How to Extract the Facts with a Web Design Client Questionnaire
The phone calls usually go like this:
Caller: “I want a website for my business.”
You: “What kind of business do you have?”
Caller states the nature of the business, launches into a list of pages that he or she wants on the site, and then asks you for a price quote.
Not a very satisfying encounter, is it?
The caller seems most interested in price, and you? Well, you’re interested in a relationship. As in, the kind that lasts for years.
It might not be possible to have a meaningful relationship with price shoppers, but it’s worth taking the time to learn what your potential clients want in a website. This article will help you create a prospect qualification questionnaire that can be used via telephone or Internet or in face-to-face meetings.
Tip: I recommend using this questionnaire before you write a Web design proposal. You should reserve your proposal-writing time for the best-qualified prospects, rather than everyone who asks for one.
The best Web design questionnaires focus on:
- What the site’s supposed to do for the client’s business.
- What the site will look like.
I’ll take you through the questionnaire that I use, and explain the rationale behind each question.
1. Why do you want to have a new website, or have your current site redesigned? This question uncovers the client’s motivation for getting in touch with someone like you.
2. What will happen if you don’t have a new website, or have your current site redesigned? This is the question that starts getting at the client’s pain. His current site may not be functional in current browsers. Or it could be that they’ve decided to sell online, and the current site doesn’t enable such a thing.
3. Please describe your organization in a few sentences. Since this answer will be something like an elevator speech, it could be incorporated into the home page copy. (If you’re a copywriter – or work closely with one – take note!)
4. What is there about you and your background that sets you apart for a special (niche) group of potential customers? If nothing else, this is a question that gets the prospective client thinking. And you may have to help her with the answer. It might be that she’s been in business twice as long as any of her competitors. Or that his customers stay with him for an average of 10 years.
5. What problems do your prospects have that your business solves? Yes, I know. The word “solutions” has been overused of late. But this is an opportunity for your prospect to brag. Let him have that opportunity.
6. How can your particular work background help prospects, compared to others in your industry? What’s special about your work experience? If you’re dealing with a consultant to the construction industry, it would be good to know that she worked as an electrician for 15 years. Her website visitors would appreciate knowing that too.
7. Why do you believe site visitors should do business with you rather than with a competitor? Face it, on the Internet, the competition is but one click away. Which means that your prospect’s site will probably be compared to a lot of other sites. So, it’s up to you and the prospect to make the site memorable.
8. Do you have a slogan or tagline that clearly describes what you offer in terms of benefits or features? While many prospects may be eager to trot out their company’s slogan, others will be absolutely mystified. Why? Because they don’t have a slogan. And, people, that’s not a mortal sin. It’s okay not to have a slogan, or have one so simple that it sounds dumb. I’ve done business with a home repair guy whose company slogan was, “We Do A Better Job.” And he did.
9. Please describe your potential customers. Pay special attention to their income, interests, gender, age, even type of computer they use, e.g., old with dialup account or newer with broadband. If your website is a business-to-business site, what sort of companies are you hoping to attract? This is the Demographic Question, and you may be surprised at the level of detail that your prospects include in their answers. I recently dealt with a prospect that defined his expectations right down to the target audience’s preferred monitor size. Other prospects may need some Ideal Client Profile coaching.
10. What is your budget for this project? Don’t be surprised if this question goes unanswered. Some people have no idea of what to budget for a website project. Or maybe they’re being cagey. Whatever the reason, it’s time for you to take the initiative and give a fee range. Your range may turn out to be too high for the prospect, and that’s okay. Your job is to find those who have the desire to work with you – and the ability to pay what you charge.
11. Who are the decision makers on this project? What is the turnaround time for making a decision? Ideally, you’ll want to deal with someone who’s in charge, rather than someone who works for someone who reports to the assistant to the person who actually makes the decisions. The latter scenario tends to lead to weeks-long waits while decisions are being made.
12. What staff will be involved? What are their roles? Is there a webmaster on your staff? Many will be the times that you’ll be dealing with a website committee. And this should be where the prospect tells you so. Make it clear that there’s nothing wrong with having more than one voice involved in the website process, but ask your prospect to appoint a contact person to deal with you. This will avoid the “conflicting inputs from multiple people” problem.
