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Configuring the Canada Post Custom Declarations Form via the API
11 Apr
2017-04-11T10:51:18+00:00
I had a question roll through on the WooCommerce Slack, which I think could be of assistance to our readers –
When shipping using Canada Post, the majority of orders go from CA to USA. So there needs to be a “customs declaration” form for each order. Apparently this “customs declaration” form is somewhere readily available in the Canada Post account. How do I know?
Well, the client is sick and tired of having to bounce back and forth for every order and jumping back into the Canada Post dashboard just to retrieve the “customs declaration” form. Is there a way to ‘pull’ this info from the Canada Post API?
Lol, somewhat dramatic – anyhow, it’s completely possible. Thanks to the helpful folks at Canada Post, here is a guide on how to get it done.
—
Via the API, Canada Post always return the custom forms for USA/Intl destination. It can be combined with the shipping labels, or in some instances it comes separately. This is where it becomes important to make available all copies when you get an answer back from Createshipments. It would require also that on the front end, you offer the capability for the end user to fill in the customs information.
Below are 2 examples where you see the customs info combined with the shipping labels. The 2nd example shows where it is a separate copy. It all depends on the shipping service and paper format opted for.
#1 Xpresspost USA (Canada Post combines the custom info on the shipping label)
Notice the answer, we only one instance of the endpoint name : LABEL
#2 Here is an example where Canada Post returns 2 labels, one outgoing and the second is a commercial invoice needed with the shipments for customs purposes.
When receiving the answer back from Canada Post, I always read the entire answer back using for each, so I can capture everything back from Canada Post and translate in a button:
Here is the printout of the second test showing 2 different copies for this shipment:
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There you have it folks. Thanks again to the team at Canada Post for helping to put this together.
So, as per usual, I was chatting with someone about the inner workings of WooCommerce. In this case, it was Patrick Garman. Reason being, I get a lot of questions of whether or not a business should use Shopify, or WooCommerce. For me, the answer is simple: with WooCommerce, you own your shit. That alone is enough reason to end the conversation. However, let’s take it a bit deeper. More often than not, this boils down to technical expertise vs. convenience.
Please note that some text has been redacted and replaced with equivalent statements, omitting references to individuals or projects.
cally
Hey Patrick amigo, quick q for you..
I’m working on getting a pretty good sized retailer onto WooCommerce. They’re very much a recognized brand. However, for bandwidth/usage it’s not too intense1.
cally
They asked about “clunkiness” in WooCommerce, and I was wondering if you had a chart, or threshold where you start to see this?
pmgarman
Really depends on the site and how it’s built, to be honest REDACTED [we’ve built and run WooCommerce sites with databases over 100GB in size, which ran better than some sites that have databases less than 1GB].
Do you have new relic or anything running?
cally
It’ll be built from scratch and put on an entry level dedicated box at WP Engine, so we could run New Relic.
At this time they’re contemplating platforms, and it’s between Woo and Shopify.
They’re familiar with REDACTED. 😉
pmgarman
Well if you need to bring in some expertise,
I’m not longer at REDACTED 😉 REDACTED is my sole focus.
cally
I saw.
I creep you once and a while, y’know? 😉
pmgarman
Ha keeping tabs on me
cally
Lol
Mostly wanna know what you have your hands in!
pmgarman
We’re working with REDACTED on their managed platform and part of that is *the* feature plugin for custom order tables
cally
Deep down tho, you still hardcore Woo? Or, if a large brand lands on your doorstep, would you ever recommend Shopify? What would that tipping point be?
pmgarman
Just to start 😀
cally
I’m like 100% against Shopify, lol. But I haven’t put it all into words yet.
pmgarman
I work heavily on both now, depends on their level of customization and how much they want to “manage” it
cally
*the* feature plugin for custom order tables
You’ve always got your hands in something good!
pmgarman
It’s good for someone who has a simple site and doesn’t want to deal with the headache of WP/WC
cally
depends on their level of customization
How far can you customize Shopify? For example, could you easily add subscriptions, or multi-language as an add-on? I’ve never built on it.
pmgarman
multi language basically means you run multiple stores, thats essentially your only real option
customizations, you can customize the html essentially. and then whatever you can do via the API.
with enterprise “plus” plans, you can do a bit more. but thats minimum $2k/mo. and that is now going to go up a lot from my understanding
unless you are paying $2k/mo, your checkout URL is my.shopify.com or something
cally
Yea they’re definitely considering Plus, and it’s funny you mention price, because that is definitely an uncertainty I wondered about.
pmgarman
plus: it can handle a significant number of orders/min. REDACTED
con: all customizations are significantly more involved
cally
To me it sounds like the advantage of Shopify is:
– Allows for a lot of orders.
