“The Customer is Always Wrong”
Author of this post: Matthew T Grant | About Blog Authors »Get a group of designers talking and eventually you will hear the complaint that “clients don’t understand design.” In the eyes of many designers, this leads to unreasonable and downright ugly requests regarding colors, logos, copy, and anything else that will ruin their perfectly good designs.
While I am sympathetic to this lament it reflects two problems. The first is an inability to “sell” our designs to clients. Clients are trying to do business with our designs, so we need to be able to describe and defend their efficacy in business terms, not in aesthetic terms or those dictated by our “professional” opinions.
The second problem is adopting an antagonistic posture towards them. We must engage clients as long-term, collaborative partners. That means striving to educate them when they don’t “get it” and, frankly, trying our best to make their suggestions work if they still don’t agree with us.
It all boils down to trust. Demonstrating that we are easy to work with and have their best interests at heart builds the trust that will incline them to accept our guidance as time goes by.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
“striving to educate them when they don’t “get it” ” has always been my approach, but this takes almost twice as much time. It is true, in the end we come back to my 1st proposal, but only after spending days and days teaching them and this is not always possible nor financilally sensible. The only way one can feel better is the hope that this is an investment in our professional future.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Trendoffice - Thanks for the comment. I appreciate that being called on to educate clients can be time-consuming and frustrating, and I applaud your efforts to do so. My hope would be that professional organizations like the AIGA and business schools in this era of “design innovation” continue and expand their efforts to educate the public and the business community so that the responsibility doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the design practitioner.