Level up please. We’re not pushing boxes.
I have been active in the Drupal world since 2006 as a developer and co-own my own Drupal agency since 2011. I love to attend Drupal events. Both Local events (DrupalJam, Splash Awards) and global ones (DrupalCon). I have attended every DrupalCon since Paris 2009 and I like to attend CXO days and other “management oriented events” too. Last year, I co-organized DrupalCon Amsterdam as the lead of the local team and as the social media coordinator for the @DrupalConEur twitter account.
What I noticed in these past years is that we have grown a habit in the Drupal community of downplaying ourselves by describing agencies as shops. And that is a shame, in my opinion.
It might be a language barrier issue that makes shops sound weird. A shop in my native language is a store where you go to buy bread or a new phone. You come in, you pick a product, you pay, and you leave. It does not match with a process in which you work together with a client for months creating a great solution for their needs.
Shops makes us - Drupal agencies - feel cheap. As if we only have out-of-the box solutions that do not need love and care to be shaped into this great fit for the client.
The truth of Google
Just to compare: when I search Google for a ‘Drupal shop’ I even get more results than when I search for a ‘Drupal agency’ or ‘Drupal company’! Meaning that we’ve truly grown a habit of using Drupal shop in our communication.
I urge you to stop using the term shop. So: let’s level up. And starting today, please use Drupal agency instead.
What do you think? Is it a language barrier? Comments are more than welcome!
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