Why Website Developers Abandon Clients
Website Designers and Developers leave clients in a lurch way too often. I hear about it all the time – almost weekly from new clients. Each time I am told such a story, I am dumbfounded. One doesn’t just abandon a client in the middle of a project. That’s not good business, and it’s bad for reputation. So I got to thinking: Why might this unfortunate situation be so common?
There is no good reason for developers to abandon clients in the middle of a project.
Call me radical, but that’s what I think. I understand that a job offer may arise that cannot be refused, but that’s not an excuse! One ought to at least complete a project, or it hand it off to another designer / developer before dropping off the face of the planet. Appallingly, that’s not what has been happening.
Over and over I meet small business owners who have been ‘left at the alter’ with a website that is 75% done and full of bugs. They’re in a panic over the situation, with clients of their own trying to navigate a broken website, and are scarred by their experience. Inevitably, people talk, and I’m sure these small business owners have told their friends and co-workers of their experience. The result is a demographic in need of a great website to showcase their hard work but that is afraid to go get it. Abandonment hurts small businesses and the entire designer / developer community.
I get asked often what guarantee I can make that my team won’t do what others have done. Beyond a contract with a tight timeframe and steps for dissolution of a relationship should something come up, all I can do is look a client straight in the eye and explain why I am in business and why we won’t go anywhere. A commitment is a commitment, and I intend to keep mine.
Did your developer leave you hanging? Would you mind telling us about it?
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