In “How To Win Customers & Keep Them For Life”, author Michael LeBoeuf sites that 68% of customers quit on a business because of an attitude of indifference or rudeness by the owner, manager, or employee, while only 14% leave because of dissatisfaction with a product.
From my years working as a freelance graphic designer, I’ve learned a lot about what not to do when it comes to dealing with clients. This doesn’t mean I never screw up, but I’ve been able to minimize my screw-ups by learning from my mistakes. If you too are a designer, are you avoiding the following mistakes with your clients?
Discussing Personal Problems:
It’s one thing to mention to a client that you have to delay their project because of a death in the family or because your child is sick…but sharing with them all of your personal problems when they ask how you’re doing creates for an awkward situation. Unless you’re client is a close friend, they don’t want to hear about your sick uncle, car problems or financial troubles.
Poor Phone Etiquette:
Don’t be that designer who leaves countless voicemail messages or calls clients first thing in the morning, really late at night or on the weekends.
Also, avoid when possible, talking to your clients when your hungry, woken from sleep, in a grumpy mood or any other time when you’re brain isn’t working at full speed. One bad conversation can put a bad taste in your client’s mouth and have them second guessing their business relationship with you.
Geek Talk / Design Lingo:
In an attempt to educate your client or convince to them you know what your talking about, it can be easy to start speaking in “geek talk”. Before you know it, your on some tangent about the benefits of “vector” vs “raster”. By the time your through, your client has fallen asleep or slit their wrists from the boredom you inflicted on them. Unless your client is well versed in design lingo, it’s best to talk in simple, easy to understand, neophyte language. They will breath easier (and not slit their wrists).
Not Listening To Your Clients:
Lets face it, with conversations most people are simply waiting for their turn to speak rather than truly listening to the person their talking to (especially when the other person is uninteresting). This may be a result of ego or nervousness. Either way, it’s not good for customer relations.
If you are someone who has a tendency of over-talking others and not listening very well, try being more mindful during your conversations. If you’re client likes to talk, let him/her do so. It will take the pressure off of you and allow them to feel like they don’t have to rush their statements.
Being A Designer Know It All:
Our clients pay us for our expertise and professional insight, however we need to always remember the difference between offering advice and dictating our opinion. If we as designers don’t value our client’s input, they will walk away unhappy or fight us relentlessly. And besides, sometimes it’s the client who surprises us with a good idea that our trained eye fails to see.
Careless Emailing Tendencies:
When we talk to someone over the phone, it’s easy to pick up on sarcasm, anger, joy, etc…simply by listening to the tone of the speaker’s voice. Yet, when writing or emailing someone, there are no vocal clues to help us express our intended message as easily. Yes, we have the exclamation point, smiley face, and all-caps at our disposal…but they only go so far.
I recently emailed a client with the words “…you seem trustworthy enough”. When I wrote this, in my mind the words came across in a lighthearted fashion…but in hindsight I can see why my client didn’t read it that way, as she responded “I hope I seem trustworthy and just trustworthy enough”. Did I offend her? Was she being sarcastic in her response? Exactly my point. Sometimes things get unintentionally misconstrued. Good enough reason to double check your writing before hitting the “send” button.
Over Promising & Under Delivering:
The best way to make a customer happy and keep them coming back is to exceed their expectations. The best way to exceed expectations is to under promise and over deliver. Here’s what Andrew Keir says on the subject:
“It’s not about promising a deadline of a month, then working furiously into the wee hours of the night to complete the project in a week. Over extending yourself and making promises you can’t keep is obviously a recipe for disaster. It’s about delivering everything the client deserves and expects, and delivering it better and/or sooner than they expected it. To receive exactly what you expected and receive it on time is merely satisfactory. To receive something better than expected and sooner than expected is exciting!”
Skipping The All Important Design Brief:
Not asking your clients the right questions about their design needs and expectations is like trying to ace a test without studying. It’s no wonder design work on crowdsourcing sites looks so generic. Spending the time briefing your client before starting on a project will not only save you time, it will allow you to provide you’re client with designs that fit their needs. A win win for everyone.
No Retainer / Down Payment:
Unless you’re working with an established client, never ever start on a graphic design project without first getting some money down. You can’t afford to be spending countless hours of your time with no guarantee that you’ll be compensated something for your efforts. If your client doesn’t want to pay you some up front, walk away…it’s not worth it. Read more on why graphic designers require down payments.
Lack Of A Project Agreement:
Having the terms of a project established in writing is beneficial for you the designer as well as your client. A signed project contract/agreement will ensure there is no confusion when it comes to pricing, project expectations, timeframe for completion, etc. When I first started out as a freelance graphic designer, I didn’t use contracts or require down payments. It didn’t take long though, for me to realize that was a bad idea.
Disregard Of Customer Sentiment:
No matter how great our work is, we as designers have to remember that there is more to winning over a client than simply offering quality design work. This quote says it best:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Thanks for reading. Am I missing any important mistakes that graphic designers should avoid when dealing with clients? Please share your thoughts below.