Work Come with References
In your experience as a web design professional, have you ever had a client ask for references? Were you prepared to give them?
Many times, we are so busy with focusing on our projects and the “right now” things, that we end up completely forgetting about other elements that could help attract more clients. One of these very important elements is developing a list of references from your past successful projects.
You may be thinking, “How do I approach my clients to get a reference?” Well, first of all, don’t wait until the last minute when you need them, get them immediately after a project concludes. Building a reference list is an on-going process.
When your current project is coming to its final stages is when you should initiate the conversation with the client about a reference, either in person, on the phone, or even in an email. It’s more preferable to use the in-person or phone approach. However, if you conduct most of your business through email, then email is definitely satisfactory.
More or less, the primary goal of the conversation is to see if your client is satisfied or not with your end results. Do they seem enthusiastic about the final result? Getting a good feel of their satisfaction will help you determine if they’d give a satisfactory reference.
Good ways to approach the conversation is to just ask, “How are you?” then proceed to follow-up with other non-related subjects like “How’s the weather?” After you’ve allowed some warming up time, you should then slowly dive into your clients feelings about your work.
With a bit of luck, the client should welcomingly address this topic without further prodding. Typically, we want to hear really great things about how our work was a success, but more importantly is getting an honest opinion. If they do share some not-so-happy remarks, thank them and use those comments to better your work.
After you’ve gotten their opinion, that’s when you decide on whether or not to ask them for a reference. They will probably ask you, “What kind of reference do you want?”
There are many solutions to this:
1. If you have a LinkedIn account, and you are connected to your client, ask for them to leave a reference there. Because LinkedIn is a social media network for professionals, it’s a good place to have references for other potential clients to see.
2. Get a testimonial. These can be posted on your website, blog or any other promotional and marketing materials. They should be brief and include their name, business and possibly a picture or logo.
3. If, for some reason, your client cannot provide a written reference, ask for a verbal one for in the future, if needed.
As the online world expands people and businesses alike are becoming more and more compalcent and relying on what they read through the online environment as fact.
This could not be further from the truth. If for example you are getting a website design sydney for your business and you go to a web design portal you are more than likely to view articles and information posted by web design companies which may or may not be entirely true.
Quite often these companies and I am not being industry specific here will try to promote their point of view and promote their business through these portals in a subtle way. The industry term is call’ white hat’. Many companies do this to try to sell hteir product or service through these protals and the end user should be extremely aware of these tactics.
With the proliferation of the internet and the incredible amount of new web design being posted online daily , the user is extremely spoilt for choice and can quite often be misled. In fact, having so much information can often lead to over load and the inability to make a decision. If you tend to go to industry specific websites that have information on your business then the best type of websites to go to are the sites that asre perhaps an association or a website that is Government related.
Many web design sydney are designed to lure you in and present a front of authority, and trust. One must really look beyond the bells n whistles and dig deep to find out if the information that is being presented is trustworthy and accurate
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