Where have all the agents gone? got me thinking about occasions in the past where I have dealt with “transparent middle men”. People who -aside from introducing the other two parties- have absolutely no input in, nor provide any value to a project.

If someone refers work on to us, and it’s a project we embark on, we will certainly be grateful, and in most instances discuss a referral commission or finder’s fee of sorts. But when that translates into a situation where this middleman is white labelling our services (also a workable solution in the right situation), but not providing any value to the tasks at hand, and possibly even stifling communication, then you have to stand back and wonder if their intervention is of any value to our business or the end client’s.

It’s not only about who you know

I fully understand and agree that in business; who you know plays a big part, but if you keep those connections too closely guarded and stop the natural flow of conversation, you’re doing a disservice to yourself in the long run; and to your client and service provider, in the long and short term… a damaging experience all round.

How we provide value

What we provide in our role as website design consultants is far more than tying a client to a designer and developer and cashing in on the profit. We administer each project from a top level standpoint and provide a single point of contact from whom every aspect of your project is managed. There are clearly planned and strategised phases to every project, and each task is discussed, documented, scheduled, carried out, tested and followed up on.

After reading Seth’s post, I feel confident that our role in providing solid, value based services to our clients both past, present and future is a good investment of our time in improving Allchorn Design, and the offerings we provide to our clients.