Okay... so it seems like we've hit our first official hiccup in this project. In the past, I can at least attribute the screw up or misunderstanding to one thing or another; this time I am completely baffled. Our designer, the one who delivered great layouts (that I will post about soon), the one who turned those layouts into compliant HTML, the one who has AMAZED us with his creativity... has now gone MIA for the last 5 days. The weird thing is, the only thing left to deliver from our short and sweet project is the CSS code and the only thing we're asking for are status updates. In theory, this should be the easiest portion of the project since there is quick way to determine from the code what's right and wrong.
I really don't get it. I thought he would finish on time, we would pay him, life would be great and down the road I would refer him other business. The designer has been very impressive thus far with his creativity but more recently became a pain to manage as the project heads towards the end. Where did the communication break down? I'm not really sure... My guess is maybe he's hit a bump in the development and are now avoiding us. Either way, if we don't get what we need soon, we will have to look elsewhere, which will suck for everyone involved.
For those of you running your own freelance gigs or running your company, the following are the top 4 ways to DESTROY a working relationship (from the perspective of your customers.)
1. Over promise, under deliver. (Timeliness) I've actually had a few projects I outsourced in the past that have come back perfect to spec and gave me exactly (or more than) what I wanted. What separated those would-be perfect feedback from the average ones I gave were the false expectations set by the bidder when the project was posted. Now, I understand in order to bid for the project, you may need to make your bid more attractive; however, over promising and under delivering will leave a sour taste in your client's mouth no matter how creative or technical you are. As it stands, I've already set myself up and padded the delivery date by 2 or 3 times the desired date to meet my own expectation. However, if you tell me you can meet a certain date and then miss it; that's just really poor business. If the technologists can be more honest about these due dates and/or services that are provided, the world would be a better place.
2. Communication, or lack there of... This is probably by far my biggest pet peeve when it comes to working remotely with a virtual team. If nothing else, communication is the KEY thing companies NEED to keep wide open and free flowing; especially when working remotely. (See in the picture above how Guru.com has ratings available for Communication on both sides of the gig? It is THAT important!) Why do you think there are so many tools out there that focuses on improving communication? Phones, email, cell phones, SMS, AIM, Skype, twitter, iChat, G-talk, video conferencing, so on and so on. Your customers 3. Professionalism. Now I'll admit, I've worked with some amazing college students and even more amazing high school kids. The talent out there that gets computer programming and the whole "dot com" businesses are plenty. What makes you better than them or vice versa? Simple, professionalism. One would assume a freelancer would have more professionalism than a kid or that someone who runs a business would have more professionalism over a part-time freelancer. Are they right? No, not always, but the impression of professionalism helps when you want to win clients.
I remember sending some RFP's (request for proposals) awhile back and getting a few well written responses back. No, not all of them were good, but that's beside the point. During the same RFP process, I also remember this one guy who didn't really read the requirements but wrote back anyway giving me his standard copy-and-paste pitch. I told him "No thanks. You simply don't meet the level of service we're used to dealing with." Once he got my email and email address, he then proceeded to contact me via G-talk to try to close the deal. As if that wasn't annoying enough, he didn't even pay attention during the chat!!! Seriously? You're going to contact me after getting rejected, start a conversation then make ME wait for a chat response while you get up to get an apple or whatever the @#$@! you're doing? I'd honestly be surprised if that guy ever got any business from those methods.
P.S. - No matter how cool you think you are, don't IM me until we've established a working relationship; that is just not cool.
4. Technical Expertise For small projects that doesn't have the luxury of a large budget and/or development research time, please don't BID on it if you don't know how to do it. Bidding for the sake of bidding is stupid and it will lead to more bad than good especially if you're a small business starting up. If you don't have the technical expertise on staff, let the opportunity go to someone else who does. Ultimately, you want clients who require technology you're comfortable with and in turn, will refer you to other people knowing you are a pro at what you do. If you are new to something and don't have a great grasp of it yet, don't waste both of our time. What will end up happening is you will mess it up, then probably violate a few of the other points mentioned above due to the lack of technical expertise which will lead you to shame, anxiety (for both parties), and a bad rep for your business.
On the flip side, if you work on things you already know intimately, you'll be able to enjoy referrals from your other customers who also love your work. Isn't that what you ultimately want? ...To be able to work on your business and your core skills instead of spending day and night attracting new customers? Finding new clients is hard work and it's costly!!!
Think about it and don't make the above mistakes.
edit: Are any of your xhtml gurus or can you refer us to those who can convert design to compliant code for cheap in case our design is really MIA?
No comments:
Post a Comment