Just wanted to share this little story with the Kirby community.
Several months ago, a Designer came to us, needing help in developing a website for a client. Although we are a full-service agency, we do get a lot of work from Designers (who “just need a programmer”), and Programmers (who “just need a designer”) alike. This Designer, however, was a bit hesitant - and stressed out - because this was “a difficult client”. They had developed a site before - using WordPress - and although they were initially happy with the result, they had become “increasingly harder to deal with”. The Designer was fearful that if we were to recommend a CMS other than WordPress, this client would give the job to someone else.
We reassured the Designer that we were able to produce a WordPress site, too, if that was really what the client wanted, but that it might be better for all involved if we had a chance to talk to client and make an ‘official recommendation’, first. We met with the client, accompanied by a very nervous Designer, and explained that for their specific needs Kirby was definitely the better fit - allowing us to provide them with all the functionality they needed, within a simple interface, and the security and stability they craved. The client agreed, and signed with us.
This project has taken us several months. We worked initially with the Designer, and once the designs were approved, directly with the client. Our relationship with the client has been extremely positive, and as the development progressed, and the client started asking for small changes - which are very easy to implement with Kirby - they became more and more delighted with our ability to oblige without fuss.
About. a month ago, we reached the point where the Panel was ready, so we visited the client, and spent about 15 minutes showing them how to edit information, upload images and files, and use everything. When we arrived, we could see that there was tension: the 2 people who were supposed to be the ‘Site Editors’ were clearly not happy to be there, and we could tell they thought it was all going to be “super complicated, like WordPress”. Within 5 minutes, they were playing around in the Panel by themselves.
Now, this is quite a big site - there are literally hundreds of pages, with images, technical specifications, downloadable PDFs, etc. A lot of information to enter, and keep regularly updated. We truly expected that this client would be calling us every second day, asking us how to do things, but to our surprise, we have not received ONE single phone call - and we can see on our staging server that the information is being judiciously entered every day. The site is finally going live next week - and the client’s entire team is beaming.
The client is not just happy and excited about their new site, but also more confident about “doing things online”. The whole experience has been so positive, that they’ve now approached us to do ongoing digital marketing for them.
Kirby is a big part of how we were able to give the client what they needed, making them feel empowered and secure, and helping us nurture a relationship of trust.
Thank you, Kirby! 