Having an in-house design team is a great way of getting things done the way you want and when you want while also having a complete control over the resources. However, hiring a team of in-house designers is not that easy. Apart from finding the right talent, you also need to pay the salary, even when there is a little work to do. This is why some businesses cannot afford to hire an in-house team because they would rather invest that money in core business operations. This is a common practice for startups and small businesses. Instead of hiring an in-house team, they hire a design agency for either on a project basis or hourly basis as per their need.
Hiring a design agency is more affordable than hiring in-house team because you don’t have to pay them the salary when there is no design work required, you don’t need to worry about providing them other benefits and HR department has one less department to worry about. However, when hiring a design agency, you need to be extra careful because you don’t want to end up getting scammed or hiring incompetent agency. This is why you need to know some important tips that will help you hire the right design agency for your business.
Industry Experience
First of all, without looking at anything else, check whether the agency you are considering has any experience in your industry or not. Just like you don’t want to hire a designer who has no experience in your industry, you wouldn’t want to do it with an agency as well. For example, if you have an e-commerce website, you would want to hire an agency that knows how to design a UI that will provide an optimal experience for your customers.
Portfolio
A portfolio is another most important factor in considering any design agency. An agency’s portfolio shows their true experience and skills. If you don’t want to go with their words, go to their work. If their portfolio is diverse in quality, then it is a sign that the agency has some creative minds behind it.
Reviews
Apart from the quality of their work, you also need to be sure about the quality of their services. You can judge this by reading or listening to what their past and existing customers have to say about them. If the agency is well-known, it will have reviews on third-party review sites as well.
Collaboration
Finally before contacting them for quotation, try to find out how they will keep in touch with you, how they will keep you up to date and how you can collaborate with them. This is really important. As a company, you want to know how things are going. For example, some agencies use platforms, like Trello, to collaborate with their clients.