– No worries for maintenance
Is that about it?
pmgarman
apps have long term costs you can’t ever get away from. customizations of your own if it touches the API means you need to host and run your own custom application
yeah thats the main points
a lot as in, it handles the biggest flash seller in the world
cally
lolol
Good to know.
pmgarman REDACTED
cally
So a very extreme edge case.
What about the payment gateway, too? I think they penalize you for not using their’s, correct?
pmgarman
they don’t “penalize” you, but, you don’t get the benefits their white label stripe offers.
stripe won’t even talk to you if you are using shopify, you *must* use their shopify payments
cally
I heard they add a % point for using a 3rd party.
pmgarman
which you don’t get your own stripe
yeah you have transaction fees unless you use theirs. but i’m not sure if plus changes that
cally
So the benefits really aren’t that much.
IMO
Then concerns if the company goes bankrupt, restricts features, etc. It’s a lot to pay for some convenience.
About Woo scalability, progress is being made then, as you’re working on it now?
pmgarman
the benefits to the lay person is “you dont have to manage your site, they do it for you” where WP/WC you *really* have to manage it. you need someone monitoring it if you are doing any sort of volume or want to run it right, you need to deal with updates/etc
cally
Okay, so assuming they have a Saucal or Patrick Garman, they’re covered. Plus, all the benefits of full flexibility and ownership.
Patrick GarmanREDACTED
pmgarman
yeah basically
tl;dr – if you are paying more than $2k/mo to run your site (hosting and maintenance), then it’s worth considering, if you have a simple site that doesn’t require much customization.
without plus you can’t even use the discounts api
so you can’t create coupons unless you do it by hand
$2k/mo to have the power to import coupons
at the end of the day i’ve worked on the largest WC site ever, and now the two largest Shopify stores ever. I’ve broken things on both, Shopify has banned my API keys because i was stressing things.
cally
Lol, you’re the man.
And that’s at current pricing. If pricing goes up at Shopify, things change.
What are the two sites on Shopify?
pmgarman
Which, it is going up
i don’t know if they have publicly said it or not. plus is now also a transaction or % based model
cally
You know by how much?
pmgarman
let me look it up, i can find out from some other people. REDACTED was grandfathered in
REDACTED was #2 at shopify, REDACTED was #1
cally
That would be great. And, is it okay if I share this information? Ofc, I want to ask you first.
Dude, how do you land these all star customers?
pmgarman REDACTED wasn’t a client, REDACTED was my full time job, REDACTED was under the umbrella of REDACTED and REDACTED was the second brand. REDACTED < i built that site
cally
I’m gonna wear a Patrick Garman t-shirt at WooConf2
pmgarman
theres a lot of separation and similarities at the same time. but at the end of the day architecturally what my role became when on shopify was connecting things together and building internal tools and applications
ha you should. some mindsize jerseys, garman on the back
cally
hahahaha, i was thinking more like those rapper t’s.. your face on the front.
Maybe wearing a crown ?
my role became when on shopify was connecting things together and building internal tools and applications
And these were hosted off-site, therefore putting you back in the realm of maintenance, etc.
pmgarman
haha
yeah it was a custom application that i developed myself (built on laravel spark) from the “ground” up
thats how we did reporting, i exported all shopify data through the API, thats why ops hated me
would run 20 threads of API calls
cally
wow, so exporting the data pounded the API and they didn’t like it..
ha damn.
pmgarman
yep – which doesn’t support shopify, yet
bryce has promised me an API 🙂
cally
lol
So, there you have it. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to need some technical chops. Might as well suit up, or let us handle it. Trust me, it’s a lot better than censorship, or this.