As for the webmaster, don’t settle for a yes/no answer. Gauge the skill level of this person. You may be dealing with someone who’s been using computers since the punch card era. Or you may be dealing with the new hire who just had “maintain the new website” added to his job description.
13. What is your deadline for completing the site? You may be dealing with people who want a 10,000-page e-commerce site done by next Tuesday. Then again, you might not. This question, if handled carefully, can provide you with an opportunity to educate prospects on how long good design takes.
14. Please list the names of five other sites that you like. Why are they attractive to you? In general, I’ve found this to be one of the easiest questions for prospects to answer. And don’t be surprised if they offer more than five links, plus a detailed explanation of why they like each one.
15. Have you researched your online competition so you have an idea of what you do and don’t want on your site? Here’s a little secret about competitors: Some of them can be real blabbermouths. Especially on their websites. Others have sites that say little and explain even less. It’s important for your prospect to decide on the right balance between openness and secrecy – and it’s a tough decision.
16. What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, etc.? There are some things that just don’t belong on a website. (Provocative sentence, that one.) Every company has a different answer to this question. For example, some splash employee pictures all over their sites and others are like the Central Intelligence Agency, which shows no employee photos.
17. Where is the website content coming from? Who’s responsible for updating it? Is it ready for use on your website? Content is one of those things that takes forever to arrive at your studio. If you have copywriting skills – or can team up with someone who does – you can turbocharge the content production process, and finish the project faster.
18. Do you have a logo? Attention web people with logo design skills: You may be able to make an additional sale if the prospect doesn’t have a logo or doesn’t like his current logo.
19. Are you planning to do online sales? If so, what is the product, and how many items do you want to sell online? A few years ago, the word “e-commerce” took the world by storm. And all manner of companies fell under its spell. Many of them found out that e-commerce has a lot of moving parts – online order-taking that makes people feel comfortable sharing their credit card information, order-filling, shipment tracking, customer service, and the list goes on.
It’s best to clue your prospect in early. Help him plan his e-commerce strategy by directing him to Ralph Wilson’s E-commerce Research Room. Ralph has helped all sorts of people avoid expensive e-commerce mistakes, including me.
20. If you’re planning to sell online, are you set up to accept credit cards? Believe it or not, there are some people who still think that online buyers will send them a check. Sorry, but accepting credit cards is mandatory in the online business world. Getting set up to accept credit cards can take time, and lots of it. Personally, I found that my merchant account application was more intrusive than the form I had to fill out for an FBI background check. (The FBI didn’t like the quality of my fingerprints, but that’s another story.)
21. How much time will you be able to spend online, responding to inquiries that come in via your website? Once a day? Several hours a day? Ever gone to a big company’s site to ask a question? You dutifully filled out the contact form, then waited, waited, and waited for an answer that never came. This is how you don’t want your prospects to act. Timely responses to visitor inquiries work better – and cost a lot less – than elaborate PR programs.
22. If you were using a search engine, what words or phrases would you use to find your site? Which of these words or phrases is most important? Second? Third? This is one of those questions that gets the search engine obsessives going. They’re the people who come up with an impossibly long list of search terms that they expect top rankings on. Encourage them to come up with a reasonable list – say, three to five terms. Refer them to a good search engine rankings specialist.
23. Other than what search engines will produce, what methods do you have in mind to spread the word about your website? There was a time when a website was such a novelty that you could get newspaper stories written about the fact that you had one. (Newspapers – remember them?) These days, you’ll need to do a bit more planning. Although some of its information is a bit dated, Ralph Wilson’s Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy is a helpful book.
24. Once your website is completed, how long do you think it will be before you begin bringing in significant business from the website? This question is the younger sibling of the previous question. Once your client’s new website is up, it will take time for the promotional plan to show results. The answer to this question will reveal whether you have a patient prospect – or someone who expects everything to happen yesterday.
25. How do you plan to encourage repeat visitors and referrals? How is a website like a piece of granite? When it sits there and never changes. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to keep web content fresh – blogs come to mind. Making a website refer-able is a much greater challenge. Best advice I can offer is to make the site into a valuable resource – like this one.
