0How PCI Compliance Can Impact Your Web Design Company

In the course of the last four days, I’ve spent nearly 30 hours reading and reviewing blogs, articles, news items, videos and webinars in regards to PCI Compliance. I’m utterly shocked at the lack of knowledge and clear lack of concern most web design and development shops have for these important standards. While the large development teams handling large merchants are exposed to the PCI-DSS procedure, smaller teams and one man shops are alarmingly unaware of what PCI compliance means to them and their business. there are still small shops and one man web design businesses that are designing and building ecommerce sites based on insecure non-compliant ecommerce websites. They are building them using non-compliant open source and commercial versions of ecommerce shopping carts. I’ve even talked to some larger teams working on mid-sized client websites who are actually ignoring PCI-DSS as something that will not affect their business or their client’s businesses.  Unfortunately, there are consequences to both the merchant and to the web design company.

What is PCI-DSS?

PCI-DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards which is managed under the PCI-SSC or Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The PCI SSC was  founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa, Inc. The main driver behind its inception and the resulting PCI-DSS was the increasing financial losses due to credit card fraud resulting from security breaches.

PCI DSS is a series of standards under 6 group areas with 12 sub areas and many sub requirements under those ares. It covers what is requried to maintain a secure cardholder data environment. The security standards range from network security, software and database security standards to physical location policies and procedures. Web applications represent only a portion of the requirements to be PCI DSS compliant. Your can review the full set of standards at http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

While it may seem as though large companies are the target, they aren’t the only target. They are just the most visible. National news outlets do not focus on small businesses. Small businesses are often the hardest hit by fines levied by their associated merchant account banks when a security breach is found and cardholder data is lost. Not only are they fined, they have to pay forensic investigation costs and may additionally be sued for the cost of reissuing credit cards to consumers by banks who originally issued compromised credit cards.

Furthermore, experts say hackers are attacking small commercial website more rapidly. Criminals are able to access a website’s transaction process and credit card handling to steal credit card numbers. While small businesses have fewer transactions and therefor fewer vicitims, they are an easier target due to more frequent software and network architecture flaws. In many instances flawed software can be found through search engines using common version numbers and software brand references with known vulnerabilities.

How PCI Compliance can impact your business

If you don’t advise, build or implement ecommerce websites, PCI DSS will not affect your business. However, if you advise, build or implement ecommerce websites, PCI DSS will impact how you do business. There are a varying set of consequences that can affect your business as follows:

Acquiring Banks must ensure merchants and independent sales organizations are using  PA-DSS or PABP compliant applications. (PABP is Visa’s application certification prior to PA DSS - Payment Application Data Security Standards complaiant)  According to Visa, the deadline is July 1, 2010. While each card brand can and has set their own deadlines (and in some instances that varies by geographical location) and each acquiring bank can and has sent varying deadlines, July 2010 is a date to be aware.

What this mandate means is that acquring banks are going to take a harder look at their merchants and independent sales organizations, service providers (those providing merchant account services) and pass out fines for non-compliance and/or shut down merchant accounts due to non compliance. Where will you be when your clients are fined or shut down due to the use of non compliant shopping cart software. Will you be left behind for web design and development companies ready to help them navigate through PCI Compliance?

Lawsuits

Nobody likes to mention lawsuits. Right now most of the lawsuits over security breaches are directed at merchants and acquiring banks. These lawsuits are mostly being instigated by banks issueing credit cards to consumers whose card was compromised during a security breach. They are sueing for the cost of reissuing credit cards to their clients, the consumers. Right now, their lawsuits are a hit or miss. PCI DSS isn’t a get out of jail pass for merchants in regards to these lawsuits. Actually, it is no longer a safe harbor against fines. Visa changed their stance from “safe harbor” to “may waive fines” if the merchant was found to be compliant at the time of a security breach.

