This guide outlines the crucial factors you should consider when choosing a web design agency for your business.
What to look for in a ‘good’ web design agency
First of all, you need to figure out what ‘good’ means to you or your company. Understand what’s most important to your company before hiring a web design agency and developer. It’s very easy to just jump in when you know a design project needs to happen to try to find something that is ranked as best or highest, but if you don’t know what success looks like to you, then even finding the highest ranked web design agency isn’t always going to serve you well. If I were hiring a web design agency myself, based on what I care about as a person, and a business leader, I’d consider the following factors:
- Will the website design company ACTUALLY do what they say they will do.
- Are they likely to over communicate rather than under communicate – It’s important to really stay informed along the way so you know your web design project is in good hands and you know what’s going on. Oftentimes, if details are not properly communicated it can cause issues and disrupt a launch date because something has to be fixed.
- Consider their online reviews and testimonials – If I found a web design shop that meets these three things, but had a two star ranking on some trusted review platform (Google, Yelp, or Clutch to name a few), I would be really hesitant to hire them.
- Think about their differentiators – So many web design agencies do things the same way. Consider their differentiators and decide what’s good for you. Your project is going to depend a lot on your values and what you want the experience to be like.
- Consider their “web side” manner – If one agency is going to drag you through Hell and the other one is going to really hold your hand and make sure that they take as little of your time as possible because they really have their stuff together. Wouldn’t you rather pay a little bit more or even twice as much for the great experience? Most people do. Ultimately, working with a web design firm that makes the experience horrible for you, will cost you more money because it means you’re being less productive when you’re stuck arguing and revising a bad web design team.
Importance of hiring a web design agency that stays on schedule
It’s important to find a website design agency that respects launch dates because oftentimes marketing and product rollouts can depend on the web development team’s punctuality and a lot of money can be lost due to a late launch.
Unfortunately, the website design and development industry is known for missing deadlines. Similar to the general contractor space – when you want a remodel done on your house or bathroom and you hire a general contractor – the common practice is to take whatever timeline the general contractor told you, and then multiply it by three, just so you’re not surprised and disappointed. This problem is also seen in the web development space – not because agencies don’t respect timelines, but because it’s VERY easy to misjudge the time needed to complete work. There’s a lot of variables that can go into a website redesign that can spin your timeline off-track.
A good experienced web design agency with proven processes in place is key to staying on schedule. Based on our experience, as a Dallas web design agency, we’ve been able to figure out a process that works for staying on schedule. Typically, poor processes and inexperience are the largest issues with web developers missing deadlines.
To better prevent missed launch times, make sure your new web design agency or developer will set a launch deadline within the scope of work agreement.
So how do you best find a web design agency that will stay on schedule?
I wish there was a formula for this! You should ask the agencies in your interview questions like…
- What happens when you miss a deadline? What would I get?
- What guarantee do you have in place that you will do what you say?
These are very direct questions, but fair. Any answer is better than no answer because it means that the agency has thought about it as something they want to avoid.
Know that everybody makes mistakes – you’re NOT going to find the perfect vendor because there’s no such thing as perfect people, but when a project goes off the rails, at least you will have faith that your web design professional will be able to quickly get back on track because you’ve already negotiated the circumstances with them ahead of time.
If you’re in a bad relationship with your current agency, or maybe the project is WAY off the rails, what do you do?
I would tell you to RUN. Cut your losses and run and I mean it because we have heard of countless examples of our clients that try to patch the relationship with their old agency or try to coach their vendors on how to be better, and it never works. If you’re having a bad experience with your web design agency, it usually also means that the actual website you were delivered is also causing issues – now and down the road.
It’s kind of like “when it rains it pours” or “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” You should run from your bad web design team because it’s going to cost more and more and more money the longer you wait to find the right partner.
If you are having a hard time making a decision about firing a bad developer, just ask yourself the simple question, “would my boss be happy?” (and if you are the boss, pretend you have a split personality). Would my boss be happy knowing that I was burning company money, wasting my own time, by hiring someone who’s not delivering when I already know that it’s not a good match?
Wouldn’t they rather you move on because you can’t you can’t recuperate the cost that has already been paid? It’s gone. In economics they call it a “sunk cost” because it’s no longer logical to consider that cost for your future investment in the project. Not to mention, you’re likely killing the morale of your team who has to interact with your crappy web design firm. Some could argue that this is worth way more than whatever you lost on a bad project.
Need more advice on this? Here’s a helpful article that gives you 5 reasons you might want to dump your website design agency.
About the Author: Torre Capistran, founder and Lead Web Designer of Dallas-based Hooked on Code Website Design Agency. Proudly a women owned and operated website design agency, her web design team has never missed a launch date and have developed efficient in-house processes that typically saves their clients 75% MORE time and money when compared to competitors. With a happiness guarantee to back up their work, you won’t be disappointed. Visit www.hookedoncode.com to learn more.
