Top Tips for Attracting and Retaining Web Design Clients
By Jason Fellingham

Quick Response

Customers are immediately impressed with quick responses to questions and service sign-up. Be sure to mention how important customers are to the success of your business and strive to respond to their message as soon as possible. In this case, under promise and over deliver. I will typically state on my web site that I will respond to emails within four hours. Customers are often pleasantly-surprised to hear back from me within an hour. First impressions are everything! If you do well with you initial response, then you are more than likely to get your foot in the door and ensure repeat business.

Total Customer Experience

Be sure to ask plenty of questions and get the customer involved with the design of their own web page. Ask them to give you a few sites that they like already and put together a rough draft. Publish to a staging site, password protect it and give to your client. The more you keep them involved in the project, the more important they feel and the more impressed they are with your offerings.

Be a Perfectionist in the Customer's Eyes

Pay close attention to detail, ask if the visual components such as color, layout and fonts are pleasing to the eye. Staying involved with the customer in this way gives them the impression that you truly care and gives them a sense that they are involved with the creation of the web site.

Stand by Your Work

Be sure to follow-up with your customers a few days or weeks after the completion of the project. Always offer to fix any and all perfections. Dazzle them by offering to update their web site free for 30-days.

Keep in Touch / Repeat Business

There is absolutely nothing wrong with checking-in with your customers from time to time just to say hello. Just be sure to ask if everything is OK with their web site and remind them that your services are available for updates/redesign. The odds are in your favor if your customer is happy at this point. It is likely that your customer will come back to you for updates. You can even go as far as offering a discount or. even a coupon from time to time. You want to flatter your customer, make them feel appreciated that they have given their hard-earned money to you.

Ask for Referrals and Testimonials

Do not be afraid to ask your customer for a testimonial or even refer business to friends and family. Happy customers are often more than willing to help you out if you have done them right.

I could not believe my ears when my friends and family with small businesses told me how much other web firms were charging for a little five page web site.