When taking on websites built by other web agencies, we often hear a phrase such as “I think I’m too small for them now” or “I think they’ve outgrown me”. Essentially these are from people who used to receive good customer service but have since been neglected.
Obviously, it’s good that web agencies are growing and getting bigger clients, and we’ve done this ourselves, with several PLCs and well-known brands to our name, but this really shouldn’t be at the expense of the smaller clients that helped us grow, and help us survive.
Back in 2004 we had a call from an eccentric entrepreneur called John. He was a very likeable fellow and came to us with a half-built French property website, and he wanted small and frankly messy job costing a few hundred pounds.
John’s aspirations were huge, but his budget was modest at best, and we happily took on the project bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
To our surprise and delight, John gave us small job after small job, by making adjustments to his website, eventually turning it into a classic car directory, before asking us to do a complete website rebuild. Each change we made was paid for from the profit of our previous changes, and so it was a win for both us and John.
Over time this site had another full rebuild into a leading multinational site and John, being the entrepreneur that he was, had more business ventures with us, Webbed Feet, alongside him.
This small messy job costing a few hundred pounds turned in to be the biggest client that we ever had, at one point providing permanent work for over half of our staff.
Furthermore, we met a friend; we had several tours of John’s lovely house, were delighted to be guests at his birthday evening in his grounds, and like to think we helped him along the way.
It’s safe to say that, without John, we wouldn’t be in the position that we are today.
John has taught us a valuable lesson, and that’s not to forget where you’ve come from, and not to dismiss clients because you’ve outgrown them. You never know what opportunities they may bring.
We’re sure that some other web agencies could learn a lot from our experience with John.
So yes, if you have a huge website and big budgets we’d love you to enquire, of course, we would. But equally, we’d be just as happy to have several smaller clients; it’s about quality, not quantity! Just because your project is small, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be valued.
So, if you’re not getting the customer service that you used to, feel free to pop us a call or email. We’re not in the office at the moment due to Covid, but still working from home, still answering the phones, and just as eager to help.
Thank you, John.
We are Webbed Feet, we help businesses of all shapes and sizes