Is it typical for us to discuss costs and benefits of various projects approaches?

Absolutely. Our entire business is built on providing expertise and guidance from discovery through execution. It’s about the best solution regardless of execution itself. We concentrate most on how the technology or solution will play into your organization then just on the technology itself. We are a group that likes to make sure assumptions are not blindly made, and as such we always want to have conversations a step back from where they usually start. As a partner we would never expect you to know exactly what you want in every case. In fact, we would be a little scared if you did. Our job is to help provide you a well-founded sound board with lots of experience around solving the challenges you are trying to go forward with people, design and technology.

Tony: Yeah. So, big question they had, which we want your knee jerk reaction to, they had mentioned we would look to our web design and development vendor to provide estimates, design, and budgetary alternatives to the biz requirements that they have.  Is it typical for us to discuss cost and benefits of the various approaches to implementing functionality and accessibility and help them choose the best option to suit their needs and budget?  

Austeja: Yeah, that seems like a given, that’s what we do all day, every day.  Again, the goal of having a partner vendor is somebody that’s going to be able to guide you throughout the process.  So, if the choice that you need to make is between two specific features that cost a certain amount or have a specific timeline attached to them, we want to make sure we educate the client and give them all the information that they need in order to make that decision for themselves.  

Tony: Yeah, and I think a huge thing playing off that idea is a lot of clients like to believe they know what they want, but we realize, especially lately the last couple years, a lot of clients are very vulnerable to the point of they can trust somebody.  We want to be that trusted partner when they come to us and say hey, I really don’t know, this is what I’m using for chat, and even though we’re not asking you to rebuild the chat, but we’re asking for your opinion on is there anything else out there, taking that seriously from our standpoint of going through that assessment with them of saying, okay, whether it’s chat or whether it’s something crucially important like select your own seat, or features or functions, or e-commerce, or carts, we just need to be on the same page and we want to be on the same page with them to say from our experience here is what we recommend, here is why, and pushing them to really think through their operational end value requirements that you might be, if you’re just using it because you’re using it, or you’re using it or wanting to build it because somebody said you should, can we talk a little bit more about that? 

Austeja: Right, and we know that our clients are going to come to us fairly educated about what they want and what they need and their business, and so on.  The goal for us as LLT is not to have all the answers, but to know the appropriate questions to ask, to get the best end deliverable for you, the client.  

Tony: Yeah, talk to me really quick on how do you feel if a client just comes to you black and white and says hey, I want these 10 things, just give me a cost.  What’s your reaction? 

Austeja: I mean, that’s fine, and we can definitely do that, but I feel like most of the time when we do react that way, what happens at the end is the client gets what they thought they wanted and it’s not what they actually wanted, because the appropriate questions again weren’t asked along the way.