You now have a solid ecommerce foundation, mindset and philosophy, and you know exactly what features, modules and options you want in your website. It’s now time to hire a Website Designer using the below top tips.
An exceptional web designer, developer or team will have great communication and fully understand your ecommerce goals based on experience. They will then produce a website that works towards your goals, not just to bolster their own portfolio.
Are they Working for Your Benefit?
Unfortunately for you, the majority of web agencies couldn’t care less if you succeed or fail and just see each project as a wage. They turn over project after project to keep the sales momentum, so they can pay the bills. Very few companies will ever contact you to see how your business is doing with regards your sales and profits, and if you have successfully implemented traffic, conversions and back-end marketing.
It is actually in their best interests to see how they can improve these three key areas for you. Some website performance changes could lead to a stronger portfolio for them. This is just another example of the lack of awareness of marketing on the back-end, for them.
Individual Designers vs. Design Team.
There are some great individual web designers available for hire who work for themselves, but a big word of warning; there are only so many hours in a day and many only work Monday to Friday. You need to establish, how much time they can allocate to your project with regards initial build and after sales support and updates. I am not saying big design teams are better, as you may get more focused attention from one-on-one.
Here are some Points to Consider:
- Who can provide the most time and attention for your initial build and updates?
- Do they have the experience as individual or collectively as a team?
- If you are dealing with a web agency, can you speak directly with the designer or do you have to go through a project manager? This can cause miscommunication and frustration.
- If you have marketing deadlines to meet and need site changes such as promotional banners or graphics, will your designer do whatever it takes to meet your schedule?
- If you spot errors on the site or if the ‘code breaks’ (it happens, especially after updates), when will it be fixed? A design team may provide 24/7 support, an individual simply cannot.
- Does your web designer or team pick up the phone if you call? Many will only communicate by email. Email, Phone and Instant Messenger such as Skype?
- If your website hosting fails at 9pm and your site goes down, is someone available to fix it?
- Does your web team have seamless communication between the different departments to implement your ideas correctly and on time.
- Do they have a newsletter or method of alerting you to new features & modules they develop, which may be useful to your website and business?
