Executionists, Inc.

For all of our competition: please follow this Dogbert tech support scenario (credit to, Scott Adams).

Tech: Help desk, what’s your issue?
Caller: My computer won’t….
Tech: Shut up and reboot.
Caller: Hey! It worked!
Tech: Shut up and hang up. (My call time is improving!)

However, I believe that dealing with problem customers is an art form that should be handled with tact and duplicity diplomacy.

It has been my experience that allowing a client to have access to the hosting control panel before the site is finished and goes live, can continually cause problems. There can be miscommunications which slow down the process or can potentially stop it altogether.

Just the other day, a client changed the FTP password without relating it to me. Unfortunately, this becomes a problem for your web designer when he/she wants to go in and continue building your website. I politely asked the client to please refrain from making any changes during development and instead ask me to do so for them.

The fact of the matter is that I don’t want clients to feel I am prohibiting their involvement in the development process or taking control of the hosting account they are paying for. However, a clients’ help and involvement in technical development generally slows down the process. In order to streamline development, it is best to keep all technical parts of the project in the hands of your technical developer. (Kids, keep your hands and feet in the car at all times during the ride.)

While it would be easiest to imitate Dogbert’s behavior, keep in mind that clients usually just want to help. Paradoxically, their “help” can make the web designer’s job harder. Let the developer do everything and the client will have helped in the easiest way possible.

Phil Cady
Technical Director
“If a pretty picture and cheap sentiment is enough to motivate you, you have a very easy job. One that will be done by robots in the future.”