The tide may be changing. Merchants are getting tired of holding the bag over something they do not fully understand. Seven restaurants in Mississippi and Louisiana are sueing a software development company and one of its retailers over a security breach that has cost them tens of thousands of dollars. The Point of Sales system was hacked allegedly by a Romanian hacker. You can read more about the case at http://radiantsystemslawsuit.wordpress.com/ 

So what does this lawsuit have to do with web design and development? You are either in the position of writing or redeveloping a web application that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data or in the position of advising and implementing a prewritten web application that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data. Guess what, you’re in the same position as the software development company and/or the reseller. You’re a sitting duck for a lawsuit if these types of lawsuits become a trend.

So What Now?

Most small web design shops will need to either stop developing ecommerce websites altogether or make adjustments in the way they do business. You just cannot afford to sit back and ignore the situation.  I currently advise my very small ecommerce clients to maintain a cash-only business where they accept things like PayPal using PayPal’s hosted solution. The other option is to use hosted payment solutions like Authorize.Net’s SIM and Element Payment Services Hosted Payment Solution. There are other options out there. My best advice is to get familiar with PCI Compliance.

Web Out
Des

Desirea Herrera is an amazing web development geek who does web design and specializes in technical training of web development through webinars. A twelve-year veteran of the field with vast experience, Desirea has forgotten more about web design than most people will ever know. You can find out more about Desirea and her projects at Inphotek.

710 Ways to Help Your Website Sell

Like most people in different professions, we as web designers have a tendency to neglect our own websites. My own site is now under redevelopment because I couldn’t believe how long ago it had been since the last time I worked on it. While most of my customers are referrals, they still go out and look at my website. This makes it important enough for me to pay attention to my website’s content.

Update Your Website Often

Of course any SEO expert knows the value of updating their website. It draws the attention of the search engines. Search engines aren’t the only reason to continually update your website. Clients want to know that you are staying up with the times. Update your design once a year to reflect the current design trends on the internet for your core client base. Content updates help your site to stay fresh and give the customer plenty of reasons to stay on your website. Copyrights should have the year they were developed, but you should also list current year. For example, list your copyright like this - © 2000 – 2009.  This also gives your potential client an idea of just how long you’ve been in business as well as an idea of your experience level.

Fix your broken site

This is something that shouldn’t have to be mentioned but I’ll put it here because it bears repeating. You simply have to make sure your website is working. It’s not just broken links to outside resources you need to fix, it’s the way your website works in the different browsers. You need an nice clean exciting layout to promote yourself but more importantly you need a website that works. Test your website often. Visit it once a week to check that everything is working in multiple browsers. Make sure all links are still working. Check your site as you check your website’s statistics. You are checking your stats right?

Don’t Be Pushy

You’d be surprised at how many times I’m browsing the internet and find people using the old tactic “buy right this minute or you’ll never see this price again”. While promoting specials are great, reserve most of them for your current clients. Attach real dates to them. And don’t be pushy about it like the above sales copy. No one likes to be pushed into purchasing something, especially in web design. You need to let your problem solving and benefits make the sale. There is also the fact that most large web development projects are custom projects with specific price tags attached to them. When you set a price, you open yourself to projects with unexpected commitments that you cannot recoup. Now that’s not to say that you shouldn’t run a sale occasionally. But, if you do, list the time period of the sale for everyone to see. Just make sure you don’t tell every customer that visits that they must purchase now (today), because most customers will price shop and compare products before they purchase.

Solve Their Problems with Your Services

Most web designers list the product or service features, but that doesn’t tell a potential client how this will help solve their problem. Remember that your website is also your salesman. Salesmen find out someone’s problem so they can fix it. Just the other day I had a young lady come to my door selling a cleaning product.. She was quite good in an infomercial sort of way. The key thing that she did was to get me agreeing with her about my problems and that I wanted a safe product around my pets and my kids. So as you write content for your website, think about how you can get your visitors to agree with you about different problems they are facing. Then, show them how you can fix their problems. Show them the benefits of using your services. It’s easy to say you’re the best web designer, but go a step further and tell the customer what that means to them. In other words, what’s in it for them? If you have trouble defining your benefits, ask the one person that would know best – your customers! If they are happy with your products or services, they will be able to tell you what problem it overcomes and the benefit they receive. Besides, what better way to find out how you’re doing in servicing their needs?

