Top Rounded Section

Build trust with your clients – get more business

Posted: October 28th, 2009

building-trust-with-clients

This industry of web design and development that we all work in can often lead to clients and customers feeling confused, overwhelmed and daunted by the prospect of dealing with us on a day to day basis. Indeed, it may even put them off even calling us in the first place. If they don’t call, we don’t get new business and hence don’t make money. This is not a situation that you want to find yourself in. So how can we prevent this from happening? How can we earn a prospective new client’s trust before they’ve ever met us? This article aims to help answer that question – read on.

Starting a new relationship

In the beginning, when first meeting a client the initial rapport built up with them is going to influence their attitiude towards you throughout the entire project development cycle. It’s important right from the get-go that the client feels comfortable talking to you and is trusting of what you’re saying. We always arrange a face-to-face meeting at the client’s own premises when we are working with someone new. This is very important in laying the foundations of a good working relationship. Firstly the client is in an environment they’re familiar with, this immediately puts them at ease. Also, it’s far more convenient for them, they don’t have to take time away from their work to travel to meet you, so you’ve immediately given them a benefit before you’ve even met. We’ve often agreed to meet clients outside of normal office hours in the comfort of their own home. This has helped to start the working relationship off on a good footing.

Talking like people, not like IT Experts

Just because we web designers know what CSS, PHP and FTP mean doesn’t mean that our clients will. It’s vitally important to remember that your client doesn’t work in the industry that you do and (in most cases) may not have much techinical knowledge. Don’t baffle them with technical terms, talk to them like people, explain things in a way that they will understand and always ensure they do understand what you’re saying before you move on to something else. This seems to be something that a lot of technical people either forget or are not good at. We’ve heard time and time again from clients that they didn’t understand what the people they used to deal with for their website needs were telling them. Remember, you want the client to feel comfortable when speaking with you. If you overload them with technical jargon you will not achive this.

Constantly ask for feedback

At all stages during a web design project we ask the client for their feedback. The benefits offered by this are twofold. Firstly, it reinforces the building of trust for the client. They’re being asked for their opinion. It tells them that they have a say in what happens with the building of their website and that they’re not being steamrolled over by a bunch of technical guys. Also, having regular contact with the client is essential to keep the rapport that was built up during the face-to-face meeting(s) going. If a client is happy to talk to you and gets what they want for their website then it’s far more likely that they will do business with you again. Ignore them and only email them once asking for money when the website is finished and they may be left feeling with a product they don’t really like and a company they have no faith or trust of. That will not get you more business from them.

Get client testimonials and put them on your site

As basic as the paragraph headline above sounds you’d be amazed at the number of companies who forget to do this or simply haven’t thought of doing this. You’ve built a great website and you have an excellent working relationship with your new client. You need other prospective clients to see this. It’s vitally imporant that your website (in whatever industry you work in) has testomonials from clients on it.

If you’ve not done this yet, then now is the time to start. Client testimonials are a much better sales too than anything the slickest of sales people can come up with because they’re genuine thoughts and feelings of people who have used your services. For new clients this will immediately help them gain an overview of how you work and how easy you are to work with.

You may have a great design portfolio but simply displaying that on your website isn’t enough. People want to know that they’re going to get good service from you, that they’re going to be able to contact you if they need to and that they can ask you things without feeling like they’re asking something silly.  Testimonials give them the best insight into your company they can have without actually having work done by you.

Keep up-to-date

Again it may seem obvious, but not everyone does it. If you have client testimonials on your site (and if not why not?) you need to keep regularly updating them. If a new client visits your site and sees that all of your testimonials are from 10 years ago it will not present you in a great light.

Final thoughts

As we’ve discussed, building trust with your clients is vital to having a good working relationship with them and increasing the chances of them doing repeat business with you. So far we’ve had repeat business from almost all of our clients so we know the way we’ve detailed things in this article works. Next time you’re with a client think back to this article, it may help you secure the business you’re trying to get.

