Realistic expectations and e-commerce sites
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Loading ...I was reminded today about how important it is to set realistic expectations for customers before or at the beginning of a project. I am still trying to figure out the best way to address the perception that an e-commerce solution will “do it all” for the customer with little or no input or intervention. As much as I have tried to make this a priority, it still seems to get lost in either translation or delivery. The fundamental problem seems to be unrealistic expectations being set early in the delivery with no reasonable way to change those expectations. The result, inevitably, is a disappointed customer.
So what should the expectation be for development of an e-commerce website? In my opinion, and this is just mine, an e-commerce site consists of two input sources, the developer (in this case us) and the store owner (customer). Each part contributes to the success of the system but in fundamentally different ways. I will use the analogy of building a house, because it is very popular right now and most people seem to understand the process of building a house (thank you HGTV). The developer is the general contractor, the customer… well is the customer. Already you can see some gaps in this analogy, right? Where is the architect, the landscaper, the interior designer, not to mention the project manager. In a perfect world, every web development project would consist of a system architect who designs the system, a graphic designer (interface specialist) who designs the look, a developer, and a project manager to oversee it all. If this were the case, however, every website project would cost a minimum of $100,000 (way out of scope for most businesses). So, in our less than perfect world, we are left with the web developer and the customer. Anyway, to get back to the story, the customer hires a general contractor to build a house for them. The contractor builds the house and feels pretty good about having built it. The customer, however, wants the contractor to paint the walls, install the finishings, decorate the house, do the landscaping, and buy and place the furniture… and all for the same quote. In the real world, most people know the limitations of a general contractor and so it is a given that they don’t do interior design, landscaping, or those other non-related tasks. In the world of web development, the lines are not as cleanly drawn and so manipulating 1000 product photos by hand and writing product descriptions for all the products before they get imported into the e-commerce system becomes an assumption, all be it incorrect.
Really, we need to be much more clear with our delivering of expectations to customers about what we will and will not do for them as part of the process. In the end, if we have done a good job and ask for all the right information upfront, the customer will probably understand the process better and will make more realistic decisions about the project.
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