At the end of the day I design and build website for the money. I have to eat, pay the mortgage, do fun stuff and money is what pays for that. I don’t think anyone would begrudge me this because we all realize that today money is what makes the world go around.

At what point do we put money aside to provide good service to our customers? For me it’s always a concern. Right now I have a contract to upgrade a blog to WordPress 2.6.5 which is entirely fine. The problem is that we are on the cusp of WordPress 2.7 being release (I am using 2.7 RC1 right now). While it would entirely fulfill the terms of my contract to go ahead and upgrade the client to 2.6.5 I just don’t think it is correct.

How would the client feel if I contacted them next week to let them know that 2.7 came out and I will upgrade it for $XX. I be they would feel ripped off. I certainly would.

Remember that your clients trust you to give them the best advice. Sometimes that advice may run contrary to what is best financially to you. It can be a tough decision to make.

At the end of the day I always figure that providing better customer service will bring better returns long run so. My client will be getting 2.7 RC1 next Thursday if 2.7 is not fully released (testing on a sub domain with their theme and content now). Then when when 2.7 comes out fully I will perform the upgrade again at no charge. That way I fulfill my contract and provide a bit extra service. Of course I drop that in an email quickly and it looks good to the client that I have given them extra service. At the end of the day they are more likely to refer people to me if I have gone beyond expectations.

Anyone else have struggles between providing service and meeting the bottom line?