5 essentials to ensure you’re partnering with a top-tier web developer.

When you’re charged with the mission to find a high-quality web developer, you want to feel confident that your choice will be well-received and worthy of the time and energy you and your team invest in it. Here are five green flags to look for that will help you arrive at a decision worthy of your time, energy, and investment.

Trust Outweighs Cost

When it comes to selecting a web developer, perhaps the single most important attribute to look for is trust. Once you’re convinced that your chosen web developer can actually do the work proficiently, cost becomes secondary. 

When you invest in web development, you’re not just paying for a website, you're paying for the years of experience and skills built and polished through study, practice, and research enabling the web developer to build something exceptional.

Honesty in Scope and Approach

Does the web developer understand your industry and how this particular project is going to impact your business? An honest, transparent understanding of the scope and approach is imperative if you expect a successful outcome. 

Expect your web developer to ask in-depth questions about your business, why you want things a certain way, and how you hope to achieve those goals. If they have a comprehensive understanding of what you want, they will then be able to suggest the best approach. It might be a different approach from what you have envisioned, but a skilled web developer will be able to explain in detail why one direction or choice is significantly better, more efficient or more secure, without veering from the desired result.

No Pressure to Sign On

An experienced, trustworthy web development team will not expect you to agree to or sign on to any contractual agreement until you’re completely ready to make the decision. A truly valuable aspect of your relationship with your web developer is full understanding and disclosure. 

Questions should be welcomed and answered to your satisfaction with no pressure to ink the deal until you are ready. Patience is a hallmark of an exceptional web development team.

History of Similar Work

Before embarking on the investment of a new or revamped web project, you want to be convinced that your web vendor has a solid history of producing similar work. A web development team that has built websites within the same industry will have a better understanding of the marketplace and where your organization fits in. Alternatively, their experience might come from projects in a different space, but with similar complexity or solving problems like the ones you're facing. Perhaps the similarity might be in a style as well as in content.

A genuinely experienced web team will be able to zero in on your company’s differentiators. Those elements will be unique to your brand even if the industry is the same or similar.

Knowing Who is Working on the Project

Perhaps one of the most relevant actions in this relationship is that you meet and talk with the people who will actually be doing the work on your web project. Whether it’s an in-person meeting or a Zoom call, these people, most often the developers, should be present to listen, contribute to the conversation, ask questions, and provide recommendations. 

These are the people who know which software works best for a particular need. They know if there is a better or easier way to work around a project demand and get the same (or better) results. They are familiar with time-saving solutions that, in the end, may be less costly than what you, the customer anticipated. Having access to the people who are actually doing the work is invaluable.

Our approach at Dialogs is consultative with a personal touch. We know that successful business relationships amount to much more than just selecting a vendor. When we embark upon a new business relationship, our goal is to make you a ‘Customer for Life'. 

We understand that as a customer looking for a solution, you want to feel good about your choice. You want to feel justified in your decision-making. We respect that budget is always a consideration, but over the years we have come to know that it is not the only consideration. Trust and transparency are the framework of a long-lasting relationship. Because we want you as a ‘Customer for Life’, we will always deliver no less than what we promise.

Dialogs clients have learned the value of ongoing support and long-term partnerships. Simply put, we fluidly become an extension of your existing team. Collaboration is central to how we get things done.

Contact a Dialogs expert today and let us help you achieve your web development goals in the most effective, enduring way. Subscribe to get future content which offers valuable insights into website development and how to scale a successful business.