Design clients from hell

People don't seem to realise they're actually paying for the designer's time, not just the final product.
 
Paul Murray said:
People don't seem to realise they're actually paying for the designer's time, not just the final product.
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Damn right! and don't get me started on "well, we didn't really budget for this!"

<rant>
i recently had a client that has not only moved the goal posts but changed the entire game at least 3 times so far, only to come back to me saying they wanted what I originally suggested!! When i said, look this is the last time i change it for free, they looked at me as if i was nuts.. "you said it was this, now you want more" I simply said.. YES that's what i was going to say to you the last 3 times!!!
</rant>
:icon_Wall:
 
bigdm said:
Damn right! and don't get me started on "well, we didn't really budget for this!"
i recently had a client that has not only moved the goal posts but changed the entire game at least 3 times so far
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Do you ever build such an eventuality into your spoken / written agreements with clients at the outset? It's a sensible way of managing their expectations.
 
sttcmghtf said:
Do you ever build such an eventuality into your spoken / written agreements with clients at the outset? It's a sensible way of managing their expectations.
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True: it's easily dealt with if you deal with it at the right time. Any quote I submit carries the caveat that the estimated price is based on the work as described in the brief and that any client-directed changes post-brief will be charged at an hourly rate. I find that this covers my back and ensures that I'm properly paid for what I do but also gives the client an opportunity to take a step back and make sure they know what they want at the outset.
 
Dave L said:
True: it's easily dealt with if you deal with it at the right time. Any quote I submit carries the caveat that the estimated price is based on the work as described in the brief and that any client-directed changes post-brief will be charged at an hourly rate. I find that this covers my back and ensures that I'm properly paid for what I do but also gives the client an opportunity to take a step back and make sure they know what they want at the outset.
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That makes good sense. Managing clients' expectations from the outset makes for a much more profitable relationship for both parties.
 
I like the bit at the end when the guy in the resturant says show me exactly what you did so I can do it myself for free, everytime I do an SEO job that is what happens without fail, so I just say "google it"
 
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Out of interest, do you ever get repeat business, or do most clients think they can ape what you'vedone for them in house?
 
Some clients do twig on to what I have done regarding on page SEO with the meta data and h1, h2 tags as well as keyword density but some of the off page SEO they don't seem to get so repeat business is around 40% which isn't brilliant but what can you do.
 
That's interesting. Of the 40% of clients who give you repeat business, what kind of work do you find that they come back to you with? Do you have an ongoing log of this? It might be that you can use such data to improve your client retention rate.
 
Usually they want link building, review targeted keywords, manage ppc campaigns or to write unique content for their webpages because I am good with creating unique or re-writing someone elses content. Maybe I should start to review how I conduct my work be a little more secretive thank you.
 
It never does any harm to present your skills as a 'black art' and not something they feel they can do easily themselves in house. How do they get to learn about the on-page stuff such as titles, H tags, etc? is this something they have a vague idea about before they hire you, or do they learn this from you as you do work for them?
 
Majority of the time clients want to see where their money is going so I compile a report that specifies what changes I have made to each page and why so it gives them a good idea of what to do on their own.
 
Great film

Yip, great clip, thanks for sharing that. I could probably relate that to a couple of clients, perhaps a good idea to show it to them but no! Too thick skinned to realise what I was saying.
 
What % of your non-returning clients would you say are sophisticated enough to go into source code and work out what you've done?

If the number is low, it might be that your reports are too detailed, and that you are effectively educating your own clients on how to do your work.

Just a thought.
 
garlex said:
Yip, great clip, thanks for sharing that. I could probably relate that to a couple of clients, perhaps a good idea to show it to them but no! Too thick skinned to realise what I was saying.
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No worries. it's one of my all-time favourite client clips. Yes, probably best not to send to your own clients!
 
hi guys this is my first day here at your forum, after reading this post i had to reply as i just experianced this first hand, 2 days ago via Ebay for reasons i edited out some text to protect the clients plans

"hi, i got a new customer, who is planning to start his new company called XXXXXXX. he wants a logo created.
so is it possible for you to send me a sample logo? if he likes it, then he will pay for it.
btw, his company design new products, for example a new product they are designing is called XXXXX (this logo also needs to be designed) this product will be a usb powered drink warmer and cooler.
so please design these two logo samples for me, so i can show him.
please try and send this logo before 11am tomorrow thanks.
Thanks!"

:icon_cursing:

btw the time this message was sent was 10 o clock in the evening the day before :icon_sneaky:

What would you guys do? :icon_confused:
 
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