Include Contact Information

As the internet has grown, so has the number of fly by night operations. One day they are here and the next they’ve disappeared. Make sure you have physical address location posted on your website as well as a phone number. This information is reassuring to potential customers. It gives your business a professional polish rather than the appearance of hiding yourself behind the internet.

Make It Easy to Pay

With a web development company, this can be tricky. Most web design customers don’t purchase until they talk to you or have reviewed a proposal you’ve sent them. However, you can still offer them a way to make a payment on your website. The best way is to accept credit cards.. If you don’t have a merchant account already, the easiest way to get set up immediately is through services like Pay Pal, Clink Bank, and 2Checkout. For those of you willing to offer products to the Do It Yourself course, you can sell templates and guides. Sometimes the DIY people end up becoming clients because as you know, building a website is harder than they think. You are then in the position of offering your services to these potential clients.

List Your Guarantees

Everyone wants to feel that if a service or product they’ve purchased is not up to the standards or expectations they thought, that the company will take care of them. And because of that, you should always list a guarantee. It doesn’t have to be a full money back guarantee, but it should be a reasonable amount of time or a reasonable procedure to follow in order to rectify the issues. And better yet, if you have a web application or open source application that you customize for clients, you could allow a limited amount of time for a “test drive”, it will decrease the apprehension some people have about doing business with someone they don’t know.

Include A Privacy Policy

This may not seem obvious but a privacy policy makes your website more professional. When you include a privacy policy, you are saying to your potential customers that you have policies in place to protect them. You’re also saying you’ve thought about how you will run your business. It’s another element to your website that tells the customer that you are not a fly by night operation that will disappear once you have their money.

Include Terms and Conditions

This is also a way to convey to your customers and potential customers how your company does business. This is the place to list exactly how you do business and in what conditions you will offer a refund. You have to take into account that the majority of your customers or not looking for something for nothing. Now I will admit there will always be a small percentage of your customers that will try to take advantage of you, but you’ll find most customers just want to be treated fair and know you’ll take care of them. Setting up the terms and conditions on your website will also help deter people whom you probably wouldn’t want as clients.

Tell Them What’s Next

After they’ve purchased or started the contact process, tell them what the next step will be. If they will be downloading a template or application, let them know when or how they will download it once they’ve completed their purchase. Or, if you will contact them, let them know when you will contact them and how. Or better yet, give them options on a form. Let them choose how you will contact them. Of course, the best way to handle it is to contact them within a day. You don’t want to give them a chance to change their mind. Make sure you explain each step and show them what great customer service you provide right from the beginning.

We preach to our customers all about how important their website is to their business. As web designers it is important to practice what we preach. This list is only a partial list of things that we as web designers and developers need to do to our websites so that they do the sales job we need them to do.

Web Out
Des

3How Clients Decide

It’s important to understand how people make decisions when you start to write proposals. There are three pieces of information that people use to help them make a decision. First piece of information is recognition. The second piece of information is whether or not the proposal answers all their questions and the third is whether not the proposal is compliant with the requirements put forth in the request for proposal. In addition to the different pieces of information that need to be addressed, You need to understand what’s important to the customer.  

As far as recognition is concerned given two different companies the recognizable company will have a higher inferred value. Think of it this way, given a choice between an IBM ThinkPad and an unknown brand laptop which would you choose? You don’t actually recognize that as a better computer. You know IBM and you know what to expect from their products.  

Recognition is built through repeated exposure. These are pre-proposal activities like advertising, branding, and repeated contacts with a customer. You should be advertising and branding your company on a regular basis. You should be talking to your customers through emails and phone calls to keep you fresh in their minds.

The second piece of information is whether not somebody answers all of their questions or responds to what they need. It’s important to thoroughly read through a request for proposal or an advertisement. A good way to keep track is to make a table of the needs that the customer presents. As you build your proposal check off the needs that you address as you address them. This makes it impossible for you to miss something that was included in the request.

The third piece of information is whether or not you were compliant with their requirements. Did you include all the items they wanted in the proposal? Did you answer all their questions? Did you follow the directions they stipulated in submitting a proposal?

