Oftentimes, website designers will offer extremely professional websites to their past, present and future clients. These websites will be 100% customized, designed from the ground up. They won't be templated websites. They won't be pre-existing or copied websites. They will be truly customized, unique, original, one-of-a-kind websites. Of course, this type of website takes time to build. It takes time to prepare, plan and come up with the ideas and research required to put together such a unique website. And with time, takes money (time is money). The price tag for a customized website could easily run in the thousands of dollars or higher. And these days, competition is extremely fierce. Large website companies offer websites for pennies per month. So, what's the best way to work with clients looking for a custom website design?
Tip #1 - Find Out Your Clients Expectations - And Exceed Them! First things first: You'll want to find out your client's expectations, and exceed them. This doesn't mean to ask your client, "When would you like the site to be done", and then completing the site a day in advance. Finding out your client's expectations essentially means you'll need to take the time and research your client's niche. You'll need to figure out how competing sites rank, as well as how your client's website will differ from all of the competition. By researching your client's competition, you can strategically give your client higher than expected expectations.
Believe it or not, many clients DO NOT HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS. "How is this possible" you ask? Well it's true! Lots of potential website owners do not know what they want out of their website. The only thing they know, is that they want an online presence. Since most clients are not as knowledgeable as those in the design and programming industry, they do not realize what it takes to rank in search engines. They do not realize what it takes to develop and customize a website. They only know what they want to know, and what they've taken the time to research - which is often very little. So, by determining what your client knows, and figuring out their expectations, you can easily create a plan of action that will easily exceed their expectations. You can exceed your client's expectations by giving them information they didn't know, and by telling them what you will do for their website to help them rank better and higher than the competition in their specific niche.
Tip #2 - If Your Client Has Questions, Answer Them All! Many clients want information. They want answers to their questions. They do not want to be left in the dark. They want to know that you indeed know what you are doing, and that you are trustworthy and reliable enough to be assigned their project.
Because there are so many facets to custom website design, many clients will be overwhelmed with the thought of it, and they will not know the best questions to ask. This is there you step in as the professional website designer to shed some much needed light on the situation.
For example, your client may ask a question such as, "How can I make changes to the website myself?" This is typically a question every client wants to know. However, depending on the client and their particular niche, your answer may vary from client to client. Lets say your client wants an e-commerce store, and you're building it from the ground up. You'll want to explain to your client that, since you're building their custom e-commerce store from the ground up, you'll be able to create a completely custom administrative back-end interface where they'll be able to securely log in with a username and password to modify the contents of their website. You'll want to make your client aware that the process of updating their own site will be as simple and as easily as possible. You DO NOT want to intimidate or worry your client into thinking there will be a high learning curve involved! Also, stay true to your words. If you tell your client that it'll be a piece of cake to update their own website, be sure to make it a piece of cake to update! Don't tell them one thing, and end up designing something completely different. This takes away from your credibility as a custom website designer and puts you at high risk of losing your current client, as well as any future business. Overall, you'll simply want to break it down for your client by ensuring their knowledge and understanding of what's to come. And even though custom website designers have plenty of technical terminology to describe our practices and techniques, it's always best to keep it simple. Clients rarely understand acronyms like "CMS", "CSS" or "CRON" Job. So, save yourself some time and leave specialty terms out of the conversation. Using simple explanations will guarantee you and your client are on the same page.
Tip #3 - Work With Your Clients To Make It Affordable! One thing is for sure, no one wants to feel like they're being used. This is especially true for clients. Clients do not want to feel like they're being overcharged or misled. They do not want to feel taken advantage of. So, why would you use, mislead or overcharge a client? You wouldn't! You'll do everything in your power to give your client a fair price. You'll answer all their questions and you won't take advantage of them. Because after all, this is your business, and you take your business very seriously.
By working with clients to make their custom website affordable, you're simply being a good designer. Having an awesome client/designer relationship is one of the most important factors when it comes to this industry, but making their website affordable is just about as equally important. But, by having a great relationship, everything else will typically fall into place quite easily. Whether you need to work out a monthly or weekly payment arrangement, or make different considerations. You may need to play with various payment structures, such as 50% down, and 50% upon project completion. Or, 5 separate payments of 20%. You could give your client 6 months or more to pay off their custom website. Whatever you do, you'll want to be as honest and as straight-forward as possible when dealing with the financial aspect of the project. Even though prices and timelines may change as changes happen in the scope of the project, you'll want to let your client know about any changes in the price of the custom website design as soon as possible. There's nothing worse than receiving an unexpected bill. But again, custom website work does take time, and time is money. However, even if unexpected charges come up, you can still work with your client to make it affordable. As previously mentioned, you can work out a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly payment arrangement. If your client is truly happy and satisfied with the final product, they are likely to own the final price tag and satisfy it as quickly as possible. Work with your client, and they will work with you.
In conclusion, custom website design can be very affordable. On the other hand, it can be very expensive. It'll all depend on the client's budget and expectations. However, by making a custom website worth its custom price tag, and by working with your client to make it affordable, this ensures a win-win outcome on both ends of the playing field.
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