We’ve signed on several new clients recently who have had similar stories to share with us about some of the companies they reached out to in an effort to get projects underway.  To be honest, we’ve been hearing these stories for years, but never in such rapid succession.

The latest stories were so similar and disheartening enough that I thought to put together a list of “must-haves” for the company you decide to work with.

The web makes it very easy for a company or individual to portray themselves as something they are not.  Many of our competitors are totally legit businesses with professional staff and offices you can visit.  Many of our competitors are NOT. 

Just because a company names a number of employees and team members that will be working on your project, it does not necessarily mean they are staff of the company or even working in this country. 

So many of the “companies” offering web services don’t even post a physical address for their office “full of employees” - why is that? what are they hiding?

Our office address and all the members of our team have always been fully visible on our site.  If you want to visit us and meet our team you can.  We aren’t hiding anything, nor are we hiding from any previous clients - we keep our clients happy and do not need to hide.  The company you engage should operate in the same fashion, if a problem arises you’ll be glad you know where they are and who to contact.

If a company doesn’t return your initial call or get back to your email inquiry within 24 hrs. they are either too busy for you or they are doing this part-time and can’t return your email because they are at their job.  Believe it or not we’re hearing about companies not responding to requests for quotes for 3 or 4 days!  That is simply poor business.

If this is their response time when you’re potentially going to give them work, imagine the response time later when you’re waiting for something from them!

Lastly, be careful about engaging SEO companies or design/development teams through unsolicited emails from overseas.  More than 75% of the junk emails you get relating to the service are fly-by-night operations (mainly in India) that will take your money through paypal and cease communication with you entirely.  If it looks too good to be true it is.

— KH