My Child Could Do A Better Job!
My first experience with a nightmare client and how it’s changed the way I work.
As some of you may know, I recently quit my full time job to pursue running my own business. It’s been going beautifully for the past three months; starting from the ground up, I’m honestly astonished and grateful for the amount of work I have gotten. These three months have been insane, but I love every bit of it. There are always projects to work on, the people I have met have been amazing, and the support from the design community fills my heart with nothing but love and butterflies. Everything was going wonderful…until my first encounter with a nightmare client. Now now, before you jump the gun and say “there aren’t bad clients, only bad designers,” hear me out.
Are there “Bad Clients”?
I truly do believe that there aren’t bad clients. Design is an interesting field; it’s about making a connection with a client, embodying their passion for what they want to create but don’t have the ability to do, and making that happen. Design is not only creating, it’s business. It’s finding the right balance between creating beautiful work and giving the client a good experience, and occasionally writing those emails. (You know those emails that I’m talking about. No one likes them.) It’s an interesting line of work because designers tend to wear multiple hats and are still expected to do more, or discount their services. Design can be done anywhere and at anytime, but just because we’re not in cubicles all day, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get paid what we deserve. Designers give clients their time, their expertise, their guidance; and sometimes, for a client, it’s not enough. The folks that I know in the field are some of the most hard working individuals I have ever met, and it’s sad to see that only those in this line of work realize that.
But, what happens when a client agrees to a quote that specifically laid out exactly everything that would be done? Then when the job is complete, argues and says they never agreed to it? There’s email correspondence saying that the client agreed to it, but they continuously deny it. What happens when a client accuses you of being too busy and not being on time, when in the same day, that client was spoken to multiple times and received several proofs? What if a client accuses you of not meeting a deadline, when you did, but they kept emailing revisions AFTER what was supposed to be the deadline? How do you handle that situation then?
My Experience
If you actually know me, and not just through any social media, you’ll know that I’m a very happy person, and jumps to any challenge with the immediate thought of “I can do this. I’m going to make it happen.” (If you don’t know me, I’ll be at Weapons of Mass Creation, so come find me and let’s chat!!) The point is, I love a challenge. Last week, my family and I took a vacation up to the U.P. for an entire week and it was phenomenal! During the middle of my vacation, a client reached out and said that they needed work done immediately. I agreed to it, quoted them (with rush fees and a vacation fee!) and laid out all of the deliverables, it got approved, a down payment happened, and the next day I woke up at 4 am to do work. On. My. Vacation. But, like I said, I love a challenge. I did the work, sent it, and everything was great, but one had the wrong specs so I had to wait for content. No big deal, I’ll wait for new specs. I received the new specs, and it was an entirely new addition to the project that was not quoted. I let the client know this, and quoted them again for that aspect of it, they emailed back saying “don’t worry about the extra charge.” COOL! But as time progressed, things kept spiraling out of control. Monday — Thursday of the next week was literally one of the most stressful weeks of my life.
Going through my phone, there were 10 phone calls in 3 days, my phone was blown up with text messages, and my inbox was exploding. Oh. My. Goodness. I thought to myself, No, I can handle this. Tuesday was the new deadline, and when it rolls around, and I get an email saying that “everything is great, but we’re not using the design so that needs to be changed. I cannot use this.”
Remember that Tuesday Deadline?
Going into this, it was strictly a prepress job. I did not have a hand in any design aspect of it. Things progressed and when I sent the final files off to the client, I received multiple rude emails and a very rude voicemail. I was accused of not being a good designer, not meeting deadlines, being too busy to do any work, and was told “My child could do a better job!” The amount of stress that I experienced and combined with the rude accusations, I balled my eyes out. I don’t like crying, but I couldn’t help it. A client was attacking me as a person. And to top it all off they didn’t pay me for the rest of the job even though I completed much more than was originally quoted. Thankfully, I had required half down.
What does a business owner do then? I have never experienced someone who felt the need to keep insulting and making accusations. There are things that I know that I could have done to handle this client better, but it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the project. Despite the fact that this was a bad experience to have so early in my career, I’m thankful that it happened.
Improving
After this client, there are things that I’m going to do in order to help clients in the beginning stages to understand how the process works, why they’re being charged a certain way, etc. There are not bad clients, just uninformed ones. When people don’t understand something, they’re quick to dismiss and devalue it. “Oh just change this and this….oh and this.” When the client becomes aware that they’re going to pay more for extra revisions, the response may be “it’s a quick fix! That’s not a big deal, why are you charging me for it?!” They don’t understand the process. Clients don’t know that we may work whacky hours, there are certain times when we’re more creative, that we actually spent more time on their job that we should have, and that things take time. As designers, I believe that it is our job to educate them so they understand how the creative world works. Because, if we don’t start educating them and they hire another designer down the line, they’re going to have unrealistic expectations and then that designer is going to cringe. Now, I’m not saying that they have to know how creatives live and breathe every day; what I’m saying is that when we’re developing a relationship with someone, it’s important to explain how each step of the process is going to work.
I’ve also learned, that there are boundaries that need to be set for myself and clients. If there’s work to be done on a project, I’ll work on it during the weekend but the client doesn’t need to know that. I may wake up early to work, but again, the client doesn’t need to know that. I’m famous for sending emails at the ass crack of dawn because that’s when I start my day. That was getting abused during my nightmare experience; the client knew that I woke up early to work everyday, and set an unreasonable expectation. From now on, emails will be sent Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm. My cell phone will not be available for clients to text me, only phone calls; if they text me, I will not respond. It’s important to develop this in the beginning of a designer — client relationship. I will also start requiring that all revisions be emailed; it’s easier to keep track of and I have it written down, instead of trying to decipher my chicken scratch after a phone call.
Even after all of this, it will always be a priority for me to get to know my clients; it’s the most exciting part of each project. To grab a cup of coffee and experience the passion and excitement that someone has for something they’re hiring you to create? It can’t get any better. I want to build a relationship with them, and hear all of their ideas, thoughts, and random quirks. In some cases, this might not be possible; I haven’t been in the industry long enough to know. But, for now, I want my clients to know that I’m someone that they can trust, that I truly listened to everything they said.
There are always things to improve on to make a client experience that much better. After every project, you may look back and think “oh, I should’ve done this instead.” Take note of that and make sure to fix it when the next job comes in. If you’re not evaluating how you’re working, how will you grow? Evaluating yourself after each project is a good way for you to take a step back, when you’re not neck deep in it, and figure out what can be done better to constantly improve a client experience.
I had my first nightmare client, it really sucked, but I’m thankful it happened. I’m still evaluating changes that I want to make in order to grow even more as a designer.
I want to hear from you! What was your first experience with a nightmare client? How did you handle it? What are things that you do to improve a client’s experience? Let’s chat! If you don’t feel like commenting below, feel free to email me your story: hello@justcurious.co.
