Clients do not understand

D

DevSign

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Hey guys

I want to discuss a few issues I'm experiencing lately from clients and would like to know how you handle these issues?

1) They expect a R10 000 project to cost R1000
2) They lose interest when you send them a short questionnaire
3) Clients expect things to be done within a day

So these are some of the issues I'm experiencing lately, it's really starting to become a problem.
How do you treat these issues professionally and with a positive outcome?
 
This happens everyday too be quite brief

Clients always wants the best possible looking site for as cheap as possible

Web Design is so over crowded at the moment as everyone that can do a site in word press think they are "developers" people undercutting costs selling 10 page sites for R500 and stuff like that overall just f**ks up the industry

At the end of the day you get what you pay for

You will notice my quote request form on my website is quite large and detailed and I do not quote at all without them completing this otherwise the chance of me under quoting the client is 90%

Be fair and firm thats all I can say give them a timeline explain to them why you need as much details as possible once they see the time involved in the project they start to understand the cost as well
 
Sadly a lot of people fit that description these days. People will always push there luck with pricing and want it as soon as possible no matter what the industry. You know how much time you put into a project or how much time you are going to, a lot of the time especially in the dev industry the client doesn't actually realize how much is involved. So my advice is be firm but respectful from the beginning as to what will be required from yourself and the client. If your pricing is reasonable for the quality of work you are providing then there should be no room for negotiating with the client. they can either afford it or not. Most clients will respect that you like to have all everything sorted properly before commencing with there work. With websites the client should be the sole provider of the content so it's up to them how the end result turns out, not the developer. It's just his job to sew everything together properly and make it function how it should, except if it's part of the original agreement like graphics etc.. Some customers expect a booming site with loads of content and functionality but they bring nothing to the table.. Like asking the developer to write all the websites content when he knows nothing about the company. :)
 
thanks Byron, I absolutely agree with you, it's a sad thing having the industry crowded with fakes.

I see what you mean with your quote form, but yet again I agree with you, try and minimise the clients effort by having them fill in the questionnaire as part of the request a quote, that's very clever. thumbs up to that.
 
To be honest i gave up on websites as a business, if a customer comes to me for a cheap website i tell them search on google for cheap websites and make your pick. There is always someone willing to undercut in this industry and is willing to throw together a 10 page website for under a 1000 Rand hosting and domain name included.
 
[video=youtube;jW3PFC86UNI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW3PFC86UNI[/video]
 
If the client does not understand, then you as the salesman have not done your job. Assuming you sell your own services.

It is not the client's fault...
 
DevSign said:
Hey guys

I want to discuss a few issues I'm experiencing lately from clients and would like to know how you handle these issues?

1) They expect a R10 000 project to cost R1000
2) They lose interest when you send them a short questionnaire
3) Clients expect things to be done within a day

So these are some of the issues I'm experiencing lately, it's really starting to become a problem.
How do you treat these issues professionally and with a positive outcome?
Click to expand...

Same in just about every industry.
Instant gratification and bargains, be honest though, most of us are bargain hunters.
 
DJ... said:
If the client does not understand, then you as the salesman have not done your job. Assuming you sell your own services.

It is not the client's fault...
Click to expand...

So if you want the newsest Toyota Hilux but you have no idea how much it costs, you go and visit a Toyota dealer and to your surprise you find out it's a lot of cash! So is the car dealer a bad salesman if you decide that it's too much cash and you were expecting something less?
 
AstroTurf said:
Same in just about every industry.
Instant gratification and bargains, be honest though, most of us are bargain hunters.
Click to expand...

True but ...

Does quality come cheap though lets say I am looking for the best price on a antec 750 watt power supply (Now I know this is a good power supply) but because its R900 should I go settle for a cheap R200 No name brand ?

The price you pay reflects back in web design paying R1000 for a clown to make a mickey mouse site in his site builder or pay R3000 + for a proper site ? This has various aspects to it though but at the end of the day one has to be care full not to be a Jew with your money and rather go for quality, your website can be seen 24/7 (depending on your hosting) on the net, thus one needs to think about all the aspects of what a cheapie website will actually do for your business in my opinion might as well not have a website
 
byron_spy said:
True but ...

