Is Client Unreasonable or just Uneducated? 2

[BulldogBoy]

Here's my situation:

About 6 months ago I did a small job for a new client. She makes candies, jellies, and jams out of her home as a hobby, and wanted to try to sell some online. She had already been taken to the cleaners by another company that charged outrageous fees and simply took a Word document and published the html as her website. So, I charged her a very small fee to design a 3 page site and set up 2 products for her to sell through PayPal. That's all she wanted, and when I was finished she loved it, paid for the site, voluntarily paid for 1 year's hosting in advance, and was just as happy as she could be with the work. I didn't hear from her again...

...Until about 2 months ago, she calls me up out of the blue one day and just goes ballistic! She said that a couple of her friends went to the website and they didn't like it, so something had to be done! She couldn't have a website that people didn't like! "It doesn't Pop! It's not doing it for me! Something has to be done!" She just kept saying that over and over. Furthermore, she had only had one sale from the website, and that wasn't right! She wanted to know what I was going to do about it.

I promptly (but politely) gave her the FTP info, and suggested a few design software programs for her so that she could manage her own website as she saw fit. I told her that this would give her complete control over every aspect of her site, and completely remove me from it altogether. I also explained to her that I can not guarantee any sales from her website, and I have no control over whether people buy something off of it or not. Two days later she sends me an email stating that she's changed her mind, doesn't want to manage her own site, and would like for us to continue as we had been before (which was nothing but me hosting the site and email). I didn't hear from her again...

...until today, I get an email from her stating that she hasn't received ANY orders from her website, and she wants me to change it so that more people will buy stuff off of her site. Not hire me to make changes mind you, she wants me to "fix" the problem at no charge.

I'm beginning to think she is under the impression that it's my fault she's not getting any sales, and there is something I should do to change it. I keep explaining that I have no control over this, but it doesn't seem to sink in. I think she is of the mindset "if you build it, they will come (and hand you their money)", but this hasn't happened and it's somehow my fault. (She has excellent SE rankings, by the way)

I'm not exactly sure how to handle this situation without it getting ugly. I had thought about subtly suggesting that she read a website marketing book, does anyone know of a good book that explains "just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come"? I thought maybe if she read it somewhere else, she might understand it better.

Am I right in doing that? Is she being unreasonable, or does she just not understand? (or is she off her meds?)

Thanks!

 

[KornGeek]

How about a response along the lines of:

"I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been receiving sales from your website. Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgable enough about your products or particular industry to know what would bring in the sales. If you would like to put together some ideas for changes that you think would attract more business, I'd be more than happy to provide you an estimate for what it would take to implement these changes."

Be polite, be friendly, be respectful, and be patient. Whether she is unreasonable, ignorant, or in need of medication doesn't really matter. She is your customer and if you want to keep her business, you need to find a way to make her happy. This doesn't mean you have to do things for free. Just work with her to define and create the website of her dreams.

Remember, the ideal situation is for her to get lots of business, refer people to you, keep her site on your servers, and keep coming back to pay for more changes. This would make you both happy and thus should be your target.

 

[dgillz]

I totally disagree with the idea of solving her sales issues. You provided your customer with the technical expertise to set up (to their specs) and host the website and email.

This has ZERO to do with marketing.

You should explain to her that marketing the website has nothing to do with what she hired you to do, and steer her towards Google adsense, or some other marketing tool.

Also,let her know that this piece of advice is "free consulting". Ask her what her expectations were, and how she came to those expectations.

I disagree with KornGeek on one issue - there are customers that you need to walk away from. This may be one.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word"
--Dave Barry

 

[KornGeek]

dgillz,

In my post, I never said that he should solve her sales issue. I recommended explaining that he is not the right person to decide how best to market the product, but instead he makes himself available to do the work if she comes up with new ideas. I'm not recommending giving anything away.

There are customers that you need to walk away from (which is why I said "if you want to keep her business"), but I don't think this has escalated to a point where a mutually beneficial solution is out of reach.

 

[BulldogBoy]

Thanks guys! You have both made very good points! Both with the customer service issue and the marketing aspect (that I'm not responsible for).

Thanks!

 

[Stella740pl]

Design of the site and technical skills of the developer/designer do have an impact on the sales, so if a customer is not bent on some idea, not exactly sure what he/she needs and is flexible, an experienced developer/designer should probably make a few suggestions (at the point of working on specs, of course).

