How to Extract the Facts with a Web

Design Client Questionnaire

The best Web design questionnaires focus on:

1. What the site’s supposed to do for the client’s business.
2. What the site will look like.
I’ll take you through the questionnaire that I use, and explain the rationale
behind each question.
1. Why do you want to have a new website, or have your current site
redesigned? This question uncovers the client’s motivation for getting in touch
with someone like you.
2. What will happen if you don’t have a new website, or have your
current site redesigned? This is the question that starts getting at the client’s
pain. His current site may not be functional in current browsers. Or it could be
that they’ve decided to sell online, and the current site doesn’t enable such a
thing.
3. Please describe your organization in a few sentences. Since this answer
will be something like an elevator speech, it could be incorporated into the home
page copy. (If you’re a copywriter – or work closely with one – take note!)
4. What is there about you and your background that sets you apart for a
special (niche) group of potential customers? If nothing else, this is a
question that gets the prospective client thinking. And you may have to help her
with the answer. It might be that she’s been in business twice as long as any of
her competitors. Or that his customers stay with him for an average of 10 years.
5. What problems do your prospects have that your business solves? Yes,
I know. The word “solutions” has been overused of late. But this is an opportunity
for your prospect to brag. Let him have that opportunity.
6. How can your particular work background help prospects, compared to
others in your industry? What’s special about your work experience? If
you’re dealing with a consultant to the construction industry, it would be good to
know that she worked as an electrician for 15 years. Her website visitors would
appreciate knowing that too.
7. Why do you believe site visitors should do business with you rather
than with a competitor? Face it, on the Internet, the competition is but one
click away. Which means that your prospect’s site will probably be compared to a
lot of other sites. So, it’s up to you and the prospect to make the site memorable.
8. Do you have a slogan or tagline that clearly describes what you offer in
terms of benefits or features? While many prospects may be eager to trot out
their company’s slogan, others will be absolutely mystified. Why? Because they
don’t have a slogan. And, people, that’s not a mortal sin. It’s okay not to have a
slogan, or have one so simple that it sounds dumb. I’ve done business with a
home repair guy whose company slogan was, “We Do A Better Job.” And he did.
9. Please describe your potential customers. Pay special attention to
their income, interests, gender, age, even type of computer they use,
e.g., old with dialup account or newer with broadband. If your website is
a business-to-business site, what sort of companies are you hoping to
attract? This is the Demographic Question, and you may be surprised at the level
of detail that your prospects include in their answers. I recently dealt with a
prospect that defined his expectations right down to the target audience’s
preferred monitor size. Other prospects may need some Ideal Client Profile coaching.
10. What is your budget for this project? Don’t be surprised if this question
goes unanswered. Some people have no idea of what to budget for a website
project. Or maybe they’re being cagey. Whatever the reason, it’s time for you to
take the initiative and give a fee range. Your range may turn out to be too high
for the prospect, and that’s okay. Your job is to find those who have the desire to
work with you – and the ability to pay what you charge.
11. Who are the decision makers on this project? What is the turnaround
time for making a decision? Ideally, you’ll want to deal with someone who’s in
charge, rather than someone who works for someone who reports to the assistant
to the person who actually makes the decisions. The latter scenario tends to lead
to weeks-long waits while decisions are being made.
12. What staff will be involved? What are their roles? Is there a
webmaster on your staff? Many will be the times that you’ll be dealing with a
website committee. And this should be where the prospect tells you so. Make it
clear that there’s nothing wrong with having more than one voice involved in the
website process, but ask your prospect to appoint a contact person to deal with
you. This will avoid the “conflicting inputs from multiple people” problem.
As for the webmaster, don’t settle for a yes/no answer. Gauge the skill level of
this person. You may be dealing with someone who’s been using computers since
the punch card era. Or you may be dealing with the new hire who just had
“maintain the new website” added to his job description.
13. What is your deadline for completing the site? You may be dealing with
people who want a 10,000-page e-commerce site done by next Tuesday. Then
again, you might not. This question, if handled carefully, can provide you with an
opportunity to educate prospects on how long good design takes.
