I don't usually complain about customers, but just lately I have to admit that my patience has been tried quite a bit.

 

I just want to give an example to you guys, as I'd love to hear about how other designers deal with these issues, and if perhaps I am in the wrong.

 

So... customer comes to be who wants a site designing. He is a mobile photographer. We agreed a design for his site, and I beavered away on it.

 

During this process I advised customer that he may want to consider SEO to give his sote the best possible chance. For £90 I offered to analyse keywords in his niche, and use throughout the site accordingly. I also ensured him at least 5 high PR backlinks once the site was live. The customer wanted assurance that for £90 he would appear at #1 spot on Google. I explained how complex and time consuming SEO is, and that for £90 I would puerly be helping him to choose a good SEO friendly domain name, and putting the correct keywords within his site.

 

Customer again tried to get me to promise his site would do well in Google.....again, I told him that I could never make that promise.

 

I completed a keyword analysis and identified what I thought was a brilliant domain name for him. I don't want to be specific.... but lets say the domain I advised was www.burnleyphotographer.com the customer said that most of his work came from blackburn. After trying to explain to him that he should be targetting "burnley photographer" based on the number of searches and the competition, he finally came up with the domain name he wanted "www.blackburnandburnleyphotographer.co.uk". Yes, I kid you not. Note this is a comparable example as I dont want to identify the customer.

 

So the site went live..... and 45 minutes later the customer is onto me complaining that he cant access it. After some tooing and throwing I realised that he was typing the URL into Google. He doesnt seem to accept that this is not the right thing to do....he is adament that he always types addresses into google and thats what his customers will do too!

 

I've tried to explain that his site isnt yet indexed by Google, and it will take time to appear in search results.

 

Customer has come back to me again explaining that his friend had a site made and it appeared within minutes.

 

In the whole process I have had over 200 emailed with customer.

 

I am totally banging my head against the wall.... as I have no doubt whatsoever that as soon as the site goes live he is going to complain that it isnt #1 on google.

 

Please...can anyone advise how I avoid these problems in future.

I would suggest a water tight contract that specifies what will be covered in under the terms of the contract and an itemised list of expenses

I think with these types of clients, there isnt much you can do. Only thing I can suggest is state a time period, so wait until 30 days until making any judgements. I would also make sure you keep the record of suggestions etc, in case the client comes back and says, "you never told me".

 

As far as the URL and google, lots of people do that. Facebook had this issue a while back. People would search "facebook login" in google, and someone had written a blog article about the facebook login system, which appeared at the top in the news bit. Loads of people clicked on it, and wrote comments like "Why did you change it" etc..

I would suggest a water tight contract that specifies what will be covered in under the terms of the contract and an itemised list of expenses

 

I do have a pretty good contract in place, and archive all emails between myself and customer. Im wondering at what stage I start saying to the customer "sorry, I can have a look into that, but it's chargable at £x". I'm spending more time dealing with this guy than I am designing other customers websites!

Technically as soon as the initial project is completed, uploaded and fully paid for, any extra could be charged for. As a goodwill gesture you may make small changes for free for 1 month, but you should make it clear.

Technically as soon as the initial project is completed, uploaded and fully paid for, any extra could be charged for. As a goodwill gesture you may make small changes for free for 1 month, but you should make it clear.

 

I have my customer sign 2 documents;

 

Website Signoff - To say they are 100% happy, and want the site to go live

Terms & Conditions - which clearly states any additional work is chargable

 

The customer in question actually spotted a spelling mistake after he signed the documents....I changed it free of charge. He also said the contact us form wasnt working, which I spent 20 minutes working on before he emailed again to say that they emails were in his SPAM box.

 

Next email I get from him I think I'll just do the work and drop him an invoice.

Alas you can't totally avoid clients like these, there are always some who haven't learnt how things work.

 

My advice is never to make any promises about search engine results. I always tell my customers that getting listed on any search engine is never guaranteed, and they may have to wait weeks/months to get listed, plus chasing after that "number one spot" is like chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Instead I encourage them to be customer focussed with their sites content, and of course their services/products.

Not kidding, this client sounds *identical* to a client I'm still trying to finalise with (2 months down the line), right down to those ridiculously long-winded domain name suggestions.

 

No additional advice, just wanted to say that I feel your pain!

I agree with asek