Whew! That’s quite a list of questions. And, truth be told, I don’t use every one of them every time. It’s important to respect your prospects’ time, even when you’re looking for long-term relationships. (See? Business is a lot like the dating game!)
If you’d like some more ideas for your own client questionnaire, here are five good resources:
384,125
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Good tips, a few in here that I hadn’t thought of asking right off the bat before.
This is a good list. However, it wore me out reading it.
The reality is that you have to meet customers wherever they are right now, and even many legitimate prospects will balk and flee when their initial fuzzy idea for a web site is challenged with so many detailed questions. I think that three to five of the highest priority questions in this list should be assembled and used as an initial screening for a prospect contact.
On the other hand, many prospects will approach freelancers like they’re looking to have their lawn mowed, and they will “demand” a firm price quote then and there in the first phone conversation. This type of client is generally best to pass on.
As far as the demand for a price, I think that it’s a perfectly legitimate question, and you should have a standard pricing model developed so that you can email the prospect back with a price range and a set of assumptions for that estimate.
Thank you, your questionnaire makes a lot of sense.
I am starting a new project, and I think I’ll put it in practice with the client very soon.
Nice article. I normally use something like this when I talk to client for the first time, I’ll be adding some of these to my list.
Is that OK to you if I translate your questionaire to Portuguese and post in my company website? Of course I’ll give you all the credits.
Thank you!
Vedovelli
I agree with Don Wallace’s comments. However, I do think you’ve developed an excellent list for anyone considering getting a website for their business or upgrading an existing website.
Many people are understandably wary of website designers. I’m sure many are great, but there are many stories, and I have my own, of designers who didn’t perform in a timely manner or didn’t give the client what they requested.
What a fantastic article and list of questions to share. I think that truthfully while using your wits to ‘read the client’ and simultaneously have a list like this to go by you can really get at the heart of what a client needs very quickly. My agency used to send out a 12 page ‘Request For Proposal’ and it would come back to us 15% complete at best and really did not take us to the next step. So we have begun to transition that process to telephone meetings or in person meetings (whichever is more convenient for a potential client). But the first thing in the article is dead on target…they are quote shopping….you are interested in a relationship. I think if this type of questioning were to scare of a customer then great…they were not a good match!! Anyhow…thanks so much for posting. I will get some good discussions out of this with my team next week
I find working such questions into a conversation, usually over coffee, works best for me. No ‘boring’ factor, but you still get the answers you need.
Great post Martha. I use a similar questionnaire. It´s long too and there are serious clients who take the time for filling it up. But I have also had clients that because of their multiple obligations cannot fill it up, but they are still very good prospects. Many times I have made websites for this kind of clients without having them fill up the questionnaire just because they didn´t have time for it. So a few questions over the phone were a good research for me, and provided me with key ideas for getting the project rolling.
It´d be interesting to know how you handle this. What do you do when there is a serious client that just has no time for filling the questionaire, but he is really interested on working with you? A mini-version of the questionnaire maybe?
Thanks in advance
Thank you Martha.
Every freelancer has to have questionnaire in place for new clients (especially web designers).
I also talk through a questionnaire with clients that I keep in front of me during an initial phone call. About 99% of clients don’t have answers to all, if not most, of the questions — that’s OK. Clients really appreciate someone who wants to know a lot about their business and map out a successful plan with them. In return I get a clear picture of how serious a potential client is about moving forward and how close they are to having any outstanding materials (content, photos, etc.) to begin the project.
That said, my biggest qualifiers are my portfolio and price sheet. I make them both available to new prospects on my website as a PDF so they can download and print it to discuss with any other decision makers. The price sheet disqualifies discount shoppers before I have that initial informational meeting. The portfolio makes it pretty clear what I do and the style I do it in. I’ve had prospects contact me in the past and say they love my work but can I do something completely different for them. In those cases I try to find a friend that can do that kind of work really well and refer the client their way. Everyone involved is far better served from the process.
@LuisRoca
Excellent article but, as a couple of other people have said, I think it’s probably a bit too long and detailed for an initial response to an enquiry.