14. Please list the names of five other sites that you like. Why are they
attractive to you? In general, I’ve found this to be one of the easiest questions
for prospects to answer. And don’t be surprised if they offer more than five links,
plus a detailed explanation of why they like each one.
15. Have you researched your online competition so you have an idea of
what you do and don’t want on your site? Here’s a little secret about
competitors: Some of them can be real blabbermouths. Especially on their
websites. Others have sites that say little and explain even less. It’s important for
your prospect to decide on the right balance between openness and secrecy – and
it’s a tough decision.
16. What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, etc.?
There are some things that just don’t belong on a website. (Provocative sentence,
that one.) Every company has a different answer to this question. For example,
some splash employee pictures all over their sites and others are like the Central
Intelligence Agency, which shows no employee photos.
17. Where is the website content coming from? Who’s responsible for
updating it? Is it ready for use on your website? Content is one of those
things that takes forever to arrive at your studio. If you have copywriting skills –
or can team up with someone who does – you can turbocharge the content
production process, and finish the project faster.
18. Do you have a logo? Attention web people with logo design skills: You may
be able to make an additional sale if the prospect doesn’t have a logo or doesn’t
like his current logo.
19. Are you planning to do online sales? If so, what is the product, and
how many items do you want to sell online? A few years ago, the word “e-
commerce” took the world by storm. And all manner of companies fell under its
spell. Many of them found out that e-commerce has a lot of moving parts – online
order-taking that makes people feel comfortable sharing their credit card
information, order-filling, shipment tracking, customer service, and the list goes
on.
It’s best to clue your prospect in early. Help him plan his e-commerce strategy by
directing him to Ralph Wilson’s E-commerce Research Room. Ralph has helped all sorts of
people avoid expensive e-commerce mistakes, including me.
20. If you’re planning to sell online, are you set up to accept credit
cards? Believe it or not, there are some people who still think that online buyers
will send them a check. Sorry, but accepting credit cards is mandatory in the
online business world. Getting set up to accept credit cards can take time, and
lots of it. Personally, I found that my merchant account application was more
intrusive than the form I had to fill out for an FBI background check. (The FBI
didn’t like the quality of my fingerprints, but that’s another story.)
21. How much time will you be able to spend online, responding to
inquiries that come in via your website? Once a day? Several hours a
day? Ever gone to a big company’s site to ask a question? You dutifully filled out
the contact form, then waited, waited, and waited for an answer that never came.
This is how you don’t want your prospects to act. Timely responses to visitor
inquiries work better – and cost a lot less – than elaborate PR programs.
22. If you were using a search engine, what words or phrases would you
use to find your site? Which of these words or phrases is most
important? Second? Third? This is one of those questions that gets the search
engine obsessives going. They’re the people who come up with an impossibly long
list of search terms that they expect top rankings on. Encourage them to come up
with a reasonable list – say, three to five terms. Refer them to a good search
engine rankings specialist.
23. Other than what search engines will produce, what methods do you
have in mind to spread the word about your website? There was a time
when a website was such a novelty that you could get newspaper stories written
about the fact that you had one. (Newspapers – remember them?) These days,
you’ll need to do a bit more planning. Although some of its information is a bit
dated, Ralph Wilson’s Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy is a helpful book.
24. Once your website is completed, how long do you think it will be
before you begin bringing in significant business from the website? This
question is the younger sibling of the previous question. Once your client’s new
website is up, it will take time for the promotional plan to show results. The
answer to this question will reveal whether you have a patient prospect – or
someone who expects everything to happen yesterday.
25. How do you plan to encourage repeat visitors and referrals? How is a
website like a piece of granite? When it sits there and never changes. Fortunately,
there are lots of ways to keep web content fresh – blogs come to mind. Making a
website refer-able is a much greater challenge. Best advice I can offer is to make
the site into a valuable resource – like this one.
Whew! That’s quite a list of questions. And, truth be told, I don’t use every one of
them every time. It’s important to respect your prospects’ time, even when you’re
looking for long-term relationships. (See? Business is a lot like the dating game!)