My Back40 blogs are generally all about the visuals. The visual aspect of graphic design and web development is important, but you cannot be a good web design company unless you also give importance to trust. “Trust” is a word that many companies throw out there in phrases like “a company you can trust” or “your trust is our goal” and so on. I think those phrases are a bit cliché, however trust is not.
Let’s focus on some items that build trust in the design and web world: performance, responsibility, loyalty, and longevity.
Performance
You can’t develop trust with someone who can’t perform. At Back40, we perform on many levels. We are performing through our talents as designers, developers, programmers, project managers and more. When we deliver a design that communicates, is beautifully built, and functions properly, that’s performance. Performance is wonderful, but without responsibility it is useless.
Responsibility
Earned trust comes through seeing performance in action. Actions speak louder than words, right? For example, when a client emails us needing a reprint of a print design piece, it is our responsibility to the client to make this happen. How good is the design if we are not responsible with the follow through? At Back40, we show up to meetings (on time), we meet deadlines (on time), we perform our talents with award winning results, and we host websites with near 100% uptime. You would be surprised at how many web design professionals have trouble with the first two items just listed. Our responsibility stems from our loyalty to our clients.
Loyalty
Like any relationship, trust is developed through loyalty and faithfulness. We build relationships based on trust by supporting our clients. We get behind their strengths and help share it with their audience. We are there for our clients through face-to-face meetings at our office, phone calls, emails, and even online help through support tickets. Back40 doesn’t just show up when a client is one of the top successes in their industry. We also show up like a good, loyal friend to help our clients with their internet startups (which has its growing pains, trust me), we help our clients sell more products, and we even help them rework their outdated logo design. What would loyalty and faithfulness be without consistency? Back40 has been consistently there for clients since 2000.
Longevity
Within the last 5 years that I’ve been designing for Back40, I’ve seen many web design companies come and go. How can you trust someone if you aren’t sure they will be there tomorrow? Clients have come to Back40 with websites shut down because the other company didn’t pay their bills, because their other designer stopped answering emails, because their other cart stopped processing orders, and worse. Back40 takes steps to ensure we have a long stay in our industry and a future for tomorrow, such as: employing skilled, passionate, and dependable professionals; growing our business with a debt free foundation; investing in and updating our own CMS product, Javelin; and most importantly, building long-term relationships with great clients who love to refer us.
We believe in performance, responsibility, loyalty, and longevity—for the long haul and for your trust.
