Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I have been in business for about a year and new business is steady, for which I am thankful. The interesting issue beginning to blossom is site updates and maintenance.
What seems to happen is a client will call me and pitch a few ideas; i.e. "I am thinking of adding a page with gift certificates" or "I am thinking of adding a new section to the 'about us' area."
Pretty soon, I have a dozen or so loose "pitches" floating around and no real method of keeping track of them. Eventually, things tend to materialize into an email (i.e. "here's the new information we talked about...please add to the website) but others float off into the stratosphere.
I'd be curious to know how others approach this. Do you ask the client to confirm in an email? Put a forn online they can fill out? Fax them a confirmation of your conversation and ask them to sign off? Log all the potential requests and follow up?
Any thoughts or discussion would be great.
pat
A longtime associate, someone I trust in intent and skill, asked me to build this huge database-driven site. We met, I took notes, I went home and prepared a detailed estimate that outlined the database tables, functions, personnel access levels and restrictions, upload processes, data mangement, everything, all i's were dotted and T's crossed.The last two pages of the estimate were an agreement to be signed and returned.
Bill's first mistake: Remember the "trust"issue. He called, said "this looks great, when can you start?" I began the work without receiving the agreement.
Three weeks later, we have a meeting. I found out later that other than cursory glances at the system, none of the customer's had staff even fully tested at this point. So basically they were "mind-designing" without even knowing where the project was at. Scribbling notes like a stenographer (with 1/10 their skills) I sat in a hotbox with 6 employees and two managers, listening to "what would be great is" and "would it be too much trouble to" . . . At first thought, this all could go under the current estimate as my padding for "Fine tuning."
Oh contraire. For the last two months almost every single phone call has been peppered with "remember, we talked about that" or "you said that wouldn't be a problem." My notes are painfully detailed and accurate and they actually have me believing I have lost my hearing.
To date, I've added at LEAST 10 tables to the database and thousands of lines of code.
Which is Bill's mistake #2: immediately after the meeting, I should have gone home and reworked both the estimate and the agreement, and should have had them sign off on it.
All of this is tied up with the trust I have with this guy, there's no bad blood here but I feel totally at fault because I didn't make them toe the line and SIGN.
So you live and learn, and boy did I ever, not going to raise a finger now without documentation. I would say ABSOLUTELY, verify everything with electronic or hard copy documentation. The hard truth is when you discuss something with someone, what goes in your ear and out through your work is quite often very different than the concept they envisioned. Get EVERYTHING down on paper.
Get everything down on paper.
Yes that is my mantra now. :-)
I have had a couple of similar sitiuations- the first year has taught me a lot about how to document the contract to avoid scope-screep, and how to spot the potential nightmare clients. THe ones that are in a hurry to get a sight up and running before the paperwork is signed are the ones that seem to evaporate.
Still, for those maintenance phone calls, I am thinking of couple of options; maybe a form on my website where clients can submit change requests. That they they are walked through a series of questions that help clarify exactly what they want.
I keep thinking of when I worked for a large insurance company and the lawyers we worked with. On any given case, you'd call them up, ask them to file a motion, or write a report, and you'd get your work done and a bill would follow. You just expected it.
But with web clients, short of a maintenance agreement, when a client calls and asks for a few changes, they sometimes seemed surprised that a bill follows. I'm just trying to figure out a way of notching up my professional interaction with clients to make sure there is no miscommunication about what is about to be billed.
Thanks for the reply. I feel your pain, BELIEVE me. I nearly walked on a client because they kept asking for a complete overhaul before launch because I could not seem to figure out exactly what they wanted. MAN!
pat
Other tips:
- When you do estimates for new projects, make sure the estimate includes what your bill rate will be for change requests after the project is completed.
- Before you start a project, have a clear definition of the project and scope of work written down. This should be part of your contract with the customer. It should state what your deliverables are and what the customer is responsible for supplying in terms of content, images, hardware, personnel, etc. If you discussed some features, but they are not to be included, then put a section in the scope document that describes them. (10 months from now, the customer will only remember that you had talked about it and will want to know why its not there).
- Although it should be included in writing in the above mentioned contract, be sure to discuss the ramifications of making change requests. Changing your house design from 3 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms before you have plans drawn up is much cheaper than changing the design after the plans are drawn. And it is much much cheaper than changing the design after the house is built.
- Have a plan for managing changes both during and after the project. Essentially the change request(s) should be documented and an estimate of work provided. The customer should sign off on the estimate before work starts.
- When a customer starts talking about making changes, you need to speak in terms of work hours. Talk through some of the ramifications of the changes. Discuss any possible related changes. Don't give off-the-cuff estimates. Tell them you will do a write-up of your understanding of the changes along with an estimate of the number of work hours to complete them. Then do the write-up and estimate. Have them sign it before proceeding.
- If they wonder why changes aren't free, go back to the building analogy: If you build a house with an unfinished basement, would you expect the builder to come back a year later and finish it for free? Or if you had green carpet installed (what were you thinking?) and now you want blue, well someone has to first pull up the ugly green stuff and then someone has to buy and install the fashionable blue.
I think that the biggest part of it is that you discuss the "cost" in terms of work-hours. When they say "what would it take to do X." Don't throw out a dollar amount. Say "I'll need to look over the code and data involved to be certain, but it would probably be about Y hours or so. I can give you a firm estimate of hours tomorrow though." Because that makes sense to people. They understand (sort of) that it might take 20 hours or 60 hours of work. Since they already know about your bill rate, then you diffuse the situation ahead of time.
Its been always a nighmare working with clients with lose ideas.
Although it may be easy to incorporate some of those new ideas, I simply telltheclient to do it in something what I call 'Phase II' .. which is when he actyually re-orders addtional modules of work. :)
The headaches are less, but clients love lose ideas, and always suggest thats ist so easy...
