Communication, personality and trust (choosing a Web designer)

I talk to many people who’ve had bad experiences with Web designers in the past. So it’s really important to make sure that you can trust your Web designer and you can work well together.

Good communications

One of the first steps of choosing a Web designer should be to contact them with a question or two to find out how they respond. The question itself doesn’t matter too much, just get in touch in the way you are most likely to when dealing with them in the future.

If you are not happy with the way they communicate now while you are a potential customer waiting to give them money, it won’t get any better once they have your money.

Personality

You will probably spend quite a lot of time now and in the future working with your Web designer so make sure that you can get along with them. If you get along well then you are more likely to find them helpful when you need help in a tight spot. It also makes the whole thing more fun.

Trust

You also need to be able to trust your Web designer. Web sites can be complicated and so you often have to trust that your Web designer really is working in your best interest.

If they are looking after hosting Web site too then it becomes even more important.

I recently heard about a company that changed a customer’s hosting service and in the process lost all of the customer’s emails and contacts. The customer had been using the Web to access their email, so moving the server lost all their information. The reaction of the company was tough they should have been using Outlook.

A good Web designer should have checked this before moving the server and helping the customer to set up Outlook or backup their information in another way.

It’s hard to know if you can trust a Web designer, but the way they communicate can give you some idea. The best way to find out though is to have them recommended by somebody else. After that try talking to some of their current (or past) customers to find out their experience. It’s worth checking the Web designer’s site to see if they have any customer testimonials.

Tags: Choosing a Web designer, Small business Web sites

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 9:12 am and is filed under Small business Web sites.

Small business Web sites blog