It’s been ages since I’ve visited here, so I’m just getting into reading some of the boards again…
I’m in the middle of writing a guide for small businesses choosing a good web design company to work with. It’s for a blog and I’m aiming to be totally unbiased! Being on the other side of this equation for seven years or so, I know some questions which clients ask that really make us sit up and take them seriously. These are the people who manage their projects more effectively and they get more out of us as a team than others who are much more passive. I’ve seen it again and again and if I were buying web development services, I’d want to be a client like that to get better results.
When you’re selling your services, what’s the most awkward question you’ve ever been asked by a potential client?
What’s the most incisive question from a client that’s cut to the heart of your service levels, quality control, value for money or return on investment?
Being honest, what question would you hate a client to ask you?
If they asked me Al-Leyson’s question I could honestly answer ‘no’ (I would just fail to mention that I was ‘inspired’ by someone ele’s work, but I would never copy it).
The only questions which cause me any discomfort are ones related to my organisational skills, I always give deadlines and I never miss them but I don’t like to have to explain how I’m going to meet them it in any great detail. It’s because I’m a buttefly when I work, always flitting between tasks and doing things when I feel like it.
> I’ve seen it again and again and if I were buying web development services, I’d want to be a client like that to get better results.
> Being honest, what question would you hate a client to ask you?
i think you’re coming at it from the wrong angle. as i client, it’s not what you shouldn’t ask, it’s what attitude, goal, knowledge you should start off with in order to get good work done. what you’re asking for is how they shouldn’t start off. they shouldn’t start off clueless. clueless about why they’re getting a website. fine to be clueless about technicalities of websites but not fine to be clueless about technicalities of their business and clients and how their site might be attractive (e.g. useful) for their clients.
i was speaking to a prospective client a while ago who didn’t even know what his business was (for which he wanted me to do a website for)! i’m serious. (he hadn’t started it yet though).the best he could do was use a two word phrase to describe it which was so general to be meanlingless to me. it didn’t matter how i asked him, that was all he knew/was going to give me. in order to try and get at what he was talking about i asked who’s going to benefit from whatever it is you’re going to offer… “anyone”. he said that in such a way as if it were clever, like a different from usual business plan; rather than aim at specific people i’ll aim at anyone… unbelievable. anyone means no one i reckon.
I agree with Johnyboy, it isn’t about what the client shouldn’t ask the developer. The problem I’ve seen time and time again that has caused projects to fail is that the client doesn’t know what they want.
How many times have all of us had a prospective client come to us and say they want something real simple, when what they really mean is they want the moon but don’t want to pay for it? They low ball the complexity of a project either because they don’t know what they want or are hoping for a low ball quote they can tie us to.
Clients need to know: why they want a website; what the end goal is; and what the site will do (functionality). Also clients need to have realistic expectations and realize this is a partnership. Yes we may be developing the website, but they still have to put work in to help develop content and to maintain the site after we hand it over to them. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a website never get updated after the initial development has been completed even if updating the site is really easy via a content management system.
I have a questionnaire that I go through with new clients to make sure I understand what they want and if they’re not sure it helps them figure it out, so maybe that’s the client question right there. “How are you going to understand, or help me to undertsnd what I need?”
Looking for things that I ‘hate’ about clients seems to have little value. Better to find the mutual benefit, shared value, and good parts of a relationship.
Things you ‘hate’ about a specific client, maybe has little value.
But thinking about things you wouldn’t like any client to ask you, could be valuable. It might an area in which you aren’t very well prepared. Analysing these things might help you in the future. And increase the mutual benefit, etc.
Okay what I hate is when a potential client calls up and says they want to make a copy of X’s website (e.g. Craig’s List) so that they can do the same thing and compete in that market.
I don’t tend to think about the negatives I would find in a client (alike Sagewing) though I would be pretty annoyed if I finished some work and they said “I don’t have any money, you’ll have to take payment in the form of membership to my million dollar idea site”, that and “I can build a website just as good in FrontPage”
As we all know the small things can be the most time consuming/expensive to implement. Even when you try to explain what’s involved in as simple terms as possble some client still don’t get it.
Or how about another one? “This is all just point & click dreamweaver, I know it is, you don’t actually have to write code. This shouldnt take this long”
Rob