Developing a high quality, custom website is a challenging effort with a lot of moving parts.  In some cases the customer might have a good deal of work to do to complete the project.  In other cases the customer has some particular graphic requirements that might be difficult to articulate or for a designer to understand.  Customer frustration grows and the emotional elements of the relationship start to get strained.  In the end the website might be incredible but if the whole development process produced stress and frustration, the “emotionomics” of the arrangement aren’t so good and the customer leaves with some “emotional scars”. 

For those of us involved in the development of complex projects, we need to pay special attention to the customer’s experience.  We might be the best at what we do, but if the process we use to do what we do sucks for the customer, then that great product or service we deliver will be severely diminished if the whole experience was difficult emotionally on the customer.  The end result could be little repeat business and a poor reputation in the marketplace. 

Make sure your process works for your customers.  Teach/coach your employees and partners about how to interact with customers.  Pay special attention to how the process affects the emotional state of your customers.  If you can produce a great product or service, and the experience the customer has during the process is good, you will win in the end.

As much as I am impressed by the moxy of Donald Trump, I don’t normally watch shows like the Celebrity Apprentice. This season’s episodes caught my attention though because of how Poison’s lead singer Bret Michaels handled himself. Kind of a weird topic to bring up in a Web Development blog – perhaps, but I felt there was a lesson to be learned.

Bret went through a truly harrowing experience with the brain hemorrhage – as Trump pointed out, something like 50% of people don’t even make it to the hospital. So if you call that lucky, I guess Bret was lucky. The lesson through all this was unrelated to Bret’s illness or diabetes for that matter – rather, what I am referring to was how he presented himself throughout the show, how he treated others and how he progressed to ultimately win in the end. Bret ran what I feel was one of the best marketing campaigns I have seen in a while and in a very pure way, without even really being aware of it. He really had no gimmicks or outstanding project results – he was just being himself and “keeping it real”.

One crucially important point to this blog post is that Bret’s opponent in the finale, Holly, raised considerably more money than he did and was, on paper, a considerably more accomplished apprentice. Last year’s apprentice Joan Rivers even stated it Live on the TV in the 2010 finale – something along the lines of, yeah sure Holly is quite clearly the better apprentice here but if you vote from the heart and not the head, Bret should win. I imagine music sales for Poison have increased from Bret’s appearance on the show and I even found myself listening to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” on Pandora this morning. – All because Bret seems like a genuinely good guy, plain and simple.

So what’s the lesson out of all this? Well simply by being the best we can be, by being honest about our work and as straightup as possible people will come to trust and flat out like us more. Too often one can find oneself in circumstances where we don’t want to let the client know of some small issue or of certain limitations on a particular project because we feel that it is in some way unprofessional or that it shows weakness. I think Bret Michaels just taught us that in fact we can rise above all odds and shine when we try to be as transparent as possible. It’s OK to show some flaws as long as you show you are capable overall and willing to do the very best job you can do for the client. Above all else client’s appreciate honesty and often times when a client is badgering for answers on something or results they are in fact simply nervous themselves, perhaps getting pressure from above.

The moral of the story is that you don’t necessarily have to be the very best at what you do to be successful, you just have to do what it is that you do and do it to the best of your abilities. With honesty and integrity and treating others right you can win the gold!

PS: No – I’ll not be reviewing the finale of Lost next week .

David McKillen

On January 12 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. It’s easy to sit back and almost ignore the news reports. In most cases neither you nor people you know have been directly affected, however, as of this moment in time, estimates of the numbers killed in the Haitian earthquake range from 50,000 to 200,000. Did you know that’s about the population of Richmond, VA? It might be a cliche at this stage but even $1 can help and might be the difference in saving another Life. You can join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims and your donation will help disaster victims rebuild their lives and their communities.

There are however other ways you can help too if you don’t feel like helping financially. Google Crisis response is an application which you can embed in your website or in your blog to help other peoples to share any kind of information they have about the victims of Haiti disaster.

Use the following code snippet and put it in the text/HTML box widget.

• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts
• SMS text "GIVE10" to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief

There are times, however, when things just don’t go as planned in development.  This usually happens when the client says, “I hear your reasons for doing so and so, but I really want it this way instead.”  This could be anything:  eliminating key Calls to Action, wanting a Flash splash page, etc.  In these cases we make our best efforts to explain the advantages of doing what we propose.  In the end, however, if the client is insistent we will produce what they want even if it negatively impacts the overall quality and effectiveness of the website.

I’m interested in hearing the views of other web professionals and end users.  Do you feel the adage that “The client is always right” is correct?  The medical profession has the Hippocratic Oath, “Above all, do no harm.”  For us it is not a matter of life or death, but the reality is that some websites don’t fulfill their business potential due to clients’ insistence on something that to them is sexy or trendy.