After these first three pieces of information have been checked off in the client’s mind, they start to consider the proposal itself. Usually there’s one of three different ways to decide on a proposal. The first way is to look at past projects. They think about how they made their choice the last time and whether or not it worked. The second way is to develop a set of criteria by thinking back are over past situations where they had to make similar decisions. It’s important for you to get as close to figuring out how the client is going to make their decision and what criteria they’re going to use to make their decision before you submit their proposal.

Ask questions about how they’re going to make their decision or what they consider when they’re comparing vendors. Ask them about the last time they made this kind of that decision. What factors guided them in their decision? Ask them if it worked for them.

Next, you need to try to figure out what is their most important need. This criterion should be addressed first in your proposal. And then from that point on everything should be in a similar order of importance as the client has in their own mind. The idea is to organize the proposal in such a way that it highlights the criteria the customer thinks is important. This tells the client that you’re on the same page. You meet the customer’s expectations in the beginning and they don’t need to reach further into the documentation. Mentally the client checks off that you know what they want.

There are three things to remember:

• Make yourself recognizable
• Pay attention to what they need answered
• Follow their submit submission directions

And last but not least understand what’s important to the customer. 

Web Out

Des

2Building Business This Year

2009 is here. The economy isn’t looking so hot. It’s time to kick it up a notch. To do that, you’ve really got to be paying attention to what you’re doing every day. Every activity needs to be focused on building your business. The best way to do that is pay attention to what you’re doing. Is every activity really building your business? Is it making you money? 

Every task needs to be labeled as business building or money making. Sometimes I find myself doing things that don’t really build my business. Other times, I just don’t really realize how important some activities are to my business. It’s important to focus on what makes money and on what attracts new customers. You should be pinpointing them. 

Money Making

This is the easy part. The obvious answer is any activity you are getting paid to do.  Whenever you are on the clock for a customer, you’re making money. Another way to count an activity as a money maker is if you can sell it to someone else. A couple of good questions to determine if an activity is a money maker are:

• Am I billing someone for my time?
• Can I sell this to someone else?

The obvious answer to “Am I billing someone for my time?” is if you’re working for a client. Another good money making activity is when you’re signing on a new client. Obviously, you’ll be making money from a new client. As for “Can I sell this to someone else?” those activities can be things like designing layout templates and/or programming simple web applications. Hint: They are also good ways to hone your skills.  

Business Building

These activities aren’t necessarily associated with a client paying you money or someone purchasing some product from you. They’re about showing off, promoting yourself and building your business/social network. These are the activities that will get your name known. So how do you tell if you’re building your business? Ask yourself these key questions:

• Am I building my reputation?
• Am I meeting new contacts? 

These are tall questions, some with short answers and others that can be more complicated. The first question “Am I building my reputation?” really is about whether or not you’re doing something that focuses market/industry attention on you. My contributions to this blog and a .Net coding blog are examples of building my reputation. Other examples are things like sending out newsletters with tips to clients. You can also do this through providing good customer service, and building quality example projects.  

The second question, “Am I meeting new contacts?” would include activities that force you to meet new people. Going to Chamber of Commerce meetings, giving business building speeches, and socializing with more people always count towards meeting new contacts. Of course, meeting people isn’t the be all and end all of the activity. It only works if you actually starting landing jobs. Keeping in contact with these new contacts would also count. Things like sending out emails, postcards etc. would count as business building activities. 

Keeping Track

All these things are great in theory. The question is, how do you know you’re being effective? I found the Printable CEO http://davidseah.com/blog/the-printable-ceo-series/  to have a great set of free printable documents to track your time and what you’re doing with it.  

Happy New Year
Des

 

4Finding Web Design Clients

This is the biggest question when you start working for yourself. How do you find web design clients? Where do you find clients? And that is the question of the day….