Does quality come cheap though lets say I am looking for the best price on a antec 750 watt power supply (Now I know this is a good power supply) but because its R900 should I go settle for a cheap R200 No name brand ?
Click to expand...

Would you just buy it from the first place you look or would you look around for the best price for that particular PSU?
If you want a antec 750 watt power supply chances are you will shop around for that, not just buy something totally different.
 
DevSign said:
So if you want the newsest Toyota Hilux but you have no idea how much it costs, you go and visit a Toyota dealer and to your surprise you find out it's a lot of cash! So is the car dealer a bad salesman if you decide that it's too much cash and you were expecting something less?
Click to expand...

I'm not a client at that point. A client implies an existing commercial relationship. Your argument goes beyond clutching at straws. There should always an open avenue for discussion for clients. People who view this as a disturbance and look down at their clients for doing so shouldn't be client-facing as you will destroy the image of the company...
 
AstroTurf said:
Would you just buy it from the first place you look or would you look around for the best price for that particular PSU?
If you want a antec 750 watt power supply chances are you will shop around for that, not just buy something totally different.
Click to expand...

Agreed I would definitely look around and find the best possible price on that power supply. (Keeping in mind it will be from a reliable company) Most people when they are looking for a web developer would not go with a decent developer and rather settle for a 10 Page R1000 special thus changing completely (Hence me referring to a no name brand)
 
byron_spy said:
Agreed I would definitely look around and find the best possible price on that power supply. (Keeping in mind it will be from a reliable company) Most people when they are looking for a web developer would not go with a decent developer and rather settle for a 10 Page R1000 special thus changing completely (Hence me referring to a no name brand)
Click to expand...


Yep, their prerogative though.
Move with the times (find a way to compete or find a niche).
 
If the client is only wanting a few pages of html , he shouldnt need to pay the earth. Where web developers can truly charge a LOT of money, is on the programming side, where a client is needing a bespoke design that cant be gotten off the shelf. The same applies to sites which are graphically superior...although with all the free theme sites out there already, thats getting more difficult. We have experienced a number of challenges when it comes to marketing over the years. If we charge to much, people look elsewhere. If we offer something for free, people think it comes with no support etc. It does come down to relationship though....where perhaps recurring business is where you need to see your profits....not just in the initial sale. (web maintenance etc if you are the programmer.....upgrading things for mobile etc.
 
southafricanhosting.co.za said:
If the client is only wanting a few pages of html , he shouldnt need to pay the earth. Where web developers can truly charge a LOT of money, is on the programming side, where a client is needing a bespoke design that cant be gotten off the shelf. The same applies to sites which are graphically superior...although with all the free theme sites out there already, thats getting more difficult. We have experienced a number of challenges when it comes to marketing over the years. If we charge to much, people look elsewhere. If we offer something for free, people think it comes with no support etc. It does come down to relationship though....where perhaps recurring business is where you need to see your profits....not just in the initial sale. (web maintenance etc if you are the programmer.....upgrading things for mobile etc.
Click to expand...

+1 maintenance contracts are lovely, rather keep a smaller group of repeat customers very happy. If you try over extend yourself your quality drops. Have a good portfolio and explain to the customer exactly what they are getting and show them what type of quality they are getting compared to the "R1000" jobs out there. People really don't mind paying a decent price for a decent product if they know what they are getting and the developer hold his end up by delivering a quality product. It's such a wild west of an industry you have people producing terrible and brilliant work for next to nothing then you have guys charging the earth for terrible and brilliant work. It's the clients that have to be very decisive of who they work with.. It does make it more difficult for newcomers but once established it's still a booming industry. If you think about it.. a company's website is the face of its marketing campaign these days.
 
DJ... said:
If the client does not understand, then you as the salesman have not done your job. Assuming you sell your own services.

It is not the client's fault...
Click to expand...

There is some merit in this.

Once you have finished your sales pitch, your potential client might not like the numbers you are bringing to the table but they should understand and respect where you are coming from.

A R1000 website will look and feel like a R1000 website. They client will figure that out in a couple of month and kick themselves for wasting their money..
 
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