I have a breakdown of this, but I cannot share it all. However, per day, it’s estimated to be 600-800 page views and 30-40 orders. ↩
WooCommerce Subscriptions and Payment Gateways, Who Manages What?
21 Feb
2017-02-21T15:41:26+00:00
We had a question come through, followed by a tweet. The tweet went on it’s own tangent talking about things not previously discussed, however it did raise a good question about payment gateways and WooCommerce Subscriptions.
Q:
I was always under the impression that in Subscriptions, it does not set up a recurring profile on the payment provider, rather Subscriptions sends single charges each month to the payment gateway1. I know at least it’s that way in Stripe. But I had a guy come through, and said I was wrong for PayPal.
A:
You are right for almost all gateways. With PayPal Standard (and one or two other gateways, like WorldPay), the only option is to create a subscription at the payment provider. With all other gateways, including PayPal Reference Transactions (also built into Subscriptions, but requires special approval from PayPal’s end before it can be used) we just need a payment token, and can do everything else ourselves2. Although that said, for PayPal Reference Transactions, the “token” is actually a billing agreement, so the custom can still cancel/suspend that billing agreement at PayPal. AFAIK, there is no PayPal product which does not allow the customer to also manage the recurring payments. Something like PayPal Pro, which is just a credit card gateway, might do that though. But in those cases, you’d just want to use Stripe or something better anyway.
So there you have it. If you’re using PayPal Standard, or 1 or 2 other gateways, the subscription is managed on their platform. Otherwise, it’s managed within Subscriptions directly. And by “manage” I don’t mean it’s storing credit card data locally.
I hope that clears things up. Cheers to the team at Prospress for the answer. 😉
By no means are we implying storing credit card data on the local server. This is a question of using a token and where and when charges are authorized from. This is explained in the answer. ↩
Okay, maybe you’re not as familiar with the last two, but you should be – especially if you run an e-commerce business.
See, the only way to make sure that your website is performing well is to track your analytics. You need to know how well your sales funnel is doing, whether people are buying certain products over others, and how many people are visiting your site on a regular basis.
All these metrics are important, so you need the best insight tools to provide you with that data. If you’re looking for the cream of the crop, however, there are three big insight tools that currently hold a lion’s share of the market: Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel.
If you’re looking to gather more marketing data for your site, consider this an honest-to-goodness overview of the biggest contenders. But just so we don’t play favorites, we’re also including four more insight tools you might not want to overlook.
Check out this quiz for more info: What Insight Tool Best Fits My Needs?
Here’s a general breakdown of the three titans of analytics. In case you’re thinking that they all do the same thing, know that while they all will give you valuable insight into how your website functions, each has it’s own specialty that may benefit certain businesses more than others. Let’s take a look.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is probably the most well-known solution, and thanks to its popularity there are plenty of guides out there that can turn any greenhorn into an analytics expert. It’s also easily integrated with many different e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce.
The biggest plus for Google Analytics is its ability to measure traffic. If one of the focuses of your marketing strategy is to bring unique visitors to your page, this is a great tool for tracking that information. It’s also fairly easy to setup, and you can start pulling data right away.
Google Analytics can also measure funnels, which it calls “goals”. For the uninitiated, funnels measure things like the success of your sign-up flow (how many users land on your website, how many click to sign up, how many enter their email address, etc.).
When you set up funnels, you can view data going forward only, which means that you won’t be able to view data that happened before the funnel was set up.
Some have argued that Google Analytics’ funnels are less accurate than, say, Kissmetrics, but for businesses that want a general overview for their primary funnels, it’s not a deal breaker.
The one downside is that while it has the ability to track events, the setup process can be cumbersome unless you really know what you’re doing, and again, the data may not be as robust as you need it to be depending on your goals. It does have a feature to view real-time stats, but it won’t break down the stats any further than a general counter number on your dashboard.
Best for: Analyzing Traffic Worst for: Tracking Events Setup – Easy Cost – Free and Premium – Premium provides higher data limits with more custom variables
WordPress has a WooCommerce/Google Analytics integration app that you can find here.
