Executionist’s Take on Dogbert

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.”

Who’s going to write your blog?

So you’ve spent XX amount of hours of your time or paid someone $X to do it for you and now you are the proud owner of a blog. (Lucky you! Congratulations!)

Now the real work begins, because no matter how eloquent and topical we think we are, making a commitment to write blog content on a regular basis is… well… a commitment. In our office, we had the bright idea to rotate blog writing duties among our staff of talented project managers, designers and coders, but here it is “blog deadline” and nothing’s been submitted by the designated blogger. So here I am, stuck with the posting duties again.

Don’t get me wrong, a blog has been a valuable asset to our online presence. In our experience, benefits of updating your blog include:

1) Increased exposure for your company on the web, adding credibility.
2) Improved SEO power! If you search for “executionists” on the web you’ll see many of the results come from our blog.
3) A chance to showcase a personal side to your company and its employees.
4) Opportunities to showcase your witty and extremely clever rhetoric on topical issues plaguing your industry today.
5) A place to have a dialog/network with your Blog readers by responding to their comments on your posts.

In conclusion, a blog is a helpful, fun and powerful marketing tool, but take heed of our warning: it takes time and concerted effort. Not much, but effort nonetheless. Hope you read, enjoy, and take to heart this week’s valuable insight.