Every business and organization requires an online identity today to make a strong stand against its competitors. Further, individuals are also getting their own websites developed for either personal or business purposes.
Let me tell you a short story about one such individual named Charlie who owns a small business in New York and required a website for his business. Now this is a very common story and could happen to anyone (anyone who is careless enough to spend thousands of dollars without proper research) so try not to be too judgmental.
Well, Charlie knows a few things about internet and immediately starts a Google search where he finds some very promising prospects. He also finds an offshore web development company which is offering a gold package under which all his requirements are covered.
Whatever he wants for his website is being offered in this package. Further, the price is so low that it would cost him even less than half of what other any development company would charge.
Charlie is a little cautious therefore he goes through their whole website and he finds it attractive. Then he navigates to the portfolio section and finds some very attractive websites developed by the company. He likes them so much that he finalizes them for the project. He fills in his credit card details and buys the gold package.
Charlie is always very serious regarding his work therefore he immediately starts creating a proper written documentation of what he wants in his website along with the content that should go on the site. The company only communicates through email therefore he had no other choice but to just send it via email.
After sending the mail containing his ideas for the design and the content he starts waiting for the reply from the service provider.
After one week, he is still waiting for any communication from them. Finally, after more than two weeks he receives a reply from the service provider in which he is told that his website is done. He also receives a box shaped website template containing all his content. There is no customization and apart from the content everything else on the template is similar to those thousands of websites that Charlie used to see in the early 2000s.
Charlie is not very happy and contacts the web development company. They tell him to upgrade his package if he wants to make his website look better. They also have a diamond package which is much more expensive than the gold package and all the websites in portfolio were from this package. His problems do not end here as it also turns out that he is required to pay a high monthly hosting charge if he wants to keep the website online. Further, he cannot make any changes in the website on his own and it’s necessary to use the service provider in order to make any changes.
Charlie finally realizes that he has wasted both his time and money. He starts wondering what he did wrong and what could he have done to save all the time, money and receive a great website.
First of all, Charlie should have done a much thorough research and analysis before he chooses a service provider to outsource web development requirements. He should have asked a lot of questions and verified them. Questions about quality, number of revisions, choice of hosting, maintenance etc should have been asked. Moreover, phone numbers of some of the previous clients should also have been taken by Charlie.
Secondly, a client is never expected to make more than 50% deposit. While it is very unlikely that any reputed service provider will accept less than that but anyone demanding 75% to 100% of the total cost should be suspected.
Thirdly, proper research would have revealed it that Charlie had to make sure that the service provider signed a contract with him. He should have found another developer if there was no formal contract.
Lastly but not the least, Charlie should not have based his decision on the cost factor. Good services always cost more and if you find someone offering them at very low prices then it is a signal to check the service provider more closely and thoroughly.
