But that's exactly what some small businesses do because they don't listen to their customers, don't fully clarify the scope of the work, and/or don't fully deliver on what they promise the customer.

Here's a fairly typical example.

A growing service provider in a niche industry spent a significant amount of money to have their website redesigned. The company had hired a small web development firm that promised both to make their site look more professional and to get it found in search engines. The company paid for the design work and signed a $25,000 one-year contract for ongoing maintenance of the site and optimization.

The work the web developer delivered, didn't live up to their promises.

The site had been redesigned with attractive graphics, however the graphics, which took up the top third of the page, didn't immediately resonate with the company's prospects. The reason: the graphic images displayed the technology that made the company's services work. There was nothing at the top of the page to make any of the company's typical customers realize that this company had solutions for their industry and specific needs, even though the company had asked to have industry-specific graphics included.

In fact, the only way to find out what the company sold or who it served was to scroll down below the graphic and read through a block of gray-colored type.

It didn't look like much had been done to optimize the site, either. The text looked like it had been copied from a company brochure, with no attempt to include keyword-bearing headlines, or include appropriate keywords in the body of the text. And most of the pages had identical title tags and metatag descriptions, a no-no for optimization purposes.

The web developer had done a link building campaign, but apparently the links were placed in link directories that had no page rank and which were not likely to bring in any traffic from real prospects.

The company that hired the web developer asked them to make changes in the graphics and the metatags. The changes took weeks to complete. The result was somewhat better, but still didn't have the type of graphics they had specified. So, they had to wait weeks more for additional changes to be made.

I don't know why the web developer failed their client so badly. I suspect one reason is that they got in over their heads. They decided to promote themselves as being able to help companies get found on the web and bring in more business, without really knowing much about search engine optimization or about marketing and selling to industrial businesses.

I also suspect they may have overbooked themselves, taking on more clients on maintenance contracts than their staff could handle.

Still a third possibility is that the contract didn't clearly spell out what the web developer would do to "optimize" the site for search engines.

No matter what business you're in, you can avoid alienating your customers by following these practices:

• Stick to what you know. Don't promise to perform any service unless you know what performing that service really involves.
• Listen to your clients. Really listen to them. Deliver the solution they need, not the one you think they need or want to give them.
• Make your contracts as specific as you can. Spell out exactly what you'll do for the amount you'll charge. Be specific about what, if anything you require from the customer, at what point the customer can see and approve the work in progress, how long the whole job will take, and what ongoing maintenance or support consists of. Go over the contract carefully with the customer so they know exactly what to expect.
• Don't take on more work than you can handle.
• Take care of your existing customers. Treat them like gold, not yesterday's leftovers. Those existing customers could bring you a steady stream on repeat and referral business if you live up to their expectations.

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