Designers should establish a good relationship with their clients

Author: tuoge

"Let ' s face it. Some days, your want to just fire your clients. "This is a colleague named Jeff Gardner at the beginning of an article on how to handle customer relationships. "Fire" can be understood as dismissal, or as a more emotive verb, and I believe that if there is a chance, our designers can come up with more creative ideas to torture their customers (mostly product managers).

The relationship between designers and customers has always been not affectionate, flirting, both Chinese and foreign.

In my observation, the designers who have established a smooth relationship with their clients have been given more opportunities and sense of achievement. Designers and customers are mutually beneficial relations, is in the product life cycle tied together the interests of the community, designers in the design, if the mind is full of opportunistic one, after the end of the idea that you are dead or alive, most of the cases do not good, customer satisfaction is not high. There are actually two common misconceptions here:

1 customers to say what change, resigned;
2 Customers say what is the layman's opinion, three not: ignore, do not think, do not modify;

In the design team, often the higher the level and rank, the more understanding of the problem, it will make the customer feel more easy to communicate. You eat in a restaurant, if you see a foreign body in the dish, will be a burst of drink: "Call your manager to come!" "It's very rare," said the chef. "Here, in addition to our own and the chef of the force of comparison judgments, but also the key is: we judge the lobby manager will pay more attention to our views and good communication attitude."

I see this in the wedding photography industry and in the interior decoration industry.

There is a chicken egg and egg chicken Thinking, is that people once the promotion of the wonderful immediately with this kind of customer awareness, or have such a customer awareness before they get a greater opportunity?

I don't see how hard it is to cultivate this awareness, and after seeing Jeff Gardner's article, I agree with his ideas, though he's more about the way freelance designers deal with customer relationships, but for the company's designers--if you're aggressive enough, And the company's performance appraisal relationship to look more thorough-this is universal.

Specially turn to everybody to look down, hoped everybody has the understanding.

(not verbatim translation, meaning should be to the English version of this article link:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/09/strategies-for-successful-client-relations/)

8 Strategies for establishing good customer relationships
Jeff Gardner

Let's face it, there are times when you want to kill your client. You've had enough of the bother to revise. At the end of the project, you find that you still need to keep adjusting for it, something that could happen to you at least once, and probably more than once. Fortunately, as with all the FAQ, there are a few principles you can follow to make sure your career path is smooth.

Due Diligence

"Experts often possess more data than judgment."-colin Powell
"Experts rely more on data than on subjective judgments. "Powell

First: Clear your character.

Keep in mind that customers always know more about their products or services than you do. They are experts in their field and their design difficulties usually are that they don't know how to express their opinions. But that's exactly what you, as designers, should help them achieve. You are a graphic expression expert and can effectively make you (and ultimately your client) fully understand what the customer is trying to say.

From the outset, get as much information as possible from companies, products and services, potential users, and raw requirements. The more information you get from your customers, the more prepared you are, and the quicker your design will be accepted, and the quicker you will get paid.

Process the information you have obtained in order to get a complete view. You need enough time to collect the information, you have to let your clients share what they know and involve the customer in the design project. This is a good thing, when customers feel they are involved in the design process, they are less likely to challenge the design results.

Second: Find the right customer

"If you try and please everyone, your won ' t please anyone." –37signals
"If you want to please everyone, you will not let anyone satisfaction." "–37signals

Keep in mind that your research work is also to make sure that the project is right for you. You cannot cure all ills, and if you do, you will die a very ugly death. The 80/20 principle is generic here, 20% of the inputs bring in 80% of the output, in our case, 80% of the return comes from your 20% customers, so focus on the good customers and fire off the bad ones. Be honest with yourself and don't worry about losing a project. This will ultimately be good for you and your clients.

Third: I repeat ...

Don't accept every item on your desktop, even those you've started. Focus on your reputation, and you will eventually win more quality customers.

Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School tells us that your competitive advantage can only be two-"price and quality". By concentrating your energy and building a solid brand, you will never have to be forced to price as your competitive advantage.

Communication

"The most important thing in communication be to" hear what isn ' t being said. "–peter F. Drucker
"In the process of communication, the most important thing is not to say the part" – Peter Drucker

IV: Zen

Zen Buddhism has an idea: empty yourself. It sounds simple, but it's hard to do. Before you start each project, empty yourself, you will be more likely to understand your client, and you will also find that when you use fewer terms, your customers will be more likely to understand and identify with you, which will make communication between you and your clients smoother and you will be more relaxed later.

It's hard to empty yourself, it's not so easy to use the 5 grade vocabulary instead of the advanced design terminology, you need to have every communication with a beginner's mind, without preconceptions, without assumptions, you will have to ask more questions to get more information, so your work on getting information will become easier.

V: listening to the implication

When your client says: Can you make these words a little bit bigger?
In fact, he means: This font may be a little hard to read, don't you think?

Every designer is afraid to hear this kind of advice, most of which will eventually compromise. When faced with customer changes to the design, it is important to re-examine your own design, ask a few more questions, rather than the inner murmur: he was not trained in design, he did not even aesthetic vision. What you need to know is the implication of the client, the actual problem under his surface. Before you make any changes to your design, figure out where the design does not meet the product goals you have set at the requirements seminar (maybe you didn't set a goal at all). ）

Here are some tips to achieve your goal:

Ask questions directly (but politely)
Don't get into an argument;
Use common language rather than design language;
Use Yes/no questions to push the customer to reveal the real idea; (Do you think this font is difficult to read?) ）
Humbly receive criticism. (No one likes sensitive artists)

Focus on what the final product needs to achieve, and the customer will understand that your job will benefit him, not just to earn his money. By the way, temporarily put your ego outside the door, this is not a time to defend your professional status, no one will care, your customers want is a he can show his boss to look at the time can be proud of the design.

Sixth: Do what you mean

But don't get tied up in a contract, I've heard a lot of situations where designers and clients are stuck in contracts and not in contracts (Thomas: which are in the requirements manual and which are not?). Demand will follow changes in the market, most of the internet industry, and if the client makes you clearly exceed the contract, you have a few options:

You do what the customer wants and ask for more in return.
You can refuse to do so and adhere to the original contract.
You can try to renegotiate and find a point where both sides are satisfied and then continue with the project's work.

We should improvise, not always the right answer. Unless you're going to get yourself into a lot of hard work, it's probably worth the extra effort. Sometimes new requirements can be intolerable, it will cost you a lot of energy and time, in which case the best way is to be honest with the customer and tell them that you are happy to help them but it will take a lot of time (after all, you have other projects).

If you are open minded and honest, customers will usually think for you and you will get more. If they are willing to pay more for your support, they will become a more valuable customer for you.

Seven: When you screw up, admit it bravely.

Then do everything possible to correct it ASAP. Mistakes are common, everyone will, I hope you are not a repeat offender, the general rule is that the sooner you admit the error, and take action, you will be better.
Zhibao, the longer the problem is corrected, the harder it is to fix it and make you uneasy. Clear it up and go back to the road. Your client will appreciate your frankness, even if he is annoyed by the error itself.

Eight: In conclusion

I hope you have some experience, as long as you do enough in the early stage of information collection and investigation, and in the process with the customer through the appropriate attitude of communication has reached agreement, most of the problems can become a regular problem and easy to avoid.

Remember, the customer is God, is the most lovable person in the world, they are not your burden. Our relationship with our clients is mutually beneficial, you are paid for what you do, and your clients benefit from your work.