First Impressions
Let’s start with you. It’s important when you’re just starting out to put your best foot forward. To get clients you need to be professional. You should look and act like a professional. Professional dress depends on your niche market. If you’re looking for clients in the legal field (lawyers), you’ll need to appear in business dress suitable for a courtroom. If you walk into a lawyer’s office expecting work dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a rock band shirt, you’re probably going to be disappointed. A lawyer isn’t going to take you seriously. That being said, if you walk onto a cutting horse trainer’s ranch in the clothing you’d wear to visit a lawyer you’ll look like a “city slicker” and not get the kind of respect you’d need to land the work.

Start With a Network
One of the biggest ways that web designers get new clients is through word of mouth referrals. This is normally done through happy clients who refer new clients to you. If you don’t have any clients then you’ve got to come out of the dark and be seen. People won’t know you’re doing web design until you tell them. And no one will refer clients to you if they don’t know what you do or if they haven’t heard of you. Since web design is a service that requires trust on the client’s behalf, word of mouth is the norm.

If you don’t have an extensive network of clients to refer you to new clients then you need to expand the number of people you actually know. You can start with family and friends. This depends on how well they understand what you do. I still have my mother’s words ringing in my ears “It’s just a little ole website.” Um yeah Mom…. Right. It’s not to say that family and friends can’t help you out but be sure they actually understand something about what you do for a living.

After family you’ll need other resources for meeting people. Some good places to network are your local Chamber of Commerce, various clubs and associations in your region. You can also join organizations like Business Network International where networking and lead generation are the primary pursuits. The Toastmasters organization is a good place to develop your speaking capabilities which can parlay into speaking at your local Chamber of Commerce. You’ll need to have a nice business card when you go to these events so that you can pass it out to everyone you meet. There are excellent business card companies online that will allow you to inexpensively create a business card. The real key is to get some visibility.

Niche Market Networking
All of the above works fairly well. If you think about marketing itself, like commercials, you’ll have an understanding of what I’m talking about. Take for instance a commercial for a toy. Where would you find that commercial? Typically on a TV channel that shows cartoons and children’s shows. The target market is children. In marketing you’re trying to put your product in front of your target market. If you’ve defined toy-makers as your target market then you need to go to the events they attend and advertise in the magazines they read. It’s about being where your target market will see you.

Online Networking
Local networking is a great place to start but you should be doing a variety of networking. Participating in online forums like Xemion’s forum is a great way to network with other web designers and developers. The more you help your fellow web designer/developer, the more authority you gain. I know most think in terms of the signature links seen at the bottom of the posts for search engine optimization purposes but we’re not talking about SEO right now.

The key is to become an authority. Blogs will help lend that air of “authority” to your overall impression. You might think that helping other web designers/developers is counterproductive. The fact is that helping others can lead to virtual teams of designers and developers who develop symbiotic relationships doing subcontracts for each other. In this day and age, no one is an expert at everything. It’s important to realize that concentrating on specialized skills will make you more money over time. As you write about your particular specialty more work comes your way.

James just posted a nice article on LinkedIn. It’s one of the places you can network with online individuals. Some of my best clients and partnerships have been gained through online connections. Facebook, MySpace and others like it can contribute to your finding online connections for more work. The key is to participate and interact in these networks.

Show Them What You Have
I don’t think I can emphasize this enough. You need a portfolio. If you don’t have one, start making one. Build websites for nonprofits and/or dummy sample sites. Make up a city and build a site for each typical business in a city. People won’t know what you can do until they see it.

Advertise
People won’t come unless they know you’re in business. Networks and referrals are generally where most clients will come from but don’t leave out advertising. Lots of businesses don’t know anyone who knows someone doing web design and development. It’s hard for them to find a web designer. A few suggestions are things like putting out fliers at local businesses, running newspaper ads and setting up a yellow pages advertisement. The one thing you will want to do with any kind of advertisement is track where your new clients are coming from and pour money into those advertisements that are producing while cutting out the ones that aren’t producing clients.

