Can the Web Design industry increase customer satisfaction by mimicking the Haute Couture industry?

[deeptib]

Yesterday, I posed the following question to a web developers chat:

Have y'all noticed that there's pretty low customer satisfaction in the website industry? Clients often complain, and they seem to not get what they want. Why do y'all think that is?

And I got a the following answers:

1. The site is most likely rushed out to production.
2. The customer didn't understand the effort, time and skill that website work would take.
3. The customer has a poor understanding of the nature of a website. They don't view it as a web application, but as a brochure.
4. The customer doesn't take a long term view of the website and it's design. They don't see the value in practices that increase the longevity of their website such as following web standards and security.
5. Agencies that churn out cookie-cutter sites for people can thrive because the customer doesn't know any better.
6. Repeat customers are disillusioned about spending more money on a website because they were burned by their first experience.
7. The only customers who DO know better are the ones who have wasted time and money on the cruddy sites and found they don't work well. And those people are often disillusioned with the idea of spending money on "yet another site".
8. No one wants to fund an original design.
9. Many people in the industry from freelancers, sales, project managers over promise and under deliver. Not all but it's common. I think in order to make customers/clients happy in the present they under estimate or over promise what they can deliver in a time frame instead of being honest.
10. Software development estimates are notoriously inaccurate.
11. Customers don't have a clear vision of what they want. They just want a vague 'something better'.
12. Web development is technically more risky than they anticipated. A website is interactive and since people use a variety of machines and browsers there are many ways things go wrong with bugs, etc.
13. Customers get distracted and unfocused. They change their minds often mid flight.
14. The only way to get accurate estimates is by developing cookie cutter stuff, and sacrificing creative work. Creative work will almost always be wrong in time and/or budget.
15. Design seems to take forever. It's always a back and forth on static mockups. We are still making tweaks to the design as the website is being developed.
16. Deciding on functionality seems to take forever. There's always a back and forth. Big changes to functionality, or design gaps in functionality are continuously discovered as the website is being developed.
17. There is often constant or last-minute changes.
18. The budget, and time allotted for the project often has to be increased mid-flight to complete the website.
19. The most robust, well made websites require time consuming hand coding to achieve.

I believe that we can solve these issues by learning from the Haute Couture industry.
For those who are unfamiliar, Haute couture is high-end fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques.

How does the industry work?

1. In that industry, designers will pre-make about 50 items every season.
2. Items in one season will be made using a handful of technical techniques. Often, they develop and showcase a new technique that season.
3. After the designs are debuted, buyers have an idea of what the workshop can produce.
4. Then, the workshops work with each buyer individually to fit their pieces to their exact needs.
5. The garments are sold from prices starting around 50k, and have no upper limit. However, selling the garment isn't the main source of profit for the brand. These garments are actually used as a marketing vehicle to sell mass produced, ready-to-wear garments, and perfumes.

Here is why I think this works:

1. The buying process starts with a strong, technically grounded vision. The buying process makes promises that can be kept. Buyers have clear expectations. And the workshops already have the strategies to meet those expectations.
2. The creative process is decoupled from the customer delivery process. There's room for failure on the creative side, without effecting customer service. The shops can take creative risks without effecting delivery for customers.
3. They create beautiful pieces that take a lot of manpower and skill to create. Their only competition is equally skilled, equally time intensive operations. There's a high barrier to entry.
4. The pieces are often one of a kind. But they are built by combining techniques that are reused.
5. The fitting service adapts the garment to each individual buyer. I read that these pieces fit so well, they're often more comfy than PJs. I also think this is a good place for them to be running 'user acceptance testing'.
6. The pieces are stunning conversation starting, engaging works of art. They satisfy the desires of status, sensation seeking, bonding, and learning.
7. Couture houses are often longstanding institutions, that have built their reputation over decades by making good products. ( However, there are self-made upstarts who break into the industry such as Iris Van Herpen, or Guo Peng )
8. The shops are exclusive about who they work with. The customers are also pretty knowledgeable. They have bought many luxury goods before.
9. The shops work hard to educate the customers on the techniques and materials they use to educate them on the value they are producing.
10. The brands repackage the results of this exploration and research into products that deliver value, and need less manpower to sell.

In many ways, the web design industry is similar to clothing. Often, achieving some of the best quality might require hand coding by extremely skilled artisans.

There are many 50$/site shops that are similar to fast fashion. On the other hand, I believe high quality websites can provide a lot of value as well.

I think, a web design company could be structured a similar way. I think they could pre-design a few good pieces every few months and sell them.
I can see a web design company customizing the site to the client with a few 'fitting' sessions.
I can also see the company taking learnings, design, and technology developed from this exploration and repackaging it into a product that serves a broader market. This would improve customer satisfaction because the products that they get are well developed and designed before they ever go on the shelves.

I think pre-building things, and separating the bulk of the creative work from the delivery is crucial to fostering creativity and driving innovation while also keeping the customer satisfied. It's how we can take more risks than building cookie cutter sites, but also meet our commitments to our customers.

I also think that doing good work will build a good reputation, and that reputation will precede your studio.


What do you guys think? Do you see some of the same problems in the industry that are identified?

Do you think mimicking how the Couture industry works would help increase customer satisfaction?

 

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