A client of any software company is usually puzzled with two, but very important questions: HOW MUCH does a website cost and WHEN it’s ready for use. These worries seem obvious since the client wants to estimate time required for the developed website to start paying for itself. But does the customer want to hear the answer, which most likely will not suit him? Let’s clarify the potential troubles in interaction between customer and software service provider.
Pit Stop
Imagine you are going to buy a car. Everybody knows that car price may vary from 5,000 to 1 million dollars, and no one is surprised by such a difference. Everyone knows also that a car with four wheels, engine, cabin and other stuff is not equally priced as the other one with the same standard car features. The used, new and rarity cars, vehicles of various quality made by various manufacturers are quite different.
Coming into the car salon, a buyer is trying to fit in certain budget or to meet his needs by picking a vehicle he’s willing to pay for. At the same time, while having money for a modest Jianghan Alto, he doesn’t expect to become a proud owner of Mercedes or Jaguar. Then why a client by asking about the cost of the website often wants to buy a “Jaguar” at a price of Chinese small car? The answer might be as follows: such customer sees no particular product with a clear price tag which apparently leads him to misguided perception of website cost.
Labyrinth Exit
By comparing a website development process with the car production, firstly you need to formulate specifications or precise requirements for what is to come off the assembly line. And here, on the phase of initial contact, the customer and software service provider may get into “Bermuda Triangle”:
a) the provider doesn’t announce the price before he understands a work scope;
b) the client wants to know the price without knowing what he exactly wants, and therefore
c) he doesn’t formulate his wishes (read – a work scope) before the provider announces his price.
A vicious circle, right? So, to find the exit just follow our practical advices for potential clients of software providers.
- Target audience: who the website is created for. It will be much easier for provider to take your idea and offer some new approaches as he has the image of your website’s potential user. Ideally, one should try to portrait a future user to foresee what he / she could appreciate and like. We think it’s not worth to be explained that the news site and cooking portal are completely different both externally and functionally.
- Detailed functions description: very detailed. Often customers don’t fully understand the difference between the same web modules. You might be surprised by variety of association with the word “table”, since the appearance of any table depends on its functional identity. Therefore, the abstract title of a module / function needs to be described with as much details to clarify your main purpose and ways for it to be achieved. Otherwise you will operate the patients on a coffee table.
- Technical solution: trust the professionals. Even if someone has suggested you to use a ready-made CMS or a script, do not insist on implementation of this particular solution. Any doctor says a self-medication may be dangerous to your health, so let your provider (read – technology doctor) offer a professional receipt. Would you pay medical insurance to ignore doctor’s examination for buying medication advised by your friends?
- Design: feel the style. Quite popular phrases like “make me something awesome” or “draw me a sunset, but in green color” doesn’t hold water. It’s better to find examples of websites you like and show them to website designer. And please, don’t suggest using two obviously opposite design styles in the same layout.
- Perspective: any plans for the future? If your website will eventually be supplemented with new functionality, notify the provider about your vision of future additions beforehand. In any construction process the building foundation is usually formed considering its future enlargement. And such an approach is hardly perceived as unreasonable, since you cannot build a four-stored house on two-stored building basement and construct your living place up to a skyscraper.
- Budget: limits and wishes. Our foremost advice – don’t mislead yourself. If you have the money for a simple online store, you will never get a second Amazon, even being offered to do that within such a small budget. Most likely, you’ll get a cheap cover, which doesn’t work well inside.
- Additional costs: a flexible approach. While going to make a trip, you plan expenses for travel, accommodation, meals and other things. You would unlikely be granted with free excursion just because you’ve already paid for the hotel or air tickets. So why clients often believe that the project budget should stay the same once they put additional work scope? Now you see that Agile approach is really justified for large and complicated projects.
Epilogue
There’s a true notice that no one complicates our lives but we do. By asking question on costs for website development, prepare yourself to answer inquiries of your potential software provider. And just don’t take them as an attempt to offend you or to show unwillingness for working with your project. Predictions of an early enrichment can be cheaply obtained on a city fair, while creating something professional and high-qualified takes time and money. By understanding this simple truth it’s easier to decide what you’re ready to pay for.
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