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is another highly popular and comprehensive analytic solution. While Google Analytics can be used with any business, Kissmetrics really has an edge when it comes to e-commerce.
Funnel and event tracking are strong points for Kissmetrics, both of which can help you increase customer acquisition rates and improve customer retention. It also has an advantage when it comes to building intuitive reports. Kissmetrics is more funnel-focused, allowing you to edit and tweak funnels much easier than other tools.
Unlike Google Analytics, Kissmetrics funnels can retrieve historical data. For example, you can set up a sign-up funnel and then view how it’s been performing over previous months.
Kissmetrics also has a feature that many other insight tools like Mixpanel lack: The ability to show retention from a first time event to a repeat of that event.
Say, for example, that a customer clicks on a certain product page, but decides not to buy it in that moment. If they come back to your site and click on that page again, you’ll be able to track that event.
KISSmetrics lets you add a parameter in your URL (i.e. “http://yoursite.com/yourpage?kme=Track+This+Event”) and then automatically logs it without any additional Javascript code. This is very helpful to track clicks on links for example and is not currently support in Mixpanel.
The only downside is that it’s not necessarily for newbies. While someone who doesn’t know much about analytics or, say, JavaScript, can still navigate around Kissmetrics with relative ease, the more advanced functions – like event tracking – may come with a steeper learning curve.
Best for: Measuring Funnels Worst for: Analyzing Traffic Setup – Moderate Cost – Multi-tiered pricing starting at $29/month
WooCommerce has step by step instructions for integrating with Kissmetrics here.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is similar to Kissmetrics in many ways, but Mixpanel is a step up in terms of being developer-friendly. In other words, you will probably get the same if not more functionality out of Mixpanel than Kissmetrics, but you have to know what you’re doing.
A few upsides to Mixpanel that make it a good alternative to the above include real-time analytics and opportunities for things like running your own front-end analytics. This can be very practical for de-bugging and catching errors as they happen, especially for new, buggy products.
In addition to event tracking, Mixpanel also lets you to segment your retention reports by additional properties, giving you more detailed data should you need it.
The downside is that some developers claim that the process to measure funnels isn’t as good as Kissmetrics or other similar insight tools. Mixpanel does support chronological funnels similar to Google Analytics. However, Celso Pinto, Founder and CEO of SimpleTax, wrote an article about why Mixpanel is still a better option over Kissmetrics for some developers.
Best for: Tracking Events Worst for: Measuring Funnels Setup – Difficult Cost – Free and Multi-tiered pricing starting at $99/month
WooCommerce has step by step instructions for integrating with Mixpanel here.
WordPressIntegrations also has an infographic with comparisons between Google Analytics, Kissmetrics and Mixpanel with a breakdown of page authority, social metrics, and other metrics.
Other Insight Tools to Consider
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about some other options available. Here are four great alternatives if you’re not really sure you want to buy into the three listed above.
RetentionGrid
RetentionGrid is frequently mentioned in the same space as Kissmetrics, and for good reason. It’s an app that provides similar data reports in easy to understand, color-coded graphs. It also provides suggestions to help with marketing strategies based on that data, which makes it a good solution for those who want some of the main features of Kissmetrics but don’t have a lot of experience as a developer. They also have the option of running abandoned cart campaigns (as well as other campaigns), which can come in handy for businesses that struggle with retention.
While they were originally created for BigCommerce, they also have an open API that is compatible with WooCommerce.
Best for: Measuring Funnels/Campaigns Worst for: Tracking Events Setup – Easy Cost – Free to download
Clicky
Clicky is another real-time analytics tool similar to Mixpanel, only far more user-friendly. No matter how experienced you are, you’ll be able to navigate the dashboard with relative ease. It’s a great option for those who still want detailed analytics without the stress of complicated setup.
Best for: Analyzing Traffic Worst for: Measuring Funnels Setup – Easy Cost – Free and Multi-tiered pricing starting at $9.99/month
Adobe Marketing Cloud
Adobe Marketing Cloud is another powerful analytical tool often used by large e-commerce stores. The only reason it’s not included in the top three is that it takes a significant amount of knowledge to setup and use properly. While it’s perhaps one of the best out there in terms of analytics, it’s also not for the faint of heart. Adobe Marketing Cloud consist of six solutions.
