.
We use a tool called ContentSnare to help us with this. You’ll fill out a questionnaire for us at the beginning of the process, and may be asked to fill out additional content forms as well.
The sooner you can get us content, the sooner we can get your project finished.
Want to start a project but scared of producing the content for yourself? Totally get it. We can help—just request a quote to get the process started.
3. Obsess over colors
In church, there’s an old joke that goes like this:
Most churches are failing to help reach the world for Christ or help their communities because they’re too busy forming committees to argue over the color of the carpet!
(Silly as it sounds, this kind of thing truly happens in churches.)
Similarly, so many are concerned with the colors on their website they’ve not given a single thought to the goals of their website, how to define success, what the words on the website should be, etc.
We understand brand continuity, color theory, and personal preferences. It’s not wrong to have an opinion about the color.
However, I would strongly argue that, as a business owner, you have much more important things to worry about.
There’s a chance the color you’re romantic about won’t even work with modern accessibility standards, anyway!
The point: We can chat about colors, sure. But let’s put our focus on what matters most throughout the process. Don’t obsess.
4. Creep the scope
Scope creep is no fun for anybody.
If you’re always looking to add “one more thing” to the project, it will keep us from getting what is needed to make the project effective given the original goals.
Then, we have to bug about the finances, etc.
Please read this post for more detail about how to avoid scope creep and how we handle it when it rears its ugly head, but for now, just know that whatever we agreed upon when a contract is signed—that’s what we plan to execute on.
Anything outside of that could add unnecessary complexity and result in mismatched expectations.
Not good.
We are happy to quote your project with everything you’d like include or have in mind, and we realize that sometimes requests will come up in the middle of a project.
Again—we have a process for handling this. But the more we can know up front, the better.
5. Fail to pay
Like you, we have a business to run.
I’m sure you prefer to get paid when you do work, and as it happens, we’re quite fond of that as well. 🙂
Please, to the extent possible, pay your invoices on time. It’s the only way I can ensure our team is ready and available when needed and the only way, ultimately, we can do a good job for you.
Nuff said.
6. Don’t spread the word
Word of mouth is the absolute biggest deal when it comes to marketing a web design business.
We rely on you telling your friends and business associates about our services. In fact, we expect this.
If you don’t do this, we have to use lots of marketing resources and spent lots of money to acquire customers.
We don’t mind doing this, of course… but as you probably know, it’s way easier (and more fun!) to do business with people who know other folks you’ve worked for and are already pre-framed on the experience.
So… if you’re pleased with what we’ve done and have colleagues who could benefit—please tell them!
We would deeply appreciate it!
7. Don’t thank them
We’re not dogs.
But much like dogs, we do like to be told when we’ve done a good job 🙂
My love language is “words of encouragement” for sure, and an encouraging word does more for us than almost anything else.
So if you’ve enjoyed your experience with us, please, tell us about it. It makes a difference, believe me.
If we’ve worked together, you could kill two birds with one stone and leave a review for us right now!
(And if you would like a way to collect reviews from others, we have an amazing Review & Reputation Management service. Reach out to us and we’ll chat about it.)
That wasn’t so bad, right?
Again, I hope you could appreciate the tone.
Our clients have historically been awesome, and I’m sure you will be no different!
Keep these 7 things in mind and we will have a great experience together. I’m excited about the possibility of working with ya!