I normally ask just 3 things…
1. What are your goals for the website?
2. What’s your budget?
3. What are your deadlines?
Answers to those 3 questions tell you a lot about your potential client.
Great post!
I been meaning to make a list like just like this one, might just copy yours! =)
This great, not only will I *ask* my clients to fill this out in the future, but it already helped me do a self evaluation as I redesign my own freelance portfolio site…
When I went into business last summer one of the first things I did was scour the internet looking at other web firms and freelancers questionairres and forms. I took 3-4 of them copied several questions, tweaked others and added a couple of my own to come up with something much like this post.
It’s probably time to tweak it a little, but I think this type of questionairre is golden in getting to the heart of what your client wants and needs.
Great article. I’ve been putting a lot of work into revamping my “paperwork” lately and having read this article I figured now was as good a time as any to work on that questionnaire. It’s something I’ve use for quite awhile but I definitely see that it was missing a few key questions.
I have to agree with several people above in that I like to start off with a few basic questions on initial contact. If the client is in fact serious about the project then I forward them a more in depth list of questions as I believe it is crucial to really gaining a good understanding of the project. I think most of the time if the client is serious about their project, they will take the time to answer as many questions as they can. I don’t expect them to have an answer to everything and part of my job is to help them figure it out, but if they are not at least willing to try, my experience tells me it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Great list, back in the late 90’s we were using “the 4D’s” to put together websites. I think the list above expands on those basics we had.
1. Decide the GOAL of the website
2. Determine the CONTENT to go on it
3. Design the LOOK
4. Do the WORK and make it happen
We found if the potential client didn’t know the answers to #1 or #2, it was better to find another client. It was also more important to do those first two steps before beginning the third.
Is it a good idea to ask?:
1. How was your experience with your last web designer?
2. How many web designers have you used in the past?
I have wanted to ask potential clients lately. I am usually the first (or second) web designer most of my current clients admit. But I had a tough-to-deal-with client a couple of years ago. And the omen-sign that I remember about her is: I was the 5th or 6th web designer that she worked with on her site about emotional healing.
I should have declined after hearing that.
thnx, great tips. Some questions are new for me, some I use to ask when talking with clients. But its nice to have them all in a form of a list. Though I can hardly imagine such long conversation over the phone – I prefer to ask questions like this one during an “eye-to-eye” meeting with a customer. But from my experience it is not always such a long talk with so many questions. Some people answer the first one with just “I want website because everyone has it today. Make it simple and cheap” and for them that’s the end of the story (still, with some effort you can start from that and get something decent).
cheers
Very good post – it was a great read with lots of information and resources!
very good tips ,
the things usually happens with me too, I have gone through these lines . The line is really impressive “The caller seems most interested in price, and you? Well, you’re interested in a relationship.”
thanks for it ,
Good one.
But the client might not interested to tell all these things
Excellent article and particularly useful the links to the 5 designer sites. I have been considering revamping my website for a couple of years now and have networked with, or had sales calls from numerous web designers in the UK. Not a single one of them has been able to come up with a halfway useful “spec” sheet. Now I am about ready to write the copy, having been on a brief copy-writing seminar, I shall renew my search for a competent (and not too expensive !) designer!
Thanks again
I always include the inverse of the questions: “Please list the names of five other sites that you like. Why are they attractive to you?” That is, “List a few websites (competitors’ or outside of your field) that you dislike, and explain why.”
I think this is helpful for me and my clients – it gets them to explore what’s already out there, and helps me know what to avoid and also sort of judge their general design/web savvy.
Some of these points are also really good in other circumstances, not just website design.
A lot of the general questions about timeline , scope and stakeholders are essential to any project. It is much more pronounced in website design as a website is the public face of a company so you need to send the proper message to the proper audience…
I work in the Healthcare IT field and I love to ask high-level questions to my clients because it challenges them to the often missing question of “why?” They hate it but they love it in the end.
Thanks for the great list!
Some people mentioned that a lot of clients don’t have an answer to all the questions listed above. I agree with that very much. I think it is the opportunity for the freelancer to become more involved in the clients’ lines of processes and general model. Clients love to be asked pertinent questions that they had not thought of because it shows your expertise, commitment to making their business better. On your side, it justifies your rate!
