dealing with clients
- Started
- Last post
- 46 Responses
- k0na_an0k0
brilliant tommy!
how are things btw? well i hope.
- Mahdi0
Well said T. I always said to my clients "I'm only going to present you one, at the most two ideas."
When asked why, the answer is simple. There is no way I can come in and stand 100% behind THREE ideas and claim they are all examples of my best work. This tended to cut down on revisions, as the client felt that the project and produced work had been researched thourghly.
Sometimes (as has been stated a bunch here), too many choices is a bad thing. You have to be sensitive to the clients wants (it IS their logo/branding), but you also need to act in full capacity of the "expertise" you've been hired to bring to the project.
- tommyo0
Bleh everything is going okay. Trying to sell this fucking house in Vegas. I had a couple who wanted it, but they fell through yesterday. So now it looks like I'll either rent it out or put it on the market. I'm going back to LA! Fuck this place!!
How about you man?? How are things?
- JesseJensen0
Learn them, and learn them well, rasko.
- tommyo0
Well said Mahdi! That's exactly what we were thinking when we decided to get rid of the old way. I also think that raising your rates is an important key. I think subconciously if the client is paying more then they assume that you know exactly what you're doing, if they're getting a bargain then they're always looking for a reason why you're giving them a deal.
- Mahdi0
Exactly. It's hard to remember sometimes, because we (as a field) are a fairly casual bunch, but we ARE professionals.
That being said, most of the time you can probably tell from the inital meeting what type of client you are dealing with. It's at that meeting where you win/lose the endless revision battle. You can either project the impression that you know exactly what you are doing and should be listened to, or if you are merely a tool to the CEO/Marketing Director/Flunkies own vision of the project.
- k0na_an0k0
Bleh everything is going okay. Trying to sell this fucking house in Vegas. I had a couple who wanted it, but they fell through yesterday. So now it looks like I'll either rent it out or put it on the market. I'm going back to LA! Fuck this place!!
How about you man?? How are things?
tommyo
(Sep 6 06, 08:29)damn that sucks man. but i hear the vegas boom is huge so hopefully you shouldn't have too much issues selling your pad. good luck with that t.
me... i'm 2 days away from getting married. i'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. it's crazy but i'm excited as hell.
- tommyo0
oh shit no way man!! Good deal! Where are you crazy kids going on your honeymoon??
P.S. Maybe we should move this to email...I feel like this conversation might turn emo...I always get emotional about weddings. :P
- k0na_an0k0
hahaah. for sure tommy.
i'm about to step out for lunch but hit me up via email or im later when i'm back on.
we're going to maui for a week and 3 days. maybe take a small plane to kona island. kinda have to, it's my island and all. heh heh. can't wait. we just want to get the hell away and enjoy things for a bit. it's been so hectic getting everything together.
email me.
we'll talk.
take care.
- liquid0
my rant......
We finished this site for a client....completely implemented all he had to do is move it over to his live server. He has an inhouse developer but the kid doesn't design.. So he hired us and we ended up implementing it as well.
So we gave it to him and refused to make homepage changes. Now he didn't tell us what he wanted us to change until the end of the project. We fully implemented it and then he says there are "semantic issues" Semantics don't mean changing the entire homepage.
So now he's got someone doing a favor for him trying to change the homepage.... and he has been stuck on it for about a month. We did something that has a bit of tricky code for it to work. So when he dismantled the homepage he knocked out the main mechanism...ahhaha
The client is an idiot...all he has to do is turn on the one we gave him and he could get feedback later..... The revision he wants to do makes the site almost silly.....
thats my 2 cents....I still wish you luck rasko.... even though you think I am an idiot ....
- k0na_an0k0
damn liquid...
- liquid0
want to know the worst part....this guy is well known..... our comp was put up on http://techcrunch.com ...... they currently have about 100k RSS subscribers.....
so the exposure is nuts.....but unfortunately him changing it just makes the site look really stupid
- Redmond0
It's their logo not yours. See it this way, at least you get to keep the cool ones for yourself.
- tommyo0
Redmond,
I personally dislike that sort of thinking. It's like telling a doctor you want him to give you three pronosis' for you to chose from, after all it's MY body and I want to be able to decide how I'll let him fix it.
Thanks,
- mr_snuggles0
tommyo, I am reporting you to the authorities for this act of treason, posting on NT and all....
:P
- Redmond0
Being a yes man... If you aren't the one spending the money, it's not your responsibility or your image. I'd be peeved if I got my haircut and the hairdresser just decided to improvise me a mullet unanounced. Your job is to help someone and they have to be happy with the end result.
Of course you can suggest things, but if they don't want it well though shit. Just work harder on your salesmanship.
No offense rasko4 but you sound like a big baby that wants his way from his mamaaaa.
- tommyo0
haha. What's up man? WN is sl sl sl slow. Oops, we're not supposed to talk about that. First rule.
- akoni0
logos are overrated...
:)
- tommyo0
Redmond,
You keep on doing what you do. And us respectable designers will keep assuming that we're professionals and that there are reasons for doing things right.
- akoni0
dont take this the wrong way redmond, but tis the only analogy i can think of at the second...
would you... ass kiss and do what your boss tells you while he whips your lil slave ass
or
stand up for your belief in a good product and present it well, and really push for it because you know its the better solution, and you don't want to see the client hurting their own business from being ignorant to good design history and trends
...seriously man...best analogy i can think of at the moment
cheers.