Written by Ian Hazeldine – Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Think of your home page as your shop front window

Posted: October 14th, 2009

home-page-is-your-shop-window
This week we’re going to be concentrating on argueably the most important page in any website; the home page. Quite often when carrying out work for clients, especially site re-designs we’ll encounter a home page on their site that looks more like a word document than a web site. You should think of your home page as the virtual window to your store that can be used to entice customers (users) further in.

With this in mind we’ll explore some of the most common mistakes that we’ve found on client sites (before we’ve worked on them) and how you can change these for the better.

Too much text will kill you

Probably the most common mistake we encounter on client sites is that they simply have way too much text on their home page. Think about the content that you’re writing for your website, do you really need to put it all on the first page? Probably not. This is certainly not a good way to entice users to explore your site further. If you present a page that’s full of paragraphs and paragraphs of text your user will quickly navigate away from your site as they can’t immediately see anything to interest them. When a user first visits a website you only have their attention for a few seconds. If your site doesn’t grab their attention they will certainly be able to find one that does and this means you’ve lost them and hence lost any chance of them doing business with you.

Don’t waffle

Remember, a user wants to see what you can offer them. They are not interested in how proud you are about your business or how you feel about a product or service you provide. They’re interested in what’s in it for them. Keep your text relevant, concise and enticing. A simple introductory paragraph of 3 or 4 lines will usually suffice for your home page. If you lose track of this think of what you see in the high street when you’re out shopping. Shops put posters and offers in their shop windows, they don’t put paragraph after paragraph of text telling you how happy they are with their business and your website home page shouldn’t either.

Make your text relevant

Not only is relevant text important for keeping your user interested and wanting to read more, but it’s also good for gaining a high rank within popular search engines such as Google. The text on your home page should provide the user with a clear idea of what services or products you provide. Concentrate on your main area of business on the home page. If you diversify and offer other services or products to a lesser degree then by all means promote them on the site too, but ensure they don’t encroch too much on the home page. The main factor in gaining a high rank in google is good relevant content.

If you’re not too good at writing copy yourself it would be wise to seek assistance from someone to do it for you. If you know someone personally (a friend or family member) that can write content well ask them to help you out. If not then there are professional copy writers who can provide this service for you. Of course this will cost you money, but remember, this is your business we’re talking about. If you had a high street shop you wouldn’t let just anybody put things in your shop window. Your website should be no different.

State your unique selling points

Every business has a unique selling point of some sort. A short time ago we had a meeting with a client that wanted us to re-design their existing website. We took a look at their site and and were met with a home page that contained way too much text and absolutely no points of interest. We asked them what their unique selling points were and they replied “we don’t really have any.” This was not the case and with a little probing we found that they were a family run business that had been successfully trading for over 20 years, they had full approval from the industry bodies for the product they provided, they were the exclusive provider of  a range of products and they operated on a national basis. None of these points were on their website and all of them should have been.

Always ensure you think about what your business has to offer and how that can benefit your customers. If you have to be approved to operate in your line of work make sure you get the logo stating you’re approved onto your site home page. If you’re able to exclusively provide a product or service shout about it on your home page. But remember, don’t achieve that through paragraph after paragraph of text. Use graphics, or highlighted text to catch the user’s attention.

Use good quality images

Images can make or break a home page. It’s vitally important that you use good quality images that clearly illustrate what you’re trying to show to your customers. Taking your own pictures is fine as long as they look good. Again, if you’re not able to do it yourself ask friends and family to help you out. If you don’t know anyone personally that can do this then there are several good image library websites that have hundreds of thousands of royalty free stock images for all types of  businesses. A few images from these sites won’t cost you much money and can give a professional, high quality look to your site.

Here are links to a couple of good image library sites that we use when building websites.

Also, don’t be put off from looking at free image resource sites too such as Flickr. If you see an image on a site that a user has submitted that you want to use on your own website, make sure you ask them for permission first. Quite often you’ll find that they’ll be only too pleased that you chose their picture.

