Does anyone have any escrow experience, legal and cost? I am dealing with a client that got burned bad and we are reducing their fear with escrow on the first two iterations.
We use this method all of the time. We use an escrow account with our bank though, versus using a third-party escrow. Check with them, and if the client is amenable, go with it. Just make sure you can get the money out, and that you add the "escrowing" of money to the agreement. Good luck.
> Does anyone have any escrow experience, legal and cost? > I am dealing with a client that got burned bad and we are reducing > their fear with escrow on the first two iterations.
In some projects, if they are not too big, the best escrow account is the customer account. I have done that sometimes telling the customer "you will pay only if you are happy with our work".
If you are really iterating, you can feel how things are going.
> We use this method all of the time. We use an escrow account with our > bank though, versus using a third-party escrow. Check with them, and > if the client is amenable, go with it. Just make sure you can get the > money out, and that you add the "escrowing" of money to the > agreement. Good luck.
> On Jul 22, 2:41 am, gustin <entrywayconsult...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Does anyone have any escrow experience, legal and cost? >> I am dealing with a client that got burned bad and we are reducing >> their fear with escrow on the first two iterations.
> "you will pay only if you are happy with our work".
That is dangerous as "happy" is such a relative term. When we are dealing with clients that have been burned we will usually split the payments up a bit so that we still get paid up front (or bill them weekly), and they get comfortable seeing that we are doing actual work, and code is being created. Iterations can help with this as they can "see" the results of your efforts as well. Regardless, it is difficult with these types of clients as they have lost trust, and now we have to work to rebuild it, through no fault of our own. A few bad apples can definitely spoil it for the rest of us. Hopefully those people will be Darwined out of the industry. Good luck.
>> "you will pay only if you are happy with our work".
> That is dangerous as "happy" is such a relative term.
Getting a little off topic here, but I agree - cold hard experience shows that some clients are never "happy", regardless of what you do, and it may not even be your fault, e.g. maybe they had a previous bad experience with software developers who didn't deliver.
I take a similar approach to Robert, small, measurable progress milestones and payments to match - at any stage, the client can pull the plug and walk away with what's been delivered to that point. At each stage, the client is getting what they've paid for to date, so there should be no need for escrow as you are limiting your risk to the current iteration, rather than the entire project.
Another technique I've found can be valuable, especially on smaller jobs where there is only one or two milestones, is to offer a "free fix" warranty period, over and above any warranty you are required to give the client by law. This gives them the comfort of knowing that if something doesn't meet the agreed spec, they aren't going to be left high and dry by you. It also encourages keeping track of all requirements from the client in *writing* and helps me to remember to dot the I's and cross the T's so that I'm not fixing my own mistakes down the track. :-)
Finally, it encourages the client to give the software a good workout in the first X days - generally for me, X = 90 but it depends on the client and the job.
