As a web professional, there’s only so much free advice one can give out! But today I’m going to be very generous and give you a sneak peek into what the industry of web design & development is like.

I’ve been asked this question several times (and in several different ways):

“With so many out there claiming to be the best website solution out there–how do you stay ahead of everyone?”

Truth is, there are many out there touting the *best solution* and quite of few of them are great solutions, however there are many which only claim to be but have no reputation of such to back it up.

I have found there is a combination of things that really can help one get the edge in a very tight industry.

* Find out what your customers want and need, by asking them. 

* Work smart, not hard.  Don’t try to pull off something difficult or not “tried and true” on your customers’ dime.

* Make good on your promises.  Be upfront if you come across or anticipate any struggles or delays.

Keep your word
Truly competing with this industry is very tough. To actually garner a good reputation is hard when starting out. I try to be honest and upfront with my clients and offered them not only a good product but also good service, and frequent communication–also key.  

Make them happy
After providing a service for them, I asked past customers in six (or three) months  if a) they are happy with the job that was done and b) if there is anything I can do to help them out. Sometimes, they call me before I have the chance to ask, because they might need something done that’s really simple and quick, and in some cases, I just do it and don’t always charge them (just if it’s something that takse 2 minutes to do).  I go the extra mile and give customer something to be happy about, more often than not, and it’s not because I screwed up or something.

Give some “extras”
When developing websites for clients, I often find myself tossing in an extra ditty here and there such as adding a CAPTCHA on a contact form or I’ll toss in a quick script that makes it so that the copyright/year notice on the bottom changes every year without any action from anyone. These are just examples of giving a little extra to please people.

Trying to actually be the “best solution”
To stay afloat can be difficult in such a saturated market (seems everyone and their grandma is doing web design these days!).

There are many out there touting that they are “best solution”  How do you know they really are? 

To find out if the person you are considering hiring is not ideal can be hard to do, but most prospective clients will be keen enough to try doing the following: 

* Check out your portfolio and contacting the owners of the sites you designed, to get an opinion/reference.  If you are new or just starting out however, you may not have much to show as far as work done/reputation and probably should be given a fair shot.

* They may call you up and have a chat with you.  They may ask you if they can work out something on a trial basis or can do a mockup for them (though they pay you for a mockup if they insist on it, and many designers/developer agree that mockups or “design drafts” or “spec work” done before an actual contract are a no-no and the topic has been a controversial one for years). 

* Have a guarantee.  Although it sounds silly, my satisfaction guarantee is that it is done right until the client is happy.  I’ve actually turned down a number of jobs because the prospective client was not comfortable with the idea that my guarantee consisted of the promise that if the job wasn’t done to his satisfaction, that I’d continue to work on it until he was happy.

The good firms/providers that stay standing are the ones people have referred to time and again, and continue to get business through the dot-com era and beyond. B. Woods Design is an example of one of these companies (even though my business was established in 2002, I started actually getting paid a little for web stuff here and there as early as 1998).

I think the reason my company has staying power in the industry is because I believe in it, and I care about the success of my clients’ businesses, bottom line. I’m not just asking clients what size site or color they want their website to be, and how much their budget is and then whipping up something in a matter of days. I actually do my research on them as much as I expect they do on me. Which leads me to the answer to your next possible query…

“Have a majority of small business owners become so inundated with best services and webby speak that they are running in circles for any solution? or is it just lack of research on the client who spends a wad of $ on a site and now is stuck with a hunk of crap for a website?”

I often get approached by such customers who have had bad experiences and are basically stuck with a website they aren’t happy with. Sometimes I can help them, but other times, in all honesty, the customer has essentially shot him/herself in the foot. He/she may have paid a great deal of dough for something but didn’t fully research what they were wanting or perhaps didn’t perform enough reserach with their web person.

