Use caution when selecting a Website Design and Developer Services.    5 points to consider.

Many Non-profit and for-profit organizations are considering creating or updating their website.  We receive many promotions each day.  As with all businesses there are good, OK and bad companies promoting their services.

This article is intended to give you some general guidelines for selecting and managing a reliable Website Service Provider.

1. Finding a reputable service.

• Get a referral from others in your market or community.
• Find an independent review of appropriate services
• Another independent reviewer
• Locate a website that you like and click on the developer’s link at the bottom of their webpage.
• Select a few service providers to consider for your project.
• Compare the service providers. It is best to NOT contract with the first provider you contact.

2. Initially evaluating the service

• Go to their website and review their services.
• Ignore their customer testimonials. Consider that some of these reviews could be fabricated and that they may only post the positive reviews.
• Ask them to provide a referral from an existing customer who you can talk with about their services.
• Review their Term and Conditions particularly their “Refund Policy”.
• Google to see if there are “SPAM” or similar websites describing problems with their services.
• A SPAM example
• Another SPAM site example

       3. First contact with a service provider

• Describe your project in writing, indicating your goals and how you will measure the results.  For example: “I want to increase traffic to our site by 50% and we will use Google Analytics to monitor results”.
• Have the provider create a proposal and quotation describing their services, cost and timeframe for results to be visible.
• Set up a periodic review with your primary provider contact person.
• Be cautious of additional “Add On” services. Make sure that you need them.

4. Use caution when making payments

• Pay with a credit card. Do not use debit card or cash
• Within the first 60 days make sure you have determined if this provider can do your project.
• After 60 days the credit card company may not accept a “Dispute” for the charges.

5. Follow up

• Review the results with your service provider and determine if they met your expectations.
• If not research a new service provider starting at step 1.