Let’s face the facts! Not all clients you work with will turn out to be open, design-minded people with unlimited budgets; some clients will cause way more stress and sleepless nights than they’re worth! If you’ve already committed to the job then you’ll just have to suck it up and maintain a high level of professionalism, but it’s best if you’re able to recognize a potentially trouble client upfront and try to avoid them altogether. How do you spot them? Here are 6 types of nightmare clients that you’re bound to encounter through your freelancing adventures:
1. The Frustrated Artist
The Frustrated Artist thinks he is creative and will attempt the initial design himself. After realizing his skills fall a bit short he will turn to you, the design professional, to salvage the project. The problem with this client is that he already has an idea of the outcome in mind and his ego won’t allow for anything else, which means very little room for creative exploration. You’ll end up doing what the client wants in order to please him, but you won’t feel satisfied with the final product as you had no control over it.
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The golden rules are based on the 3 most important factors that every designer should consider when it comes to project management - the duration of a project, the costs, and the quality of work produced.
It is imperative that you manage your clients’ expectations when it comes to these crucial factors. You must explain to them that even the top designers cannot offer the best of all 3 variables; clients simply cannot have their cake and eat it too! Normally, only two of the variables can favour your clients. They need to compromise and meet you part-way since the remaining variable has to balance out the two favourable variables, as illustrated by the 3 golden rules:
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I mentioned this cognitive mind-trick in my post about 5 things every freelance designer should know about client servicing. Several people have asked me what the Halo Effect is so to save you all the trouble of Googling the term, I will explain it here and expand on how you can use it to your advantage when dealing with clients.
The Halo Effect is a phenomenon that occurs when positive feelings about a person’s character are unknowingly transferred to other unrelated characteristics. The effect is to evaluate an individual high on many traits because of the belief that the individual ranks high on one trait. Simply put, if you can demonstrate excellence in one character trait (appearance is a widely used example), people will assume that other aspects of your character are also of high value (ie: honesty, performance).
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So you’re an art director at a big name creative agency, but you’ve grown tired of climbing the corporate ladder and decided to explore opportunities as a freelance designer. The idea sounds sweet as your mind runs through a check list of self-employment benefits:
- Freedom to express your own unique style and aesthetic
- Choose your own clients in industries that you like
- Work to your own schedule
- No longer need to deal with technically inept creative directors
- And yes, you finally won’t need to argue with the account team aka “suits” anymore…
But, are you really ready to take on the role of a suit and manage clients, negotiate costs, sell your work convincingly, and take criticism without going on a tirade about how the logo is already frickin’ big enough? Well, if you’re not then here’s a list to get you started of the 5 things every freelance designers should know about managing clients.
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