Getting Their Names
Building a list of potential and previous clients is one of the most important ways to build a business. These are people who have prequalified themselves by buying from you or supplying their contact information to you. Obviously you need to keep in touch with past clients. This keeps you fresh on their minds when someone asks them for a referral. The other side are new people for whom you haven’t yet done any work. How do you get new contacts on your list? One way is to create a survey. You can survey them about what they know about web design, how they found a web designer if they have one or even if they think they need a website. Normally you’ll have to sweeten the pot with something to entice them to fill out the survey otherwise they may not supply their contact information. A simple one page site from a template with their content pasted into the site is a good way to get the ball rolling. You could also end up with a much bigger client. The key is to get their contact information.

Once you build your list, it’s important to develop a habit of contacting them. Contact them when you have a new website in your portfolio or a new service to offer. You should also contact them about topics in web development that might interest a business. Things like SEO and website marketing. Think about what concerns your current clients might have that you’ve answered. Use that information to create interesting articles to send to your list. Once the people on the list know how much you care, the more likely they are to hire you. It’s part of building trust.

Offer Something Enticing
When I offer services or develop a proposal, I always hold something back. This gives me something that I can offer to a client as a “freebie”. We all know how good we feel when we get a “gift”. It makes us feel special. Making your clients feel special is probably one of the top things you can do for your business.

Clients like good service. If you aren’t responding to their needs daily, you’re not doing your job as a consultant. Over delivery and quick response is part of what will separate you from the competition. It’s also what clients will spread by word of mouth. It’s that fast customer service that can make a difference. You don’t want your client thinking you’re too busy for more work do you?

Job Boards
I’ve played around with the job boards in the past. I’ve actually gotten a few clients off Craigslist. I want to caution you about these places, the clients are generally cheap. They are looking for a bargain. Micah stated before that you can get away with discounts and kickbacks to clients so that you can get your name out there but at some point you do have to stop. The bidding system that works on the job boards like elance can really degrade your morale. Use these sites with caution. You’ll have to be cheaper than the other guys to start out and risk being known as the cheap guy.

I’ve gone over most of the methods I’ve ever used or learned. If you’ve got some other methods that might help other web designers please leave a comment.

Web Out
Des

2Designing Because I Can

I was sitting here waiting for a download to complete, reading blogs and articles when I thought… I’ve forgotten to just play. It brings me back after so many years to a time when I wrote HTML just because I could. I remember the satisfaction I felt when I was able to make some cool pendulum thing in Flash by extending someone else’s pendulum. I also remember the satisfaction of hooking up my first webpage to a database.

So where does this bring me?
As we grow in our careers, client and marketing take over our lives. We’re constantly asking ourselves where is the next lead, what’s our next project. These are important focus areas in our careers. We have to feed ourselves and our families. However this constant pressure to get new work can take some of the joy out of our career. A career is something you enjoy. We have to remember this fact lest we fall into a rut.

In The Middle
Somewhere between meeting client needs and gaining new clients there is a middle ground. It’s the ground we use to grow as web designers/developers. It’s important for everyone to learn something new because you have to stay on top of web design trends. This can put additional pressures on you. Sometimes I’ve thought “How can I possibly stay on top of everything?” You can’t but you can keep up with most of the trends.

Where’s The Fun?
Pressure is the enemy of fun. How do we combat that simple need to perform better than the next guy? How do we move forward? It comes down to remembering when you started. What was fun about web design? Why did you start? For me as I said it was satisfaction. It’s important for us to find that satisfaction again. I’ve found it when completing a client’s website but that’s not the only place to find satisfaction.

Don’t forget to Play
I spent a year getting a teaching credential and during that time I taught kindergardeners through high schoolers. What I remember the most of all that time was if a lesson was fun the kids responded better to it. They remembered it longer. By taking a leaf out of my own teaching background, I’ve found that learning can be fun if we take the pressure out of it. Last year I spent some time in photoshop playing in a simple design contest for no prize and nothing for a website… just for fun. It was on a discussion board for a series of books by one of my favorite authors. It was fun bringing the book’s characters to life. Nobody got work because of it, we just patted each other on the back.

Go Play
We need to take time out each day or once a week or once a month to just play at our craft. No pressure just play. It’s the playing that got many of us started and it’s the play that will make us better. It’s a time to relax because the outcome doesn’t matter. This weekend I got interested in using ffmpeg for video uploads and conversions to flv format with asp.net. I completely forgot my sense of time. After 7 hours of research, trial and error I have a small working upload button that transforms an avi to a flash video file. I don’t have a client for it but I do have satisfaction in doing it. So I did play this weekend after all.