Awesome. I have a new client questionnaire too, but not nearly this well-put-together! Thanks for taking the time on a great post.
Hi, I like this article. It really give me new point of view on taking a freelance on website development for clients. You were right, customers just want to know how much is the cost for each page and the whole site. This question will make the customer feel that I really concern about their business rather than just concern with my own pocket.
Give the client what they NEED not just what they ask for. This is a line I often heard from one of my early mentors.
A questionnaire of this sort, with challenging questions, will go a long way in helping a designer do just that. If you only ask a client basic Q’s you can probably deliver what they want, but so could a dozen other designers. If you ask good questions you can learn what they need and often it is not just what they’ve asked for. And when you’re able to do that, you deliver value that will help you stand out from other designers who are just taking orders.
I’ve found that the questionnaire I use (which happens to be very similar to Martha’s) opens up the kind discussion that helps the client get out of preconceived notions and lets them be willing to explore solving their NEED.
Hi Martha,
Thanks so much for this post. I immediately saw how it could be applied to freelance writing and significantly reduce my overall workload by getting all this info up front. In fact, I converted a bit of it into a post on freelance writing questions and gave you much high praise over on my freelance writing blog. Thanks again for laying this all out. These questions were common sense but took a very sensible person to point them out.
Great list of questions, I’m going to have to go update my questionaire. I have some of this covered, but certainly not all of it.
Man this was & is something I can use on a daily basis Oh & now I also can incorprate with my new staff member and save a huge amount of time not only writing but then explaining what I wrote is like.. anyways Thanks my brother.. How I said before I love reading your S@#&!
PS. keep up the GREAT work..
http://www.151years.com
STRAIGHTALK
An approach we’ve had some success with recently is to ask questions to determine what the client considers to be success of the project. This goes beyond technical success (ie. 50,000 hits a month or 30 e-mail forms submitted) and directly to their business goals (ie. attracting 2 new customers a month, or reducing support calls by 50%)
Combined with questions about the financial aspects of their business we’ve been able to put together killer proposals which project how much money they’ll save in the long run when investing in developing their website. For example, if their assistant’s time is worth $15 an hour and he spends 10 hours a week fielding 200 support calls, by adding a comprehensive FAQ to their site and reducing the support calls by 50% we can save the client $150/week or over $7,000 a year. Suddenly a $5,000 investment in a website doesn’t seem so large!
These proposals are surprisingly light on technical details and result in us winning bids which are much higher than competitors’ proposals which are full of technology buzzwords and forget that the website they’re building is just a part of a much larger business.
It’s hard for me, as a computer nerd, to realize that clients really don’t care about the technology all that much. As long as it looks nice then design isn’t that important to client either. What clients want is business results.
Great list of questions, I use many of them in my Project Brief that clients must fill out before starting a new project.
One other one that I ask:
“Describe in one sentence what you want your website to say to visitors.”
Nice post. I use a similar list but have found I had to shorten it to a one pager as most client find a long one a bit much for them.
Awesome post with a bunch of useful information and links!!
Thanks for all the info. As my way of working enforce me to work without any “direct” contact with a client such as calls or meetings (I don’t even know where I will be coding tomorrow. Under a tree on the beach, on a boat ride to the reef) these “questionnaires” will be a great way of gathering user requirements.
Though I will make it a step by step thing. As the basic questions to get enough information for a quotation, if the client still interested, on to the next step, and so on. No use asking questions before it’s really relevant. (Like hosting / domain name, while the client just want to know what it’s going to cost more or less)
Billiant list, thanks!
Building a relationship with a client can be such a challenging task, most clients seem so obsessed with prices they really don’t understand the implications of using a freelancer. And from a freelancers point of view, it’s nigh-on impossible to produce good work without having one.
I love the questionnaire, I think this will solve any future problems I might have!
Great list but it is very long for an initial discussion. I usually book a “strategy session” to cover all this. It can be done on the phone. Let the client know before hand that it’s likely to take 1 and half hours or so. It will put them in the right frame of mind to answer these questions.
