They don’t know what they are talking about and the only goal in their live is to destroy my beautiful designs. This is what I used to think, but I’ve made a 180 degree turn after reading two books. This being ‘ Speak Human‘ by Eric Karjaluoto and ‘Design is a Job‘ by Mike Monteiro. These books made me understand that clients don’t have bad intention when they ask/request something ‘stupid’. The only who can be called stupid was me. Let me share some key points I’ve taken from these two very insightful books.
- Most aggravation is the result of misunderstanding. Educate the client, tell them what you expect from them as a client. How do you want your feedback and what kind of feedback is useful in the current stage of the process.
- A client is someone you will have to communicate with a lot. You probably communicate more with your clients than your close friends. So why not make it pleasant for both sides.
- When you have a good relationship with a client they will be more eager to refer you to other potential clients (I know this is a very ‘duh!’ statement, but it’s easy to forget).
- Sometimes you just have to give in. The client is asking you to do something which is not the way the process works or what was agreed upon in the initial contract. But if it only takes you a few seconds/minutes to fix, don’t act all bureaucratic.
So my clients are not my enemies. They are my allies. Allies in making the web a better place (wow… that really sounds corny).