How do you play? Let us know.

Web Out
Des

2Writing a Competitive Analysis For A Proposal

Normally when I’m creating a proposal for a potential client one of the things I’ll do for them is a Competitive or even a Comparative Analysis. They are both essentially the same thing. The key is to find out what the client’s competitors are doing online. How are they successfully marketing their businesses?

Where to Start
The first thing I do is a Google search. I want to find out who is most likely to be found on a search engine. Bear in mind that some industries will have offline leaders who are well known in real life. These are competitors you need to ask your client to provide.

Once I have a list of 3-4 competitors, I start off each by taking a screenshot of their sites. I’ll take a look at how that business describes its services. I’m specifically looking for their Unique Selling Point. What’s different about them compared to my client and to the other industry leaders? These are the things that help you figure out what makes a competitor unique in their industry.

Investigating Interactive Activities
Once I’m familiar with the competitor’s claims, I’ll investigate the website to determine what activities a visitor can perform at the website. How does their website interact with the visitors? How much content do they have on the website? How does the website keep their potential customers involved?

Investigating Integrating Activities
At this point I want to discover how the competitor integrates their offline business (if they have one) with their online business. Is the site a customer service website used by their current customers or is it a site whose goal is to entice new customers?

Investigating Personal Services
Most sites have some sort of personal service area whether it’s a simple FAQ or if it’s a full blown interactive program that allows them to design their own product from pieces they purchase from the website. Sometimes this is what differentiates an industry leader from an industry wannabe. It’s up to the web designer to discover the services that a competitor might offer.

Investigating Global Reach
It might seem like a particular company can only provide a local service. This is wrong. One company I investigated for a client blew me away. They provided a product and service that seemed like it could only be delivered locally unless it was done through a large chain store. Boy was I wrong. This particular company had built up enough web traffic with potential clients from all over the US. What they did was create a lead system. Any clients they couldn’t service themselves, they referred to other companies for a small referral fee. It gave them a global reach and a new revenue stream.

Summing Up Strengths and Weaknesses
At the end I’ll sum up the strengths and weaknesses of a particular competitor. This is my opportunity to point out features that my client would benefit from having on their website. It’s a great place to up sell features to your client for their website.

Client Doesn’t Want All That Stuff
You’ve got to be careful not to overwhelm your client with the competitive analysis. If they only asked for a few things for their website it’s important to give them a quote based on those features. They may or may not read your proposal all the way through to the end. Larger clients tend to look all the way through the proposal. Add the Competitive Analysis and your added recommendations after you’ve given them a cost summary of what they first asked in their website. The Competitive Analysis can highlight these extra features for the future.

Good Luck with your Competitive/Comparative Analysis

Web Out
Des

3Handling Unprofessional Clients

I recently had a request that got me thinking about professionalism from clients. As business people, web designers make the best effort to treat our clients with respect but as we know very well we don’t always get that professional treatment in return. Here are a few stories from the trenches of web design.

Requests from potential clients
These types of requests are my top deal breakers.

I’ll tell all my friends. You’ll get lots of work.
This is probably the first thing any beginning web designer will hear and its usually a friend that says it. Beginners tend to get picked on a lot. Funny thing is that this particular thought process never seems to go away. Even after 10 years in the industry I still get this offer. I guess they think because I don’t have loads of sites in my portfolio that I’m starving. Imagine their shock when I tell them that I teach web development, design and windows programming.

While this request might sound enticing, it usually doesn’t work. What kind of friends does someone who can’t or won’t pay have? Probably other friends who can’t or won’t pay. How many plumbers out there would fix your plumbing just because you might refer them so new clients? Micah had a post on how to give a client a break without looking like the “cheap guy” in web design. Go back and read it.