Adobe Analytics
Adobe Campaign
Adobe Experience Manager
Adobe Media Optimizer
Adobe Social
Adobe Target
You can run campaigns, track events, create content to targeted audiences, and much more, The only other downside is that it’s expensive, as each solution comes with its own individual pricing. So if you want all the benefits of the cloud, you’ll need to lay down some serious dough.
Best for: Analyzing Traffic Worst for: Cost savings Setup – Difficult Cost – Single subscriptions start at $99/month
Crazy Egg
Like Google Analytics, Crazy Egg isn’t necessarily an analytics tool targeted to e-commerce, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great option. It offers equally comprehensive and user-friendly graphs, including heat maps that can tell you which areas of your website to focus on (or alternatively, which are being ignored).
Best for: Tracking Events Worst for: Measuring Funnels Setup – Easy Cost – Multi-tiered pricing starting at $9/month
Still not sure what to pick? Take our Insight Tool Quiz to help you decide.
There are a couple things to keep in mind when selecting an analytics tool.
Make sure that you know how much data you actually need to collect. While having detailed funnel graphs and traffic reports can be good if you know what you’re doing, you may not need all that fancy information. Don’t pay extra for features you’re not going to use because you don’t need them (or you don’t know how to use them).
Finally, if you’ve committed to an analytic solution but you don’t know how to use all the features to their best ability, find someone who can either teach you how to use them (or read the data) or find someone whose job it is to put that data into practice.
Bundle WooCommerce Products for All Your Greedy Shoppers
09 Nov
2016-11-09T06:00:26+00:00
Do you want to increase profits and improve customer satisfaction?
Silly question, we know. But the reason we ask is that many ecommerce stores often overlook a simple competitive pricing strategy that could easily incentivize more purchases, they just never do it.
It’s called bundling, and if you’re not already doing it, you should be. Here’s why.
Here are 5 tips for pricing your bundled products.
Bundling is exactly what it sounds like: Combining similar products together into one kick-ass product.
The reason bundling is so appealing from a consumer perspective is that customers are inherently greedy. They want the most value for the least amount of money, which bundling gives them.
They’re essentially receiving way more value for their single purchases than they would by buying each product individually, and they usually save a bit of money in the process. They also don’t have to waste time searching for other products that they may need, which means they’re more likely to return to your store to find what they’re looking for in the future.
From a business perspective, bundling is great because you’re making more money on the total value of the order. Sure, you may lose some margin here if you’re offering an extreme discount, but you also have the potential of selling more products.
But how exactly do you bundle? Maybe your products don’t readily lend themselves to bundling, or you’re not exactly sure which products to combine with others. Well, take a deep breath.
There are several ways you can approach it.
Bundling Techniques to Try
If one bundling strategy won’t work for your products, chances are that another will. Here are a few options you can try to maximize your earning potential.
Pure Bundling
Pure bundling is where you offer certain products that are only available in a bundle. Customers either won’t be able to find them separately, or wouldn’t necessarily need or want to purchase them separately.
A real life example of this would be cable providers bundling their channels together, or how Adobe or Microsoft bundle their software services together in one suite. The plus side is that customers purchase products they would otherwise never consider.
If you have several products that work really well together (or really don’t work well without each other), consider packaging them together as one offering. You can even use subscription pricing with pure-bundled products, like how Microsoft Office 365 uses a month-to-month subscription.
Mixed Bundling
Mixed bundling is similar to pure bundling except customers can also purchase the products individually. This is probably the most popular type of bundling out there, and for good reason. Mixed bundling gives customers the option to purchase products individually, so even if they can’t decide on your bundle, you’re still more likely to make a sale.
The goal here is to:
Choose products that are already best sellers, so you can charge a special price to package them together
Choose products that are okay sellers individually, but would be a better deal for the customer if sold together
Choose one product that sells well and another that doesn’t sell well, so that you can sell more of both products
The nice thing about mixed bundling is that shoppers often can’t resist a great deal. If they’re already paying for something they want, and they get a little something extra along with it, they’re more than happy to spend a few extra dollars.
Cross-Sell Bundling
If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’ve seen an example of cross-sell bundling. They usually have a section on each product page with items that are “Frequently Purchased Together” featuring the original product along with other recommended products.
This can work well for many online shops depending on what you sell. But, even if you don’t necessarily have products that are “frequently purchased together,” you can use data and analytics to bundle products that could be purchased together.
By analyzing customer data and tracking product performance, you can create “recommendations” based on other products you think would benefit the customer. You can also create groups of users who may be more interested than others in purchasing your bundle, and target them specifically.
If you have two or more products that could benefit from being used together, or you have products that could benefit a single user group, consider cross-promoting them as a bundled offering.
Product Bundles – Where you can create combos of bundled products
Chained Products – Where you can gift other products to customers when they make a purchase
Forced Sells – Where you can required certain items to be bundled, like a service and a part, for example
Grouped Products – Where customers can directly add items to their cart from a range of products
Mix and Match Products – Where you can bundle up products based on customer preference, like picking the different fruit they want in a fruit basket, for example
Composite Products – Where customers can select between different, compatible product alternatives and adjust quantities as needed
WooCommerce also has documentation, tips, and additional tricks for helping you bundle your products together here. (Of course, if you need more help with specific bundling advice, we’re always available to help.)
Other Considerations
If and when you’re ready to start bundling, there are a few other details you may want to keep in mind.
Focus on customer experience. As much as possible, tailor the experience to your customer’s needs and wants. Give them options to customize, add, remove, or edit products from your base bundles if possible. This will make the buying process more satisfying overall.
Mitigate decision exhaustion. Customers are a fickle bunch, and while they love choices, they don’t want to be overwhelmed by a million options all at once. So even though they want the ability to customize their bundles, you shouldn’t necessarily provide them with every option out there.
Make sure you direct customers toward choices you think would be beneficial, and eliminate anything that would confuse them or otherwise keep them from buying the bundle outright. The best way to do this is by recommending bundled options. You get the benefit of eliminating decision-making from customers while also being seen as the “authority” on what products go best together.
Use customer feedback to drive confidence. It’s important to let the customer drive his or her own experience. You certainly don’t want to force them to purchase a bundle if they don’t want to (that’s why mixed bundling is more popular than pure bundling).
You can also use customer feedback to help with this while first starting out. If your bundling endeavor is a success, you can also use feedback to help drive confidence for other customers considering purchasing bundled items.
Get advice on pricing your bundles with these 5 tips.
Bundling can be a great solution to improve your bottom line while giving something of value to your customers.
Remember that not all of your products need to be bundled together, but if you have some products that you believe really should be purchased together, offer them as a bundle at a competitive price. (This also works for products that aren’t selling as well as they should.)
You can choose from any type of bundling to fit you and your customer’s needs, just remember to get feedback during the process to see what works and what doesn’t work. Use that feedback to create better bundles and to boost confidence for customers looking for a good deal.
Whether you’re trying to get the most out of your in-house team or you’ve decided to hire out to a third-party developer, getting the most out of your relationship is essential to completing your projects successfully.
And a big part of that success is about communication. Namely, what you say (or don’t say) to them can mean the difference between getting everything you want or simply getting a door slammed in your face.
So, here’s what you need to know to make every developer adore you.
See our list of 7 tips for getting the most out of your dev team.
Sometimes it’s easy to assume that when you say one thing, your dev team is hearing it the way you meant it. But a lot of times, client requests – especially those from non-technical clients – get lost in translation. Here are few ways to tweak your words to make sure you’re understood.
Here’s the best advice we can give: devs can’t read your mind, so don’t pretend they can. You have to say what you want and say it very clearly. Draw a diagram. Over explain. Don’t treat them like children, obviously, but make sure you can show exactly why you want a project developed the way you do.
Are you trying to meet a certain goal? Do you have a specific target audience you’re trying to reach? Give your devs as much information as you can up front instead of just complaining about the project halfway through. It saves both of you headaches and hassle.
Do say: “This is what I want, and here’s why…”
DON’T say: “I want you to copy this exactly”
As they say, there’s nothing new under the sun. While a lot of what you see out there on the web will follow a basic formula or template, there is some really cool, innovative stuff being created every day by devs all around the world.
