Working With Customer Comments 101

How to deal with unpleasant comments

If you work with texts or visual designs in any capacity, you know how it feels. You spend days if not weeks working on something and then your customer starts piling up comments on your work. You watch the comments multiplying like bacteria in a Petri dish, you even mute the notifications, and when it’s all over you feel like they trampled on your work, your effort, and even your dignity.

I’ve been there hundreds if not thousands of times, just like you. And as I grew more experienced I found myself growing more cynical as well. And, frankly, cynicism is a valuable quality only when your line of work requires you to build some self-defence mechanism against the continuing tension, risk, and terror. So, unless you’re a surgeon, a police officer, or a military person, cynicism will just eventually turn you into a jackass without offering anything positive in return.

Thankfully, there is still a way to cope with devastating customer comments without mutating into a whining ruin or a soulless bastard. And basically, all it takes is thinking.

Why are they so cruel?

The customer doesn’t care about how you feel. And they actually should not. You’re not their friend, their fiancée, or their mommy. They have their own vision of what your work should look like. The problem is that they don’t necessarily share said vision with you. Sometimes they just don’t know any specifics. Sometimes they’re just unwilling to share. There are numerous reasons why they can keep such a vital piece of info from you, some of which I discussed in “Clients from Hell” so be sure to read it if you’re interested in such things.

But whatever it might be, it’s your job to find out what they want. And it takes thinking and, most importantly, asking questions all the freaking time. Just until it is clear to you what they want.

What if I don’t agree with their comments?

Just breathe out and read all the comments. Some of them would be fair enough. For example, you may be mistaken in some regard concerning the customer’s product, and they know their product way better than you. So if they point it out to you, don’t be sad and amend things as advised.

But still, there’s the other part of comments where they demand unreasonable things. If you don’t agree, you just should say so. You’re not an invertebrate toy in the hands of your customer. They hired you because you can do things they can’t. So if you think their comments, if implemented, will make things worse, you should just calmly explain it to them. If they insist on having a crappy text or design from you even after hearing a detailed explanation why they shouldn’t go that way, it’s their problem, not yours. You have warned them after all. They’re not your friend or fiancée as well.

Corrections vs comments

We all tend to perceive customer comments as corrections but that’s not the case. Just like you may be wrong about the customer’s product and be rightfully corrected, the customer may be equally wrong about your writing or designing decisions. And in that case they need to be rightfully corrected as well.

You make corrections. You don’t implement comments. A correction is an objective thing. A comment is never one. Here’s how it works.

“You wrote our HDD is 1 TB but actually it’s 8 TB” is a correction. Just amend the text.

“Write that our HDD is the fastest to the West of Mekong” is a comment. Respectfully tell them that it’s a silly statement and it won’t work.

“You used our old logo in your presentation. We have a new one” is a correction. Just use the new logo, no big deal.

“You placed our logo too high, we want it to be more horizontal yet incarnate at the same time” is a comment. Prove them you chose the most reasonable place for it.

“You say that we launch satellites into space but we’re only about to do it. Don’t misguide your readers” is a correction as well. But it’s trickier because changing it may somehow ruin your narrative. But in any case, don’t write they have launched anything as it is just not true.

“You should add that our satellites are better than Ilon Musk’s and that we’re on top of our game” is obviously a comment. Just request findings of an independent audit proving their satellites trump Ilon Musk’s and refuse to write this nonsense unless they provide it.

All in all, you don’t have to agree with comments. You should agree with corrections. And telling one from the other is one of the most valuable skills you should have when working in marketing and media.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned.