Nver underestimate the importance of smart relationships with clients

At any time people request me to design websites, I fasten my belt and steady myself for what may become a very bumpy ride.

Odd? Not really.

A few years back, a buddy wanted to setup a website. I was a beginner then, a freshman in the website design business. I was excited as well as raring to go. They say looking back, you always have 20-20 vision, boy, do I see clearly now! The first glitch was, my friend was in an industry I was only loosely familiar with, he was just starting out in the tourism field, and was himself, not yet fully grounded...he too was a bit of a beginner, but a web site was a crucial portion of his plan. Being a friend and a first-class designer it made sense that he asked me, plus, I needed the cash!

Here was his brief: "I need a nice internet site".

That's it. There was nothing after that period!

I actually scrolled down the email, just in case I had missed supplementary detail, but there really was nothing else. I contacted him back requested for details, and all he had for me was, "I want the site to be attractive, and cover tourism". I explained to him that I needed prepared articles, company profiles, catalogues, flyers along with other interrelated material to give me a good idea what I could put in the web site and also to retain a standard look and feel across print and web. Long story short: I ended up making things up, solely to get the site finished in what I thought was "nice" and "attractive".

It took 6 weeks to get the material complete because even if I made up nearly all of the copy, it however had to be based on truth, and on what my friend offered. You know that sensation you have when you are finished with a tough project? I had that the day I presented my final version of his site. I was done. Being a Zen-inspired artist, I had made a light, minimal, but, admittedly beautiful site. But 'attractive' is relative, as I discovered then. In reaction to my presentation, my pal went "So you are going to add extra images, right?". There is a sinking feeling you get when you grasp you still have extra work to do on a job you are standing by to chuck in the 'done' bin. I had that feeling right then.

ONCE BITTEN...
Mainly customers do not comprehend that design is not a simple cut, copy and paste practice. It's turning ideas into concepts, and concepts into pixels, and those pixels into well structured XHTML, CSS and other critical troubles. It really is not a walk in the park, and its far from doing a quick MS Word page layout! These days, I make sure I not only shield myself with an strong agreement, but also make sure I fully educate my customer about what is involved in the process. We are a team getting into a relationship, and thus, a mutual understanding is necessary and critical to success.

Thus, next time you sit down with a first time customer, even if they have worked with other creative designers elsewhere..make sure you go through all the principal steps so you are both...on the same page!

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{3Way marketing is a South African PPC Advertising based in Gauteng

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