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Website Development for my company à 5 things to look after 1) Responsiveness 2) Listening & Interpretation Skills 3) Maintenance & Support 4) Complete Service from development to marketing 5) Strength & Works of the company
Choosing a Web development firm is an important decision for any business, but especially for small and mid-sized companies. Moreover, you will likely be working with this provider over the long term for service, support, future expansion of your Web site and for delivery of other services like search engine optimization, social media, and email marketing.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of overly focusing on the cost of a Web site during the proposal process. While it’s prudent to try to get the best value for the money, oftentimes price takes a front seat and critical factors get overlooked. Like what, you say? Glad you asked. Here are the top ten things to consider when hiring a Web development firm:
(1) Responsiveness – This will be extremely important both during the Web development process and (even more so) after your site launches. How quickly did the Web firm respond to your initial inquiry? Are they timely in returning your calls? If the firm isn’t responsive to you prior to winning your business, the likelihood is that they won’t be any more responsive after they’ve gotten it.
(2) Listening and Interpretation Skills –Nothing is more important than having a web partner who asks the right questions and then digs still-yet deeper to be sure that what you want and what you say you want are the same thing. It’s easy to find firms who give you ‘exactly what you ask for’ only to discover you were using terminology incorrectly, or hadn’t fully considered what was needed. A good firm will spend the time to make sure that your Web site is developed in accordance with your business goals and that your functionality is fully thought out and will work with the site as a whole.
(3) Maintenance & Support – This is the number one reason companies express dissatisfaction with ‘former’ web firms – and it is critical to a successful client/vendor relationship. You want to be important to your Web firm during and after the development of your project and the best way to determine if you will be is by how the firm’s other clients have been treated after their sites launch. How many of their clients are repeat clients? Do they have a long list of long-term clients, or only a few? Do they have ongoing working relationships with their clients after the launch of the website?
(4) Do they offer comprehensive services? – A company with the ability to handle your entire project – from the initial strategy and planning, to the design, development, testing and marketing – will be able to help formulate a strategy for your website and then see it through all the phases of its lifecycle. You will be able to have a single company to call instead of multiple vendors who may or may not understand how their ‘piece’ fits into the overall strategies, or work well with the others.
(5) Size & Track record of the company – Make sure your potential web firm has not only enough people on staff to service you promptly, but the corporate culture and commitment to doing so that insures the level of service you want is actually delivered. If the team is too small, you may run the risk of delays, lack of available expertise, or even company closures. If the team is too large, you may run the risk of getting lost in a bureaucratic system, and lack of personal service or care for your project. No matter what size company you decide to work with, it’s important that you feel comfortable throughout the process. Few things that can give you peace of mind are the track record of your prospective vendor. Do they have experience building sites that are similar to yours in functionality? Have they worked with well-known companies who can attest to their successful service delivery? How long have they been in business and what types of companies have they worked with?
As you can see, there are many considerations that will be important in your decision making process when considering hiring a web development firm.
Identifying & choosing the suitable website development company
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