This was a repurposed version of a Site of the Week email. I have edited some info for public consumption.
I’m back with another week in Wordpress land. It hasn’t been without its drama has it?! I mean I have been around for a long time, and I have seen some drama, but never really in the stacks that I work with have I seen anything like it. (This was the week of hacks, and secret backdoors, and all of the things)
I too had my share of drama the last few weeks.
I launched another site this week for a client. Let me tell you – I have tried my hardest not to work with this client.
When I say try my hardest – I sent multiple emails telling the person I wasn’t interested in working on this project. Every which way I could think of I said no.
I did it as a white label for an old friend, and I told her from the jump basically that this was a nightmare client and I didn’t need the frustration.
You know the type – moves really quickly, on his third agency, never gets things finished because you can’t keep him focused long enough, and looks at developers/designers as expendable.
He fired the prior agency after paying them what he claims was $25,000, but that was highway robbery if so.
I actually don’t really know if he fired them – I can see from the email trail that he forwarded to us that he basically burned through his hours that I guess he had prepaid for.
What I do know is that he wouldn’t let them launch the site.
He wanted me to come in on top of them and fix a few things and just launch it. Just take it live he said. It isn’t that hard he said.
One look at a Divi built site that was INSANELY slow, and had numerous other issues, and I was like I’m out, good luck.
I did take screenshots for perpetuity though.
It is never good practice IMO to come in and try to fix someone else’s work. You have no idea where the bodies are buried, and it just creates a harder situation for you.
Their CTO couldn’t figure out how to launch the site, and since we weren’t going near the dumpster fire, they were unable to launch the site.
Needless to say, he came back a week later and agreed to a full rebuild.
Why did he agree to do it? I think probably because I stood up to him and stepped out of the designer/developer role and into a consultant. (This was in fact shortlived)
I told him point blank what was wrong with his site and his messaging. I told him he was focused on the wrong things and that it wouldn’t ever convert as is. They built him the site he wanted, not the site he needed. Update: I probably should have just built him the site he wanted and let him fail
I used my background in business, along with the fact that I didn’t care if I got the job to get him where I wanted him.
He now trusted me as the expert, not as someone he could just pay the bill for and move on.
So I start this thing and told him we had to make some sacrifices and plan for the future because he wanted it done quickly.
I mean like a month minimum faster than a normal build like this would be. He wanted to skip all the steps etc etc. “Just build me a funnel, it’s not hard” is what we kept hearing.
WHAT ARE YOU FUNNELING THEM TO? WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER?
I get a week in, and they are already changing the entire messaging, and threatening to fire the PR person they just hired.
“We also want you to build our sister site, which does the same thing but differently.” — this was after the first review of the site. But now we want to stop focus on the first site and focus on the second. Stop it.
I come up with a plan to drive traffic to a recorded webinar for them. Only problem is they don’t have a webinar recorded. “We will record one and send to you”. Ok great, sounds good. Launch day is in 3 weeks Mr. Client.
Now it’s launch day and they literally just said “just hide it for now we will just have them book a demo for now”. I can’t make this up.
Week 2 of the three week build – site layouts are done, graphics are all ordered, messaging is being fine tuned – he says, “I hired a 3D video firm in Argentina to do video messaging for us”.
With absolutely no input from me or anyone else, he just goes off and hires someone and he says we’ll want to integrate it into the site so keep that in mind.
Where in the site is this going to go? This wasn’t the video you promised from the large video agency, that we still haven’t gotten…
Do you think they should be clued into the messaging we are going with? Or are they just going to charge you for something you won’t ever use like the last 3 agencies you hired?
He has so many different tracks of thought that there’s no way he can keep it all straight.
I finally just had to say – let’s get the site launched, then we can focus on the next step, and he begrudgingly agreed. Kick the can down the road a bit. Use the defer distract deflect method that I use with my toddlers.
I did finally get the site done, but it was top notch pain in the butt. I got a decent amount of monthly revenue for it, and there will be more to come, but I am sure I will at some point question my sanity for accepting the client.
Do you all have any nightmare clients? Drop me a line.
Update:
We launched the website, and everything went great. Client loves it – all is good. We had a plan in place for future growth and marketing etc. He sent an email thanking us for doing such a great job and being great partners.
Everything was in the client’s hands. We had requested case studies, additional content, videos, etc. that was all to be worked on.
We do a round up call a week after launch, and there are two new people on the call. I quickly check their emails to figure out who they are: they are another digital agency.
Yes, this client went and hired his FIFTH agency in the last year.
Right after we successfully launched, had a plan in place, etc. and he goes and hires another company because he was sick of waiting on our plan. Our plan which was on hold pending items from his team.
No worries, we will just figure out how to integrate with this new team
I feel like this is going to be an ongoing saga as we are getting ready to start the next site for the same client. Stay tuned!
Update 2:
He fired the 5th agency. So it is back to just us, trying to eke out content from the guy. The other day, in response to me asking to fill in basically a worksheet to help us frame some messaging, he sent 25 straight emails with pitchdecks and worksheets and all sorts of things and basically said figure out my company’s messaging, I don’t have time.
This isn’t going to end well….