Talk about Deal

From CNN.com – The first waves of a tsunami from a massive earthquake in Chile have hit the Big Island of Hawaii, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

I’ve been tracking trends and looking deeper into the scenarios that make my company the most money. That’s why I wrote my previous articles regarding retainers, web cams and other such things that we do that keep our clients close to our sides.

So today I get this new customer’s mobile website built and launched. Immediately, I get an email that is copied to my client and me from their previous web developer pointing out “problems” with my mobile design (never do this… it only makes you look like a douchebag).

First, I used a free WordPress template… He pointed that out. Next, the site didn’t look right on an iPhone… he pointed that out. And lastly, he said he had the client’s best interest and put, for good measure, a link to the free WordPress template that I used in the email.

What he failed to realize is that I wasn’t done with the site. I still had tons of plugins to install and lots of coding and design to finish.

The site was launched on a .mobi domain and the client wanted an alternative site to send their visitors to if they were on a smart phone. Simple enough.

So after he copies me and my client on this “Ryan Kovach is exposed” email, I wrote him back, copied my client and asked him this question: If you are so good and had their best interest in mind “why does his site, that he designed for them, look like a Somoan Mountain Yak blew piss all over my computer screen and why does it have an Alexa ranking of 10,129,458?

Needless to say I didn’t get a response from him.

But what I did get was priceless. The client called, agreed that he was a total gonad and then wanted to know what an Alexa ranking was. I spent the next 30 minutes explaining Alexa, bookmarking sites, plugins, what a CMS is, what Google Analytics can tell a person, and on and on it went…

We laughed, we talked, we bonded and I educated an otherwise very technically limited person as to how lots of stuff works.

What I got out of it was a client who views me as a knowledgeable professional. I am now trusted. I am now valuable to her organization and so on.

Keep in mind this client paid very good money for me to set up a free WordPress template and turn it into a great mobile website. But she wasn’t phased by that. She admitted that she has no clue how to do any of that stuff and therefore whether it was a free template or not, she got what she wanted. She also ended up learning something out of the whole ordeal.

I learned something too. Clients want to be educated. They want you to include them in the process. They actually get giddy when you tell them techy stuff that they didn’t already know.

Don’t ever let a chance to educate your clients go to waste. Spend time with them. Teach them. They’ll never fully do what you do. But they will appreciate what you do more once they see what all goes into the process.

FYI: Now that the site is finished and after our ordeal today, the client, NOT ME, suggested that we work out some sort of retainer agreement so that she could have me by her side as needed. SCORE!

Here is the site I built using the free WP template: http://www.pompeo.mobi

Take a look at it on your browser, then on your iPhone or Blackberry or whatever smart phone you use.

The plugin I used to make it mobile ready is WPtouch. I like that plugin and all of my clients wanting a mobile site love it too. I hope this article helps you slow down, explain your services, educate your clients and land more business. Until next time!

_???

Santa Maria di Vitaleta in Estate

walking on the shells…

In the warm atlantic ocean…

resting…

El buey

96 Maison de Fée

my feet on the wet fluffy sand …

His Holiness Dagchen Rinpoche’s hand holds a vajra drawing lines that close the Hevajra Mandala, after the empowerment, Tharlam Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal

Tallin, Estonia – Toompea Castle

~ Night Light ~

fallimentare

~ Face to Face ~

Port of Long Beach at night

~ Beautiful Warning ~

Water thrust recoil (KDD)

I miss you

Los Angeles River of Lights