I recently built a small website for a private customer which represented about three days work over a week or so. The customer (also a friend) had mentioned he wanted a website quite a few months earlier however after a few follow-ups he told he had put the project on hold. From our conversations I found out that he had given the job to another supplier some months earlier (who had quoted a cheaper price) and was embarrassed to withdraw it from him, as they were close friends.
Finally out of frustration he, lets call him Geoff, came to me and said he was sick of waiting as he had not had any positive feedback from his friend on when he might finish. I agreed to take on the project and got to work straight away. Although I had another important project underway I finished Geoff’s job in about ten days.
After I had finished the job I coincidentally I met the other supplier for the job at a social event and on discussing building websites in general (a common interest) he mentioned Geoff and said “I have had a job sitting around for a year perhaps you should take it as I and my website techie guy are a bit busy”. He went on and said with a smirk ‘I’m sure if you do it within a year Geoff will be happy. I found this attitude appalling and I know the supplier had actually had plenty of time to get the job done much earlier.
I had also used the other supplier for some creative work and printing some time in the past. My treatment was the same; he promised a lot and delivered very little. In the process he managed to insult me by telling me my existing printed material that his designs would be replacing was rubbish. Unbeknown to him I had designed the existing material myself. Now rubbish or not I still felt insulted.
So if we are looking t advance our career or just work effectively what are the lessons.
1. If you agree to take on a task get on with it with some sense of urgency.
2. “Bullshit may baffle brains” as the old saying goes however not for long.
3. Respect your customer’s let them know where you up to during a job’s progress.
4. Don’t take on work you can’t handle, as your inability to perform will destroy your credibility.
5. The cheapest quote is not always the best quote.
6. Your reputation is important and your slowness to act will always be publicized to others and can destroy your market and your brand, particularly your personal brand
7. Never scoff at the current work or product of your customer because you never know the history of how it got to be what it was or how attached they are to what they have.
Whether you are an employee or an independent contractor the old rule still stands, if you want to be seen as effective “say what you will do ad do it and say what you won’t do and don’t do it.
I am sure there are other lessons that can be drawn from this situation and hopefully you can add a comment to express your similar experiences and the lessons that those experiences teach.
1 comment
David Quaid says:
October 8, 2011 at 10:37 am (UTC 0)
So true Richard. I spent 12 years in Web design (1996-2008) before moving to focus on Internet Marketing, and everything you’ve said there resonates so well.
One thing I’ve always noticed is that for some reason, when people start the website procurement process, they suddenly start acting like consumers, which is a false economy, and almost a form of neoteny.
Firstly, they assume that websites are a product rather than a culmination of strategy and service. Secondly, they assume they’re covered by the same laws that protect consumers when they buy a flat screen and are entitled to scope creep!
I say neoteny, not to be funny but rather to draw a comparison that rather than sit down with a number of people they respect and engage with them, they look at a figure on a quotation that often has no correlation with what they’re buying.
Prices for websites are often determined by: how busy I am, how opportunistic is this project, how annoying will the client be, how much fun could this be, will this improve my porftolio, is it exciting and what way is the wind blowing…