Here we have answered most of the questions our prospective clients ask of us before commissioning a project. As we would say to any new client, it would be worth reading through this to familiarise yourself with the way we conduct our business.
Q) What sizes of website do you usually build? Do you also work for small businesses?
A) We're very flexible on the sizes of project we work on and enjoy the variety. we build small websites for local businesses (such as shops, bed&breakfasts, tradespersons and so forth) but we also build very large projects for universities, government departments and multi-national PLC's.
Q) Do you mind where your clients are based or do you work only locally?
A) Our clients are spread across England and Wales and we are prepared to travel all over the country as part of our work. We have a particularly large concentration of clients in Chester and North Wales as this is where we are based. We also have a large concentration in Oxford and London.
Q) Will you work with us to provide websites for our own clients?
A) Yes - in fact we try to encourage this arrangement as it always works so well. We are happy to work seamlessly with our clients as a member of the team and under their own brand. We will quote for our portion of the project but how this is marked up and passed on we're not concerned with. We are happy to attend meetings alongside our clients and even carry business cards branded to their company.
We work with a number of design and marketing agencies who choose to use us as their web developer rather than employ dedicated staff. This pay-as-you-go arrangement removes the risks associated with staff employment and with our costs simply marked up as required, the project profit is clear and straightforward.
Q) Will you work to visuals we supply to you or will you produce your own?
A) This depends on the project. Sometimes for larger projects, our client's own design team will produce the visual concepts and we will work to them. Where a designer is not available we will produce the visuals according to your requirements.
Q) How much is a website likely to cost?
A) In the vast majority of cases we will quote a fixed cost based on our hourly rate once the project specification has been agreed. Additional requests or changes during development will involve an extra charge, as will any expenses incurred.
Very small websites can be assembled in just a few hours, though larger websites obviously take longer.
Q) Are you expensive? There are companies out there providing free or nearly-free websites, how do you compare with them?
A) We believe we represent excellent value for money, and continuing business from our clients year after year confirms this.
Our clients know that for their business to stand proud next to their competitors and be taken seriously by their own customers, their public facing image has got to be right and the website is absolutely fundamental to this.
Free or super-cheap websites are available by some outfits but they are computer generated and not hand-made especially for the client, like ours are. They look cheap and lack attention to branding and support is usually non-existent too - you do get what you pay for.
We've no intention of competing at this bottom end of the market. Our clients come to us because they know their website has to be right and they want a professional, experienced and committed team behind it who'll achieve this.
Q) Do you ever turn projects down?
A) Yes sometimes. If we feel from the outset that we're not right for the project we will say so and try to recommend someone who is. We'd far rather not take something on if we're not confident the results will be spot on. However, this is rare.
We may also turn a project down if we're just too busy.
Q) Is the price you quote exactly what we will have to pay?
A) Yes, with two exceptions:
This first of which is that whilst working on a project we maintain a timesheet for adding new features that were not part of the original specification and quote. Also onto this timesheet will go any time spent doing things twice or more. For instance if we insert a number of photographs onto the website as supplied to us, and then at a later stage it is decided to commission a new set of photographs, we will have to insert the new ones to replace the old ones. As we've had to do it twice, we will add this time to the timesheet. Similarly text should be supplied to us in a final, proof-read state as replacing text already inserted will incur extra time.
The second exception is an expenses account, should any be incurred. This is simply to cover any basic costs incurred to us as part of the project. For instance, if we're asked to travel to London to work on a client's server (where this wasn't part of the original quote), we will add our travelling expenses to the expenses account. Likewise should we have to purchase any software for you, or stock photography, we will pass on the cost on the expenses account.
Q) Do you request the project payment up front?
A) No, but we do require a 50% deposit for smaller projects or 33% / 25% deposits for very large projects. We do insist on settlement of the deposit before any development work proceeds. The purpose of the deposit is partly to bankroll the development but also to prove the prospective clients commitment to the project.
Q) Do you expect the project balance on completion?
A) Yes we do, as a rule we will demo a completed website to the client but won't put it live until the balance has been settled. This has come about from frequent lengthy settlement delays and we now have to insist on this to protect ourselves.
Q) Why don't you have an email address or postal address on your website?
A) We've had issues in the past with automated 'address harvesters' scanning our website and placing our email address and postal address into mailing list databases, resulting in considerable volumes of junk-mail. We've taken the decision to remove our postal address and email address from our website for that reason, though of course we'll provide you with both if you phone and ask for them. The contact form on the contact page will send us an email directly from this website.
