đ¨ Proper conduct when shopping for web design or development services
đ Stop asking for a price
You are not buying potatoes at the farmers market!
Think about it as if you were buying a pair of custom designer shoes.
You may ask, and get a starting price, but thatâs it. The rest depends on the model, materials required, adjustments made to the shoes to fit you, the deadline, as well as the number of orders the designer already has & can take.
âď¸Treat people as the professionals they are
You’re probably familiar with this metaphor but let me reiterate it.
You don’t go to the doctor to tell them what to do. You tell them your symptoms, and they give you a diagnostic and a prescription.
Donât tell the people you work with what to do, but rather what you want the end product to do. What are your goals and expectations from the finished product.
You might find people who wonât push back on your requests and when you get the finished product you will realize what a shitty designer/developer YOU are.
Itâs not their fault your orders are dropping if you specifically asked that the checkout flow be edited to request the credit card details before users can select what they add to their carts.
â ď¸ Answer questions readily and politely
Someone asking you a lot of questions is not stupid. They know the ins and outs of such projects and are looking to understand your requirements before they propose a solution.
You should be polite, answer questions, providing as much detail as you can possibly gather and pe proactive about sharing information.
Stop giving information to people designing or building your website on a âneed to knowâ basis. If youâre going to operate a large portion of your business from that website, requirements need to be understood damn well!
đ¤ Simple doesnât translate to cheap
Just because you were presented with a simple solution, it doesnât necessarily mean that itâs simple to implement.
Itâs simple to use, which translates into on-boarding/learning time savings on your end, less frustration for your users and could ultimately translate to more money in the bank for you.
đ¸ Stop being cheap
If you want a kickass product, make sure you have a kickass budget.
Any professional worth his or her salt will tell you when your budget is off. If itâs still workable for them, they will offer to help you trim down the requirements, to the essentials and remove the fluff, so that you can have your cake and eat it at the same time.
Donât ask for your whole backlog but on a cheap budget. If theyâre sane in the head, pros will turn you down.
To give you a positive analogy regarding buying a product, you wonât go to the supermarket with money for 3kg of potatoes and ask for 5kg.
I mean, you can ask, but youâre not leaving the place with 5kg of potatoes anyway. Except for the time when you also leave with security following you. Or you can buy a cheaper kind of potatoes (thatâs your product not the professional)
Lighten up! There are a lot of people worth their salt over here. You just have to be respectful and patient!