The pitfalls of working with clients that you haven’t known before

During my many years of work experience I’ve had a chance to deal with all sorts of clients. And whilst every client is an individual with his own unique characteristics, there are certain similarities in clients’ behavior.  If you’ve got different experience, please, you’re welcome to share it with us in the comments below.

1. “Don’t have much money” usually means they don’t have money at all or both. Have you ever encountered a client who told you – do whatever you need to do and charge me whatever it will cost. In most cases the only reason why customers didn’t work with me is because they didn’t have enough money or they believed they would make the project happen for less money. As a designer it’s your job to figure out what is behind this phrase: either your clients really have no money for the project or they’re just telling you they don’t. By qualifying the company and their budget, this issue should be considered over the phone before you actually agree to meet the clients.

2. Don’t care about wasting your time. Unfortunately, there’s a certain group of customers who can come into your office and tell you they’re going to hire you the moment the idea crosses their mind. Well, usually, such customers intentionally hunter for the ideas without any further collaboration. Some of them strongly believe that web designers provide information and advice for free. In any case, you need to be able to qualify your clients before you spend a lot of time on them (if you don’t want to waste your time).

3. Smartness. More often than not, when it comes to the marketing and web design, clients appear to be completely clueless. Some of them are honest and tell me about it straightforward which is a smart thing to do; others try to pretend they know everything (when they don’t) and eventually they look stupid. As a designer, you need to understand that you’re a professional and your clients have to know about it!

4. Believe you’re a mind-reader. When it comes to the design, it appears that most of the clients have a rough idea of what they want. Most of them suppose it’s your job to read their mind and guess what they were dreaming about. You can even hear something like “I don’t know exactly what I want, but if you design a site I like, I will know about it!” Make sure that your clients provide with the examples and directions that want you to move in.

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