The Dangers of Web Design Fraud
It is not easy in the age of information to navigate through all the data to determine which companies you should trust your business website and advertising with and which companies you should steer clear from. By no means am I telling you to trust only us as a web development company, but I have noticed a disturbing trend in the web development industry, the more I have been working for The Purple Tie.
Scammers that either take your money and run or people with “friends” that have little to no knowledge at all when it comes to web development are a huge problem in the web development industry.
There are scammers and con artists in every field of profession, and by no means is web development an exception to that rule, but when even large companies from the phone book industry have been accused of shady business practices, I can’t help but wonder, “What are the ethical standards of web development?”
The best that I can do to explore this question for both myself and for anyone reading this article is offer examples of these terrible business practices so that when you start shopping for someone to do your website that you can at least see the signs of someone who isn’t on the up and up.
They Rely on Outdated Technology
Computers have changed quite a bit since their first conception at NASA as glorified calculators that took up half the size of a room, and technology as a field has been growing and changing at a rapid rate. That means that the technological hardware and software that have been dated from 20 years ago, to about 3 years ago, are woefully inadequate on both an aesthetic level and a functional one for today’s technology.
So, let’s say that someone has been creating websites for around 8 years. Unless your web guys can demonstrate up to date knowledge of the latest programming languages, they will create a broken and outdated looking website. Unless the programmer knows how to make your website show up on a tablet or smartphone, you wasted money.
If you have trouble determining if the person that you are thinking about hiring is using antiquated technology, you can consult a programming timeline and directly ask the developer what tools they are going to be using for your project. If their response is anything older than three years ago, I would suggest finding someone else.
There are No Visual Portfolio or Signs of Updates
Would anyone of a sound mind walk into a tattoo parlor and immediately sit in the workstation chair and tell the artist to do ‘whatever’ on his back? Even drunk people that walk into tattoo parlors either have an idea of what they want or look at the wall of preview images before having something permanently marked on their body.
So why, in good conscience, would you hire any web developer or graphic designer who has not shown you examples of their work before paying them? Chances are if no one has volunteered to show you their work, then they are most likely participating in web design fraud.
It does not matter if you know the person’s aunt, if they are your best friends, or if you are the developer’s mother unless you have seen examples of what your web designer can do, you don’t hire them without seeing their work. You are trusting your, business advertising, and in some cases your entire livelihood to this developer..
They Filed for Bankruptcy or Have Been Downsizing Consistently
In the grand scheme of things, it is perfectly natural for companies to make mistakes or to have bad quarters. No human is perfect, so why on Earth should a company be held to the standards of perfection?
However, if bad quarters, company downsizing, or filing for bankruptcy has become a consistent trend over the last couple of years within the people you are thinking about hiring to design your website, then it is safe to say that the current business is participating in web design fraud. Last I checked, it is practically financial suicide to entrust your business website or marketing strategies to a design company with little to no stability.
A way to check and safeguard your small business from such a fiasco is to take the time to do a quick google search about the company that you are trying to hire. Did that company’s business license get revoked?Have any employees complained about working conditions? Were there any business news articles that state that the company in question has filed for bankruptcy or has there been any talk of downsizing?
They Have Very Poor Customer Interaction Policies
You wake up at one in the morning as your phone rings. It’s them, again. They haunt your life like an ever-present specter that robs you of your happiness, slowly wearing away every nerve that you have as the phone rings every ten minutes, denying you the small joy of silence as you try to go back to sleep. They feed on every inch of your sanity as you pray for the end of your suffering, but it will never end until you give them what they want. These monsters that I am talking about are telemarketing sales teams.
This technique is not new by any means, and there are large companies that call to pester you into buying or donating something at all hours of the day. But, if the only time that people hear from that company is when they want someone to spend more money on them, chances are they only care about profit.
A good way to check and see if they have a poor customer interaction track record would be to check company review websites, such as the Better Business Bureau or other professional field related review sites. If you either see no trace of positive or negative reviews or a load of negative ones in which customers complain about a lack of actual service, then you should steer clear from this web design company like the plague.
Conclusion
Benjamin Franklin had hit the nail on the head, when he stated, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Successful businesses, no matter how small or large, take much in the way of planning and effort. Unless you take that same amount of precaution with who is making your website you will be out of a ridiculous amount of money and you will lose lots of potential business.
I am not saying that you must know all the odds and ends that go into what makes a website, that is the developer’s job. However, if you or the person you are hiring doesn’t treat your business website with the same amount of care and dedication that you do with your physical location, customers will associate your business as one giant mess.
Do you agree or disagree with me? Or maybe there was something I missed on the list. If you want to talk about it, comment on this page or on our Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/purpletieguys
Image Sources:
Stockunlimited.com
Pixabay.com