It shouldn’t take long for an experienced web designer
This one really fries me. I really don’t understand how someone who doesn’t know a thing apparently knows how long it will take a web designer/developer to build anything. My favorites are always when they ask for a clone of MySpace, Facebook, Ebay or something of that nature. Usually these requests come with impossible schedules. These requestss are usually accompanied by ridiculously low budgets. Educating some of these clients will sometimes work but not always.

Add my site to your portfolio to make you look good.
We all know that a strong portfolio of previous work helps you get new clients. They all want to see what you’ve done. However, (And this one really steams me off) this statement normally comes from the bottom feeders. They really can’t afford your services. I normally counter requests like this with “Well why don’t you give me your service/product for free. I’ll wear a tshirt that shows I used your product/service or drive the car or …” It’s essentially the same. I’ve even had a request that “allowed” me to have a link on their website. Well sorry, it’s normally in my contracts that all my work comes with a link back to my website. This can be negotiated out of the contract.

If you really need to build up your portfolio I recommend that you build a fake town with fake web businesses. I’ve seen this done before and had done it myself. Domains are inexpensive, pick one and do the work for yourself. Potential clients will see your examples and use them to judge if you’re a good fit for them.

I have this great idea for a website
I’ve been through this request and even once looked at base code for the idea. I really love as a programmer when they want you to build all the functionality then only take 10-20% of the profit when they start “selling it”. This type of request is really more of a venture capitalist request. You need to ask the person to send you a business plan since they are asking you to invest whatever you would charge to build this website into their business. If they believe in the project so much, they’d be willing to pay for it out of their own pocket or find a real venture capitalist or angel investor to pay for the site to be built.

What really irks me about these types of potential clients is that they try to get you caught up in their dream. This is really only an attempt on their part to entice you to build their website in the hopes that one day you’ll actually get paid if they are effective in marketing the website. So before you sign onto a project like this go through the same due diligence as a venture capitalist.

Current Unprofessional Clients
And despite being able to pay there are still clients who will almost always be a tad over the top.

The Crier
While I didn’t personally have a client like this, I did so some subwork for another developer who had a client that actually cried on the phone because we couldn’t drop everything and respond to their requests at their whim. While I’m sure crying over emotional trauma is appropriate in some professions, this situation was just unreal. I was never so glad as to know that I never had to talk to this client on the phone or via email. It was all handled by the other developer.

I did get certified as a Help Desk Analyst and Help Desk Manager to teach these classes and I can see where some of the techniques would help in this situation. The best technique is to use their first name. You have to get their attention. The next step would be to establish that you understand their emotions but NOT that you agree with them. You should say something like “I understand that you’re upset about….. ” You want to acknowledge that they’re upset but not agree with why. At that point you can adjust your conversation to help them with their problem.

The Screamer
I’ve never personally had a person scream at me on the phone for anything related to web design. Unfortunately I’ve heard others having this issue. These types of clients aren’t really great clients. They are trying to bully you. Of course you would never hear a client screaming at you on the phone or in person if you were a lawyer. That wouldn’t be productive to maintaining a good relationship with your lawyer. Guess what, it’s not productive in any business.

The key again is to use their name. Talk calmly and don’t get caught up in the anger. It’s not conducive to reaching an agreement. In the end it may be best to “fire” this kind of client. It all depends on how much abuse you’re willing to take.

The Sad State of Affairs
Unfortunately as web designers and developers we’re all going to face these at some point in our careers. It’s a given. They key to success is how you handle it.

Beginners will always get the bottom end of the barrel. That’s a given but what isn’t is how you should handle it. As a beginner, look for ways to hone your craft without giving it away too hastily. My best advice is to stay away from businesses that aren’t willing to pay you for your services. Build websites for yourself to build a portfolio or build them for worthy causes like the local dog shelter or the homeless shelter. You’ll probably get better attention from doing a site for a worthy cause than for a fly by night operation without any real plan for success.

As for unprofessional clients that use their emotions to batter you into the ground, this is where you as a business person can really shine. Handling them smoothly without losing your cool can really turn you into a hero or give you the incentive to drop the client in favor of a better prospect.

If you’ve got another unprofessional client story, please post it.

Web Out
Des

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