Some clients just don’t get it.

Having been a designer/developer for almost a decade, I can frankly claim that India still needs to catch up on the potential that the cloud has in store for us. Based in Mumbai, I’ve had a lot of clients approach me for developing their websites for such puny amounts as $50 to $60 USD. I’m sure a lot of my fellow designers here can relate to this.

Such clients amount for almost 80% of the entire lot out there. The chief problem is that the client is incognizant of the entire nature and power of the world wide web. They will willingly and readily invest lots of capital in TV commercials and newspaper ads, but would only allocate a very minimal budget towards their online presence. Because, they still think that Internet is at a very nascent stage and it has a long way to go. I do agree on the latter part of the statement, but the former part is actually a widely accepted urban myth.

There are also a bunch of other reasons why a client has that opinion:

Designing + Developing a website requires little skill

A client thinks that designing + developing a website requires very little skills, if at all. And if the designer is taking a lot of time to finish their project, that means he’s really just trying to bluff them into believing that designing is actually a tough job. All of this thanks to the bunch who just export web pages directly from Photoshop and they know their job is done. These are the same bunch who do not know that standards exist. For that matter, just about any amateur designer can conceptualize a basic layout in 10 minutes, export it to a web page (full of tables and no sight of any CSS whatsoever), upload it to the web server and the job is done.

What the lay man needs to understand is that, there are a lot of processes involved when developing a website. They’re as good as (if not equivalent to) manufacturing a product. We need to first understand where the client is coming from and what are his needs. According to the criteria, we first need to work on a design layout and have the client’s approval. Here is where the most back and forth happens. Once we’re through this stage, we then need to decide the kind of coding structure the web site requires: whether it’s CMS based, static content only or requires regular updates. After figuring this out, comes the most time intensive part: converting the design to standards compliant web pages which may take up most of your time. And then come the smaller but essential standard procedures: cross-browser testing, debugging page behaviours, 404 pages, favicons, contact forms, url structuring, .htaccess files, and a lot more.

Hence, if the work is done properly, it definitely is time-consuming but is also long-lasting.

Websites are a Trend and not a Requirement

Some clients believe that a website is just a small complementary addition to their marketing plans. And just because every other business/company has one, they should have one too. They believe it is more of a trend rather than a requirement. And what they obviously do not know is that an effective website coupled with the right tactics for social media can stand alone as their most impactful advertising spend.

I’ve covered here in this article a couple of points why most Indian clients do not like the idea of spending money on their online presence. Of course, I have to admit that there are lots who understand and invest! Anyway, these were based on my experiences dealing with clients in the past decade. Feel free to share your experiences too.

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