So you’re looking for a great design firm to create and maintain your ecommerce or business website. With this process, there are many questions that should be discussed with prospective firms or individuals. These are the questions that will help you determine the ideal fit between your company or start-up and a web strategy and design firm. The following questions will get you on the right start on your search, so ask away!
Questions you should ask a potential web strategy/development consultant:
1) How would you solve our problems?: Clearly, if you are shopping around you are at least a little bit dissatisfied with what you have so far. Airing these grievances with a potential web firm will help them tell you what they can offer you, and how much it would cost.
2) Will my work stay in house or will it be Fractional?: Some firms are unable to do everything in-house. Asking this question will help you get an idea of the bigger picture and exactly what you’re getting and from whom you are getting it.
3) Who is creating content for the site?: Figure out if you need to generate more content or new content BEFORE you take your site live. If you already have a lot of content and just need a site audit, tell the firm you’re interviewing. Content should really be generated before you take the site live, but this is not always possible. It’s important to know how much of a time commitment your company or you will have to make.
4) Find out about how User Experience will be handled: This is especially important when you are creating an ecommerce site. Look at what the firm or designer has done before and see if they are good about following up with customer concerns and making their interfaces customer friendly. It’s important to research past websites and even see if you can get some reviews on the company.
5) Who is spearheading the project?: Make sure that the project leader knows what is going on and seems confident enough to makes sure all aspects are coordinated and finished.
Questions your potential web design and strategy firm should be asking YOU:
1) What are the problems with your already existing website?: A prospective web developer needs to get a feel for your site and what your goals are for it, before they can start designing and strategizing.
2) What is your niche? How do you differ from your competitors? What do you sell? What is your company dogma and feel?: These are important not only for content but also for developing a social media campaign, SEO descriptors and the feel and design of your website.
3) Who is your customer?: Bring demographic and precise information about your customer base to the table. This is incredibly helpful particularly with any site requiring ecommerce or social media.
4) Where are you along the process? Where do you want to be?: As with any project, there needs to be a goal in sight. Do you aspire to be the next big site like Target or Wal-mart, do you want an edgy feel like Sony or ESPN or do you want something more organic like American Apparel or Etsy.com?
5) What is the budget you are working with and who is your representative?: Knowing what kind of budget you are looking at will keep a company from selling you something you may not be able to have. No one likes to be disappointed.
We hope that this research summary will help with your search for a web design strategy firm.
For any questions regarding choosing the perfect fit for your web strategy, or any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at WebConnection.