You wouldn’t put small, blurred posters up in your high street shop window so don’t do it on your website home page either.

Some examples of good site home pages that we’ve created for clients

We’ve put a few links to client sites that we’ve created to demonstrate all of the above points and how they can be used to achieve good home page design. Feel free to comment on them or any other aspect of this post.

  1. Mellor and Mottram
  2. Curtain Magic
  3. Showerwall UK

We hope this will help you when thinking about the design for your own home page. Thank you for reading.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Communication, Home Page Design | No Comments »

Communication is key in web design

Posted: October 7th, 2009

communication-is-key

In today’s modern world there are more ways to communicate with people than ever before. Communication has become a key part in our daily lives, both personal and professional. It’s important to remember that when working with a web designer communication is key to getting your site right both now and in the future.

Client to web designer

Quite often a client who doesn’t have a great deal of technical knowledge may feel intimidated into asking questions or seeking advice from the web designer as they don’t want to ask something that might make them feel stupid. This should NEVER be a factor. Your web designer should encourage you to ask for help and explain things in a way you understand. You’re the customer, the designer is here to meet your needs, not their own. You’re paying for the service so feel confident in asking anything you like about the project. If you’re not happy with the answer or need further clarification ask again until you are satisfied.

I’ve been working in the web industry as a professional designer/developer  since 1997 and I don’t know everything – far from it in fact. Truth is neither does anyone else. We’re constantly learning new things as new technologies are born and development tools evolve in our line of work. If I need the answer to a question from someone I will ask. It’s always better to ask, than to try and guess at something. My point is that if you come to me as a web expert you shouldn’t be afraid to ask me anything. I’m learning all the time just like you.

Bottom line: If you don’t like something, or you dont’ understand something you’re being told – please, speak up about it.

Web designer to client

To ensure you end up with happy clients at the end of a project communication is key from the designer to the client. You should always ask your client for feedback on the project at key stages. If something isn’t quite right for the client you can amend it to suit their requirements during development rather than having to go back once everything is done and alter things then (which can be a headache for more complicated sites).

I’ve already mentioned the fact that as web experts we should explain things clearly to our clients in lay terms. I cannot stress this point enough. Over the past decade I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve talked to clients who had dealt with another ‘web expert’ before me and during my initial meeting with them they’ve told me that ‘we didn’t really know what the other guy was talking about so we just paid him’. This is NOT how you build a relationship with your clients. You need to remember that just because you know what you’re talking about doesn’t mean they will and it’s wrong to expect them to know. Don’t be patronising to them, but after you’ve explained your proposal for their project ask them if they are happy and state that if there’s anything they need clarifying they should feel free to ask – even after the meeting has ended.

Finally you should always try to make yourself available for a client when it’s convenient for them, not you. If you provide a telephone number always try to answer calls. If a client leaves a message make sure you call them back and even if they’re not available leave a message yourself so that they know you’ve responded.

Similarly, it’s important to respond to emails and, if you’re going to be away from the office for a while, set up auto-responders to let clients know that you’ve received their email and will deal with it once you’re back in the office (including the dates you’re away from and to is also a good idea in this case).

Again, countless times I’ve met with clients who have dealt with other web companies who before us and told me they could never get hold of a person to help them. They received no response to either telephone calls or emails. That, in my view, is totally unacceptable. I always explain to clients that if I don’t answer the phone it will only ever be for 2 reasons; I’m driving and don’t have handsfree or I’m in a meeting with another client. If either of these circumstances arises I always ensure I call the client back the same day. It’s reassuring for a client to know that you will be there when they need you and it will help build a great relationship with them.

Final thoughts

Hopefully this article has helped you out and hopefully, if you’re a designer, you’ve been doing all of the things I’ve mentioned already. If not, then now is the time to change that. Clients, you should have the confidence to ask for help from your designer and if they’re not serving your needs it may be time to look elsewhere.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Communication, Customer Service, Web Design | 2 Comments »