It can be difficult to explain the web consultancy role to clients. The client wants a website and may not have a clear image of what their website will be for; its purpose or what they can do with it. If they want to market a product, service or cause, they need to consider how their organisation will use their site and this will have implications for the organisation. This is the first of the five main reasons organisations lose their sense of purpose.
When their website consultant starts to ask questions about their clients’ aims and objectives and other details of their organisation, they are sometimes seen as stepping outside their role. So, it is important to be clear from the start, why it is important to ask these questions. Many clients do not appreciate the central role a website can play in the life of their organisation. It doesn’t have to play such a role. Organisations that are not in business may not have a marketing mindset and strongly hold to the view that their website has no implications for their overall practice. Some businesses may share the same mistaken beliefs.
Some of this can be accounted for by not understanding what websites can do for organisations. Many people’s beliefs are simply out of date although they can be strongly held. Others have a stake in their organisation that overrides the new website. The costs of a website that doesn’t work for them, that is a liability, may not be as great as the perceived loss of power to the people who run the website.
Many organisations see appointing a consultant or a designer as analogous to appointing Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It does not change the chapel’s function. The life and routine of the Vatican are not affected by the artwork in the chapel. Of course that is not strictly true. The Sistine Chapel is a tourist attraction because of the ceiling and so does affect the life of the Vatican. If this is what the client wants, then they don’t need a consultant. They’re looking for an old-school website designer. Their website is a badge and they can be blissfully unaware of the costs in time and money such a site will have for them. There are many such sites and perhaps some organisations are happy with them. They might still be happy if they were aware of what the site could do for them.
It is acceptable to have a brochure type site if it is used as a paper brochure would be used, simply to display the organisation’s credentials. Potential clients, partners or customers can be directed there for more information. What is not acceptable is to charge the client for a site built on an obscure platform, with limited potential functionality. Organisations change and can find they have to scrap the old site entirely to bring in new functionality when they do decide they need more from their site. Bad decisions are not so serious when they can be easily remedied.
The consultant’s role is perhaps more analogous to an architect. Asked to design a chapel, the architect will need a lot of information from the client to find a design that meets their requirements. The architect will ask a lot of questions the client might not expect. That is the role of any consultant, to ask the questions the client has not anticipated, to make connections the client has not made. The more the client can take part in planning the website, the better the finished website will be. A good architect may be an artist but unlike Michelangelo cannot work without a strong relationship with the client.
I’ve already pointed you to my previous sequence about non-directive consultancy. Consultancy is usually understood to be about bringing in someone with knowledge and skills absent within the organisation. Non-directive consultancy understands the consultor or client has more knowledge than the consultant. Whilst I think non-directive consultancy is most appropriate for website consultancy the reality is more complex. The consultor has unique knowledge about their organisation and business but the consultant also brings in knowledge absent within the organisation. The skills they bring are as much about online marketing as they are about website design. Indeed many claim the consultant needs no technical knowledge to build a website that works for the organisation. Nevertheless consultant and consultor both bring unique knowledge to the table.
Developing your website implies changing the ways you do things. A simple example is newsletters. They are often a benefit offered to members of third sector organisations. Many organisations send their newsletters by email. The reasons for this are usually cost related.
However, if they set up a website and want to seek new members through it, a common approach is to enable visitors to subscribe using an email list. This keeps them in touch with the website and over a period they can be encouraged to become a member.
This is a big advantage, especially for local groups who can promote their cause and recruit members this way. The question is what they offer to subscribers. The newsletter is an obvious answer. It is a reason to be in regular contact with subscribers and if it is worth reading, may be exactly what they might sign up for.
But then the knock-on question is, what do you offer members? If subscribers get the newsletter, what is the advantage of becoming a member? The organisation may depend upon the members dues for its income.
There isn’t a single solution to this problem. Some organisations will be able to offer something beyond the newsletter to members, whilst others will find some other incentive for subscribers. Whatever they decide, they need to review their membership arrangements.
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