Really useful, use a lot of these questions but there’s a few more I can take away from this post. Thanks
What about the user?In my questionairre I ask only two big questions:
A. What are the main things your customer will come looking for (name 5)
B: What are the main things you want to get from this website (name 5)
Have a look again at A! This is the money shot. Youve got to put yourself and your client in the shoes of the customer. Try to see the site through their eyes and I bet a number of new requirements will pop out. It will also impress your client that you think in this way.
rob who livith at http://www.webdesignwaterford.ie
I use a formal survey during discovery meetings and have found it to be a truly valuable tool, both as a means for me to create a solid proposal/strategy and to convey the concern I have for what’s behind the ‘I need a web site’ statement. A couple of recent comments from prospects during the survey process:
“This is great, very professional”
“Excellent way to start the process. Great approach”
I usually send the survey a couple days in advance of the initial meeting and insist that all members of the team provide individual answers.
These questions is very useful for me.
Thanks a lot
Thank you, your questionnaire makes a lot of sense.
I will start a project, and I think I will put it in practice with the client very soon.
Great article. I’ve often asked a varied amount of questions but have sometimes needed to go back to the client for answers. I made this mistake in my early days but I find a well structured Q&A helps my design turn around time. I no longer chase clients for answers, feedback or request content.
This was a wonderful list! Thank you Martha for putting this list together.
A great list – will be a huge help in getting the best initial brief out of the client. I often find myself asking these sorts of questions, but having them all in one place is brilliant.
Thanks,
Dan
Very useful post! I will utilize this questionnaire.
Great article – thanks a bunch.
Hi Martha,
Awesome list of questions. I have a client meeting tomorrow and after reading this I feel much more confident and prepared. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent article and it is very useful.
Very good collection of questions. We do direct some more questions about branding, including colors, the mood, the overall language used within business writings all to match the design with customer’s brand identity – of course if they have any.
The word “extract” is the key
Great Article !
Really Informative article. Will help me now to extract right information from my clients. Thanks
Now I know what to tell clients….excellent article, very useful.
Those are some very good questions. I normally ask my clients similar ones over the phone. Do you have them fill it out on a form or just ask them? Keep up the good work. Nice looking site here!
There are quite some questions. If the client is only interested in a price quote, how can we be sure that he/she will answer all the questions ? Maybe a number of questions should be selected as important, and if the client is still interested, the other questions will be asked.
I am a big believer in asking as many useful questions as possible of a client however, I limit the number of questions I ask over the phone. I find that the phone call is best used as a tool to gather a face to fact interview (preferably in my office in my presentation room) Once someone has taken the time to come in, I have their undivided attention and I can ask as many questions as I like and educate the client so they have realistic expectations regarding what they will receive for the money they spend. My close rate is 98% when the client comes to my office however, this rate drops significantly when I go to the clients office (distractions). I do not attempt to close sales over the phone. If someone isn’t serious enough to meet with me or one of my reps I do not consider them a legitimate prospect.
Good ideas, in general, but I think 25 question from the start could be too much, some may be paraphrased and shorten the number, and there’s almost nothing asked about The Design, which is the graphical interface, with other words – at what eventually will look the user in the Internet, or The Company’s Gace in the Internet…
Great article! I’ve just begun my first PAID job in freelance web design, and this got me through our initial meeting! Thank you so much!
Great Article! I have a similar questionnaire, but I’m going to add a couple of the questions from this article.
There are some great questions. I think its important to tailor each questionaire to potential client. Some of mine would freak if I hadn’t them the full version!
Thanks
Thanks for the tips, it’s good to have a questionnaire so you don’t forget to ask about anything. I also ask my clients what should the site communicate, what impression should it make on their clients. It’s ussually difficult for them to answer.
Thanks for this, very helpful!
Building value is key to asking questions to a potential clients. Asking question allows your potential clients to think and build value to why then need a website and why they are choosing you. A good questionnaire along with a good proposal will help you sell your web services.
Great list of questions and very useful for everyone. Thanks for this.
Thanks for this very nice PIONTS, they are very helpful!
I’ve read a lot of articles on this subject since I’m compiling info to create my own questionnaire, and I must say, after reading about 6 or 7 articles, this one is the most comprehensive and has the best thought out questions. Thanks!