Is The Boss or The Customers Right?

Thinking that the boss makes 10 of their customers isn’t rational. Accepting the fact that the boss is right because he’s the client, the one paying you to do your work or worst, one of the customers..you’re just plain selfish.

Too many small-medium website design firms today aren’t doing work for the clients customers but for the client or the boss themselves. Whatever the boss wants they give and whatever the boss thinks is right, they nod their heads like agreeing robots. What a bunch of employees.

I’m not asking you to argue with the boss but have you ever sat down and thought about all your clients and their projects that are finished. Have you asked yourself how many of your clients really knew about their customers from a website customers perspective? Or did you assume the way people use the website is like a shoplot where you enter the office and wait to speak to the boss?

The corporate website isn’t the boss but the company itself even if the boss is the one who owns the company. A corporate website doesn’t have a secretary or receptionist who’s programmed at times to serve you a drink while you wait. The corporate website on the Internet is a whole different experience than sitting someone on the couch.

The corporate website is the online information hub for the boss’s company and his customers are there to find out more about their products or services. If the customer is impressed with the product or service then the next call to action would be to contact the company.

However, have you ever had a project where you designed and developed the website according to the boss’s preference and not the needs of their customers? Have you tried asking your customers if they’ve problems accomplishing something on your website?

Take this one as an example – I know I’m making a big mistake but what the heck. I’ve a portfolio up here but one client has described the problem about finding it. I know that the other problem is I’ve only a contact form in the portfolio website and not one here. This is to say that this template design isn’t working well enough for me (please don’t hammer me.)

I’ve seen and heard bosses demanding things that put their own customers in a predicament just to fulfill their selfish wants. If the boss said that they want a full Flash website (you don’t recommend a low-bandwidth static website alternative) and you gave it to them without considering load times or other pesonas some customers might have, you’re not helping out their customers but just yourself.

I’ve always believed that the corporate website should be something easily accessible and depending on the business of the boss, the stuff that you want to have on it must be relevant, of use to their customers or giving them more value of visiting the corporate website, and easy to find.

An entry about the importance of landing pages and what I’ve tried to do in improving the Project Petaling Street homepage is in the archives.

I’d like to discuss on a few local website design company’s homepage in the next post so please list them int he comments which you’d like to read about later.

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