When clients (both Church and business) approach me for a site, there are many questions asked on both sides. These range from the one everyone asks, ‘how much will it cost’ to some rather strange and sometimes rather random questions.
Now there’s a site that lists many of these types of questions.
Over at What Does a Website Cost?, the general answer is the old classic saying, ‘as long a piece of string’! (I love the design of this site as well as the function.)
It lists a number of user submitted questions/factors that are really about the function/use of the site rather than how much it would cost. This range from “Who will enter the site’s content” (simple but vital!) through to “Do you need automated eMarketing, such as cross selling emails or emails triggered on certain stages (e.g. an automatic email after order dispatch to request a facebook ‘like’)?” A great question, but something many of my clients simply wouldn’t understand.
As the web can be rather jargony, I often find I have to ‘de-tech’ questions to clients during the quotation process.
Many Church sites are full of jargon and don’t seem to know what they actually ‘want’ to do (it is a place that regular Church goers can find out when the next coffee morning is or an outreach site about what Christianity is all about?).
I first question I often ask clients is “what’s/who’s the site for?”. I think this is especially important for Church sites.
On the ‘money’ question, I quote each site on its own merit and can normally only give a quote price after the question process, especially Churches, where extra things like podcasting, etc. might be added.
Now, some questions for you!
#1 What are your top questions when you’re quoting?
#2 Do you have to ‘de-tech’ for clients and how does it go?
#3 What’s the strangest question a client has ever asked you?!
I think one of my strangest would be, “Will my [small business] website be on the Internet?”
[Image via Bob Smith]
Raoul Snyman says
I always ask what the aim of the site is, and if they say, “so that we have a web site” I tell them that they need to go back to the drawing board, because just having a site for the sake of having a site is not a good enough reason to have a site.
A site *has* to have a good, clear purpose. You can spot purposeless sites from a mile away. Those are the sites that were last updated 5 years ago, look like they were built 10 years ago, and just have this “dead” feeling about them.
Then people have this excuse, “but the web site isn’t a core focus,” to which I reply, “then why have a web site at all?”
Chris Ames says
Bingo.
Many people need a website about as badly as I need a badminton racket.