Every company says they care about their clients.
Every agency says they’re different.
Every salesperson says they’ll take care of you.
The real question is what happens after you sign the contract.
That’s where I think you find out what a company actually believes.
At Sage, one of the principles I care about most is extremely simple: put the client’s interests first.
That sounds obvious. It should be obvious.
But after years of talking with business owners who have had bad experiences with web designers and marketing agencies, I’ve realized it isn’t nearly as common as it should be.
It Starts With Making Promises You Can Actually Keep
I recently spoke with a business owner who had hired another local web design company.
It looked impressive.
Big office. Multiple people in the meeting. Everyone taking notes. A professional presentation. A price was agreed upon, and the project moved forward.
Then, toward the end of the design process, the company told him they couldn’t actually build what they had promised.
The solution was another $20,000.
The relationship ended there.
I hear different versions of this story constantly.
Sometimes the surprise is additional money.
Sometimes it’s functionality that suddenly can’t be built.
Sometimes communication falls apart after the sale.
Sometimes the salesperson disappears and the client realizes the team actually doing the work has a completely different understanding of the project.
There are legitimate reasons for the price of a project to change. If the scope changes substantially, the price may need to change too.
But that’s very different from selling something you were never prepared to deliver.
Part of putting the client first is doing the work upfront to understand what you’re promising.
Sometimes We Spend More Time Than We Expected
Not every project goes exactly according to plan.
Sometimes we underestimate something.
Sometimes a design takes another round to get right.
Sometimes a task that looked simple turns out to be more complicated once we’re inside it.
I would rather absorb some of that occasionally than turn every unexpected hour into a fight with a client.
We’re operating at enough scale that I don’t want to look backward at a project and wonder whether we damaged a relationship because we were protecting a few hours of labor.
Sometimes the answer is simply: finish the work and make it right.
That doesn’t mean there is no such thing as scope.
Of course there is.
If somebody hires us to build a website and then decides halfway through the project that they also want us to build an entirely new application, that’s different.
But there is a huge amount of room between legitimate additional scope and nickel-and-diming someone to death.
We try very hard to stay on the right side of that line.
The Goal Isn’t to Reach the Revision Limit
I’ve also never loved the way some creative companies treat revisions.
Three revisions.
Four revisions.
Then you’re done.
But what if the fourth version still isn’t right?
Are we supposed to knowingly launch a website the client isn’t proud of because a spreadsheet says we’ve reached revision number four?
That’s not the objective.
The objective is to produce something good.
We need clients to make decisions. We need feedback to be reasonable. We can’t redesign an entire business indefinitely.
But within a normal project process, I’m much more concerned with getting to the right result than keeping score.
When your name is attached to the finished product, that seems like the only sensible way to operate.
Sometimes Putting the Client First Means Saying No
Client-first service also doesn’t mean blindly agreeing with the client.
That’s not service.
If I think you’re about to spend money on something that isn’t going to help your business, I should tell you.
If I think there’s a less expensive way to accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish, I should tell you.
If an idea sounds great in a meeting but I don’t believe it’s going to work in practice, I owe you my actual opinion.
You’re not hiring an experienced company just to have someone say yes to everything.
You’re hiring us for judgment.
Sometimes the most valuable thing we can give a client is an answer they weren’t expecting.
Experience Should Count for Something
Web design and digital marketing are strange industries because the barrier to calling yourself an expert is almost nonexistent.
There is no license required.
There is no governing body.
There is no exam you have to pass before somebody gives you access to a business owner’s website or advertising budget.
Someone can decide today that they’re starting a web agency and have a beautiful agency website online tomorrow.
That doesn’t automatically make them bad.
Everybody starts somewhere.
But the person hiring them deserves to know the difference between potential and a proven track record.
That’s why I think businesses should demand proof.
Look at the work.
Look at the reviews.
Look at the testimonials.
Look at how many projects the company has actually completed.
Ask how long they’ve been doing it.
And perhaps most importantly, ask what happens when something doesn’t go perfectly.
It’s easy to look good when everything is going according to plan.
Experience shows up when it isn’t.
Your Client Shouldn’t Have to Manage You
This is another standard I think agencies should hold themselves to.
Your client already has a job.
They’re running a company.
They shouldn’t have to chase their web developer for three weeks.
They shouldn’t have to remember every open item.
They shouldn’t have to repeatedly explain the project to new people.
They shouldn’t have to wonder whether anyone is paying attention.
A good agency should remove problems from a client’s plate, not become another one.
We aren’t perfect at this.
No company is.
But that’s the standard.
When something gets missed, fix it.
When communication isn’t good enough, improve it.
When a client has to ask twice for something they shouldn’t have had to ask for once, pay attention to why that happened.
That’s how companies get better.
One of the Best Compliments a Client Can Give Us
I recently sat down with one of our clients and asked how he originally found Sage.
He had been working with another company and wasn’t getting what he needed. He was frustrated with the value he was receiving and decided it was time to find someone new.
Eventually, he saw one of my videos on social media and reached out.
During our conversation, he told me what caught his attention.
He said he had an immediate feeling that I put the client’s interests first.
That meant a lot to me.
Not because I think we deserve an award for caring about clients.
We don’t.
That’s supposed to be the job.
But it tells me that the message we’re putting into the world matches the company we’re trying to build behind the scenes.
The Standard Is Actually Pretty Simple
I don’t think running a client-first company requires a complicated philosophy.
Do what you said you were going to do.
Don’t promise things you can’t deliver.
Tell people the truth.
Communicate.
Give your actual opinion.
Fix mistakes.
Don’t surprise people with expenses that should have been anticipated.
Don’t disappear when a project becomes difficult.
And when you occasionally have to choose between squeezing every possible dollar out of a transaction or protecting a long-term relationship, remember which one you’re trying to build.
That’s it.
There are plenty of sophisticated things we do at Sage.
But the philosophy behind them really isn’t sophisticated at all.
Take care of the client. Do great work. Build relationships that last.
If you’re looking for a web design, WordPress development, hosting, or digital marketing partner and you’ve been disappointed by agencies before, we’d be happy to talk.
Tell us what you’re trying to accomplish, and we’ll give you our actual opinion about the best way to get there.
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