If you’re hiring a dev team to build you something amazing, don’t sell yourself short by asking them to carbon copy another site. Take some inspiration, show them some examples, but then step back and give your team some room to run with it.
Do say: “Here are some examples of things I like. How close can you get to this while still being original?”
DON’T say: “Just do it how I asked you to do it”
A dev’s whole job is to turn your ideas into a reality, and they’ve dedicated their lives to learning the latest technology and trends to make it happen. If you have experience as a coder, and you know the difference between Java and JavaScript and can speak the language, then you have some room to do things your way.
If, however, you’re not a dev yourself, it’s better to ask what the best solution is to get what you want. Chances are your team has some great experience or recommendations for building the site or app of your dreams.
Do say: “Here is what I would prefer. Is this the best way to build it?”
DON’T say: “Can you get this done faster?”
Everyone loves a panicked time crunch, right? Not so much. Dev teams are notorious for putting in long hours problem solving, so making more demands of their time is the fastest way to get on their grouchy side. If you have a specific timeline in mind, and it needs to be met, then find out what you can do to make the process easier on them.
Do they need your approval on projects quickly? Will they need certain files or content from you in order to move to the next step? Make sure you can keep pace with them so they can keep pace with your deadlines.
Do say: “Here is our projected timeline. What do you need from me to get this done?”
DON’T say: “Here’s my budget, make it work”
Unless you’re Tim Gunn, you probably shouldn’t go around demanding that your team “make it work” if you’re not paying them to work. Your goal here is to hire the best, not the cheapest, because you do ultimately get what you pay for. If you’re on a limited budget, pick one or two projects you know that the team will do exceptionally well, and worry about upgrading the rest as you go.
Do say: “Here is what I want you to focus on, is that doable for now?”
The key to successful communication is to ask questions and be open to suggestions. There’s a level of trust that goes into working with any team. But, the more trust and freedom you give the team, the better they’ll respond (if they’re worth their salt, anyway).
What Devs Really Want You to Know
At the end of the day, devs have your best intentions at heart. If they could tell you anything about working with them, it’d probably be these things:
We really do want your project to succeed. We’re not just here to eat pizza and code. Okay, maybe some of us are, but we like accomplishing things, too.
We’re not designers. Well, sometimes we do both, but most developers just code. If you want both, make sure you ask. Don’t assume we can Photoshop you a pretty picture just because we know HTML (or vice versa).
We want to speak your language, but it can be hard. We’re technical people, and if you’re not, we’ll have to try to explain some complicated terms to you. We’re not always the best at it, but we try.
We’re on a timetable, too. We want to get things done as quickly as you do, but sometimes problems need to be solved or other pieces need to fall into place first. If we’re not getting things done fast enough, there’s probably a legitimate reason.
We want to do cool things. Building websites or apps the way everyone else does pays the bills, sure, but we really want to tackle new and exciting challenges. If you have some cool ideas, throw them our way and we’ll see what we can do.
We hate bugs. Yes, crawly bugs are pretty gross, but so are bugs in our codes – which is why we spend so much time testing and retesting. Websites and apps go through numerous tests, so keep that in mind when making your deadlines.
We don’t mind feedback. Though we should add, “As long as it’s productive.” Feedback can be very helpful, but we often deal with a lot of complexities, so we need that feedback to be as specific as possible. Instead of saying, “No, I don’t like this,” give us a detailed list.
We’re experts, so trust us. We’ve been doing this a long time, and the worst feeling in the world is to think that you’re not confident in what we do. Take a breath, sit back, relax, and trust that we’re going to build you something great.
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Working with a team of devs, whether in-house or outsourced, can be a great way to implement some new, creative strategies into your business. But the last thing you want is to stress out the team trying to get things done.
Be sure to communicate as clearly (and as often) as possible. Provide feedback, give us suggestions, and show us what you like (or don’t like). Just make sure that you’re not micromanaging or expecting things to be done at lightning speed.
Give us your timeframe, set expectations, and then sit back and watch us go to work. You’ll be surprised at what we can accomplish when you give us a little room to run.