So, sorry to say, but I’d attribute it to lack of research on the part of the customer/business owner. As an example, here is a bit about a recent case that I am in the middle of… I talked to a customer a couple of weeks ago who paid a web programming outfit $3k (a firm that was out of state no less, as opposed to locally) before meeting with them and fully researching their reputation for a custom developed website, which the web firm only developed partially left it dead in its tracks, partially done. That was over a year ago. The programmer I talked to a couple of days ago, about helping get this guy’s site “fixed” to what it really should be, noted that it’s possible that due to the size and complexity of the project, the programmer probably hit a wall and stopped working on the site because he underestimated the project and thusly the project was under-funded. According to the scope of the work, I could easily see that it was going to cost at least $5k more to finish the job.

To avoid this in the first place, a customer seeking a “best solution”, good track record and reputation should be the formost goal and quality can be found aplenty if you do the following (in no real order of importance):

* Research! Go online to see the web guru’s site and look at their portfolio. Don’t just look at the pictures of the websites. A) look the site up in Google to see if it’s still online and b) Look to see that it’s the same design and designer as previously linked on the site you found it at. b) Does the website look good/professional? Does it have errors? Does it look like it’s something you would consider paying at least $1,000 or more for? (whether it means you need to request a grant or business loan to accomplish the investment.

* Ask other businesses (who have had trackable SUCCESS with their websites) what company they used/service they purchased

* Ask whoever you are prospecting, for website work for the names and contact details of several recent customers who they have done sites/website work for

* Ask those customers how they were treated, if they feel the price was well worth the end result, and how likely they would be to HIGHLY recommend that web guru for their own site?

The above may sound ridiculous, but consider the following:

* People think that they can go to Office Depot and buy software to do their own website and have it be great, but essentially it winds up looking very amateur and like you purchased a copy of “My First Website” on CD because you don’t have the knowledge/training and it will not result in a professional image of you or your business.

* Same with hiring your nephew/kid brother just because he is “tinkering” around on web design or did a home page for his soccer team. Unless you can guarantee the quality, anyway.

* People also consider price over actual quality and perceive that since web gurus/designers must be a dime a dozen nowadays, there’s bound to be someone out there who will get them a site that’s as large and complex as eBay for a song and a dance.

* Same with those thinking about hiring overseas tech people to do the job. Although there is nothing wrong with it, and certainly someone earning $10/hr per project may be able to feed a family in Bangalore, it won’t cut it here in the U.S., no disrespect to anyone in Bangalore! I’ve got clients and encountered some which I can count on one hand who’ve tried this, and wound up needing expert local help getting their site reverted to a different solution just so they can make some quick updates. One in particular, we had to basically rebuild the site from the ground up all over again because, the guy they hired in Thailand was no longer available and the client wanted to add more photos to his gallery (he’s a photographer).

“I’ve worked with many software engineers , designers and developers - these people have their own language and often times have great difficulty “dumbing” stuff down for the novice. So how are you, the web designer communicating to someone your services?”

Communication is definitely important, but as Kurt mentioned–and I’ll echo his sentiments–it’s very unnecessary to even go down the road of talking “tech” to anyone. Here’s how/why I feel this way…

In all my initial dealings with clients, I have converstations with them about…

- what they want their site to DO
- who their audience is
- what the value or perceived value of their services/products is
- what the desired action is that they want from visitors
- and whether they want to be able to manage the site on their own or need updates done for them on an ongoing basis.

The rest is up to me to simply get across to the client what tasks are involved, and a schedule of cost and timelines.

And as for dumbing anything down? It’s often not necessary. But if a client cares to know the boring details, I certainly make them transparent to them (with plain English explanations). Nine times out of ten, unless they are worried about it, they don’t as and don’t care to know the “webby” stuff, per se.

I still fully believe that tech speak is very unnecessary, even in an effort to show you’re qualified and/or make the client fully aware of why X costs Z, and so on. Again, the web guru/firm’s track record should fully expose them for what they are, and if you are in doubt, don’t hire them!

Like someone I know posted at a network I belong to, if someone really wants to know what something means, they can “bloody well Google it!”

Copyright © Bobbi Jo Woods - published November 11, 2009 at http://www.webprospeak.com

About the author:
Bobbi Jo is the owner of B. Woods Design, a St. Paul Web Design company - http://bwoodsdesign.com