A relative of mine, whose spouse is making limited editions of some merchandize, told me that they opened a real store and an on-line store to sell the mentioned items. I visited the site. The first thing that I noticed were spelling errors all over the place. For example, a description of the items everywhere said something like "where this alone or with our item such-and-such". Say what? (I don't know whose error it was, but it sure wouldn't help the sales.)

Navigation of the site was kind of confusing - after I got to the page 7 of the items list and clicked an item to get more detail, then back, I got to the page 1 of the said list. Would I want to go back to the page 7 to see the rest of the merchandize on pages 7, 8 and 9 (especially if I didn't bother to remember what page I was on)? Or, sometimes, the colors are so heavy (or fonts so tiny), they make your eyes hurt, and drive you right out of the site.

But those are just examples.

At this point, I would go with KornGeek's reply, and see what comes out of it. If she is willing to discuss paid changes, you can agree to some changes for free, too, as a part of "fixing it" - say, if the colors, fonts, general design was specified before, and done to her specs, you should be paid to work on that again. But spelling errors (I hope there are none), navigation problems, etc., should be considered "fixes" and done for free - you should know yourself where to draw the line between the two.

Also, suggest her to consult a marketing professional on what should be done to improve sales before she starts working with you on the specs.

I also think that a mutually beneficial solution is still possible, but every solution, every step should be agreed on, documented and signed.

 

[burtsbees]

Perhaps she should advertise by another means...like, um...Ebay???

Burt

 

[audiopro]

Would you personally buy any of the products at the prices advertised?
There are many reasons why web sales do not take off

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[GlenJohnson]

Perhaps she should advertise by another means...like, um...Ebay???

almost hit on it, but nobody has quite made the point yet. You can develop the WORLDS GREATEST website, but if you didn't advertise so people know they needed to visit the site, how are they going to know it exists? If you build it they will come was a good movie, but it makes for a lousy website. Ask the customer what they have been doing to push the site. Just a thought.

Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting

 

[Dollie]

There are also online small-biz incubators (as well as offline/real-world) that the 'business-person' can go to for help with learning how to market the product and act like what they are doing is a real business. This helps educate the business person, and helps them keep website design separate from marketing.

Unfortunately, it appears this person needs more help than just marketing.

 

[kmcferrin]

The hardest part will be explaining it to her.

If you were to open up a store on a street somewhere, you would probably get more sales than from your web site. Why? Because by virtue of being on a street you will have people walking and driving past. As long as they can determine what it is that you're selling from the street, you will most likely get *SOME* customers.

Having a web site is different. Yes, they are inexpensive and easy to set up, but most web sites are the equivalent of setting up shop in a clearing in the middle of a large forest with no paths or roads in or out. The only way that you're going to get customers is if you build the roads, and on the Internet those roads are links.

That's where the Internet marketing people come in. You can submit the site to search engines. You can buy Google AdSense words. You can create a tagline that links to your store and post in forums related to what you're selling. All of these things will generate links to your web site which will make people more likely to find it. But that's just step one.

Now that you've built the roads, you've got to get the sales. If you have a great product then the product may speak for itself. But for most web sites all you can present to your customers is a picture of the product and a description. So you have to put extra effort into making the picture and description convey the benefits and qualities of your product. You also need a professional looking web site. If your site looks like a fly-by-nite operation, then you will likely get fewer sales than it would if it was sharp and professional. Finally, you have to make the sale easy. If you have a convoluted checkout/payment process, if you are a slow shipper, etc, then you will probably have problems.

There's a lot more to running an online business than just putting a site up there. On the bright side though, just about everything that is put on the web sticks around. That means that the longer the site is up, and the more links that there are to the site, the more likely people are to find the site and buy from it.

Is this customer unreasonable or just uneducated? Well, I'd definitely go with uneducated, and possibly unreasonable, but only time will tell. Welcome to the magic of the Internets.

 

[jaymaechtlen]

If you do websites and hosting, you should also have promotional knowhow "available"- someone you can recommend to help clients advertise and market their products and services.

Of course, most of that needs to be fee-based.
But it would be really helpful to be able to tel anyone with a sales-oriented site what they need and who can provide it for them!