Making the Sales, Customers Aren't Following Through

One thing that has long been the bane of salespeople is "Buyer's Remorse." It's the phenomenon wherein a person has bought something and then starts thinking about what other ways the money spent could have been used. Return departments experience this every day.

One way I have learned to combat this is to IMMEDIATELY give the customer some part of the service he has stated he wants. In your case, I would immediately put up a basic website on my server that does not yet have the DNS pointed to it. I would CALL the customer and show them the work you have done. Then I would set up a PERSONAL interview to fill out the checklist. I would never leave it up to customer to take time out of their day to fill out something. I would however ask for an appointment time whether via chat, phone or in person (preferably in person) to document the customer's needs and wants. Making every element of your business personal will, in my opinion, set you above the rest.

I have worked with a number of companies who have absolutely NOTHING good to say about website designers. The complaints are always the same: The designer charged a fortune; The designer took months to build the site; The designer wouldn't listen to what I wanted; The designer rarely answered my emails or phone calls and took forever to get me an answer once I actually made contact.

People want personalized service. Period. I have long believed that a company that is not customer oriented is doomed to fail.

Just my .02 pesos, but I hope you found it useful.

Respectfully,

Shawn

I've had this problem too. It's one of the reasons I hate doing websites, it's just a big pain in the butt. While I think IdeaFool has good thoughts, they just are not economical. A personal interview, I think not. It costs you too much of your valuable time that should be used for site building. Or, simply build in the cost of a face to face, but that makes your bid too high I suspect.

Personally, I'd place the onus on the client to get this done. Build a contract that specifies response time frames and time lines. It takes effort and expense to get the process going and a wire frame together. If you sit around for weeks or months it takes time to get going again, which is money out of your pocket. I would place a restart penalty in the contract so your time is paid for.

Yeah, I know this isn't really great customer service. But a smooth flow of give and take is critical for getting a well done site completed and if the client drags it out let them pay for it. Great customer service is everyone's suggestion, but I will tell you this, no one wants to pay for it so protect yourself and keep good records of what goes on.

Don't send the checklist. Get the answers by phone when you rec the downpmt.

I must respectfully disagree with redlegrich. Losing the sale is not economical; doing what is necessary, within reason, to keep the sale and make income is most certainly economical. Regarding the time involved to conduct an interview and walk the customer through the checklist, how much time is KnowJack spending trying to save the sale by attempting to contact the wayward customer? If one has to spend an extra hour to save the sale, is not the cost/benefit in one's favor.

And I must strenuously disagree with redlegrich's contention that "no one wants to pay for [customer service.]" I have found that the average consumer will absolutely pay for better customer service. A case in point is Harrods of London. When you buy a suit there, not only will you be treated to drinks and snacks, but your shoes will be shined, and you are treated extremely well.

Often web design is expensive (too expensive, in my opinion), and the more a person pays, the more service they expect. And, if the level of service goes above and beyond what the customer expects, the chance for great reviews, word-of-mouth, and testimonials skyrockets. I, for one, absolutely require stellar customer service from everyone with whom I do business. I am required to give great customer service, and, therefore, I expect it. If I don't receive it, you can bet that not only will I let my displeasure known, but I will also not do business with that establishment again.

I am not advocating "giving away the shop" to the customer when offering service, but a little more than just sending a checklist and hoping the customer gets back with you may be in order. If spending an hour to walk a customer through this checklist (and increasing the chances of locking in that customer, btw) is "not economical," then perhaps paying someone on fiverr $5 to do it would not wreck the bid price.

I'm just passing along my experience. Most business owners with whom I have contact absolutely cannot stand web designers. The reason for this comes down to one thing: Poor Customer Service. As I stated above, the business owner paid a LOT of money and received horrible turnaround times and abysmal, if not non-existent, communications.

I firmly believe that a full-service (and I emphasize "service") web design firm could slaughter its competition and command a higher price-per-service simply by treating its customers with the utmost respect. The competition, unfortunately for them, often value their time over that of their customer's and believe that spending the time necessary to provide excellent service is not economical.

I think either having the checklist ready in case they do make the down payment woul help. That way you can get the info you need asap. It also shows you're ready to work and mean business.

Or, you can set up another face to face meeting when the down payment is made.

Jerry

What the hell is in your checklist?

I'm surprised that no one else has actually asked this. I couldn't even begin to tell you what is turning them off unless I knew the before sale discussion and after sale checklist.

This is not uncommon, and what makes web design a pain in the butt as said above. Bottom line don't sweat it, move on to serious clients.

You can try a project schedule to control the timeline and outcome, but if there is no pain (loss of money) they may delay or disappear.

Cover yourself in the contract, the deposit and timeline. Add that final payment is due in 30 days or when the site goes live, whichever occurs first (meaning you get paid whether they follow through or not, or you have legal grounds to collect).

Look for ways to solve their pain, and offer it when and where needed.

I don't use contracts for web design. Here's how I do it:

- 50% down to start
- I do the site on a development site
- When all is said and done, I bill the remaining 50%
- Then I move the site to the clients server

I communicate with clients as much as possible. If it gets to the point where the client doesn't engage, I just leave everything as is and move on until they contact me.

When they contact me I move on with their site as planned. So far it's always worked out for the client and myself.

One of the greatest sales techniques I ever studied (offline) was that of asking the buying questions all throughout the initial interview - by the time the client signed on the dotted line, you had ALL the info you needed.

Incorporate the checklist into your discussions - you put the rest together.