Clients (2)
So...we were asked to deliver a proposal for a new website including a CMS for a real-estate agency. We really were interested, because a short while ago we'd been discussing a row of nice features for that kind of clients, features that the competition doesn't have yet (at least not the relevant, local competition). So we sketched up a 10-pages offer with a detailed description of the features, in simple, non-tech-language, pointing out all the advantages for the client. And we weren't just trying to sell something - far from it. We truly believe that the feature-set we came up with would simply transform our client into the real-estate agency with the most useful, most usable website in the whole city, which according to our beliefs would give them real advantages in terms of satisfied customers, returning customers, happy customers less reluctant to pay a (usually steep) price for good service - in short, we think the system would have helped them to make money. I believe that the (very justified and relatively low) price we would have taken for the project would have been amortised in a few weeks, months at most.
Well...we neither got a "hey, we like that", nor at least a "hm...it's a bit expensive, but interesting". No. What we got was a "cut the crap! I don't want any of that fuss, I just want the same website I had before and I want it to look better. And I don't want it to cost anything". Well, not in that words, I'll admit, but in the end it amounted to the same thing. "We want low costs. No, lower than that. No, you're not quite there yet, lower! Features? Naaah, we've been doing quite well without those for the past 50 years, why would we start having them now?"
I can't imagine how someone who's incapable of thinking more than a day ahead can lead a business, and explicitly demands a mediocre product for a low price, when for 50% more money they'd get a really decent product, and for twice the price they'd get a really good product with probably all the features they'll need during the next five years. (And when I say twice the price I'd just like to remind you that we're not talking real money here, the project's size equals one or two month's salaries of one of our client's (lowly paid) employees.)
It is equally mysterious to me why "traditional companies" can't seem to make the little step across their old-fashioned ways of seeing things and accept that for a large fraction of today's customers getting information and further services using the facilities the internet offers is a necessity, not an option. It's what Herzberg calls dissatisfiers in his famous theory about satisfaction of employees (1), something that makes you rant and complain when missing because you just expect it to be there. I strongly believe that customer satisfaction equals money, at least to some degree. Our client obviously disagrees. For them, only money equals money.
(1) Herzberg's theory
Well...we neither got a "hey, we like that", nor at least a "hm...it's a bit expensive, but interesting". No. What we got was a "cut the crap! I don't want any of that fuss, I just want the same website I had before and I want it to look better. And I don't want it to cost anything". Well, not in that words, I'll admit, but in the end it amounted to the same thing. "We want low costs. No, lower than that. No, you're not quite there yet, lower! Features? Naaah, we've been doing quite well without those for the past 50 years, why would we start having them now?"
I can't imagine how someone who's incapable of thinking more than a day ahead can lead a business, and explicitly demands a mediocre product for a low price, when for 50% more money they'd get a really decent product, and for twice the price they'd get a really good product with probably all the features they'll need during the next five years. (And when I say twice the price I'd just like to remind you that we're not talking real money here, the project's size equals one or two month's salaries of one of our client's (lowly paid) employees.)
It is equally mysterious to me why "traditional companies" can't seem to make the little step across their old-fashioned ways of seeing things and accept that for a large fraction of today's customers getting information and further services using the facilities the internet offers is a necessity, not an option. It's what Herzberg calls dissatisfiers in his famous theory about satisfaction of employees (1), something that makes you rant and complain when missing because you just expect it to be there. I strongly believe that customer satisfaction equals money, at least to some degree. Our client obviously disagrees. For them, only money equals money.
(1) Herzberg's theory
