Comments on: Clients Aren’t Stupid

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | Retail Marketing Strategy

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | Retail Marketing Strategy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:37:27 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: David Tele Ogundeko

David Tele Ogundeko — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:30:31 +0000

From my experience, it is even much better if the clients do not know the tech jargons, because when they do, they feel like they are some sort of expert on the matter, they interrupt you when you try to educate them on some matters and believe that their knowledge guarantees them a “fair” price on the job.
You give them a quote and they say “hey, it’s just HTML, I’m not asking you to code in PHP”.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. We all know clients can be very unfair when it comes to dealing with web designers. It comes from their perception of what we do. Frankly put, they do not see us as professionals in the likes of Architects and the rest. When they walk up to a lawyer, they don’t dare underprice, not even when they deal with other professional services providers. We are professionals in our own right, and what we do is also pretty hard with how the internet evolves everyday leaving us scampering to update our knowledge constantly. That’s hard work. They don’t see that. They merely see a computer. And that’s wrong. I’ll call it career discrimination.
It isn’t our job to educate them on what we do, it is their own prerogative. The best we can offer is a user manual and that’s all. Because people buy cars doesn’t mean the manufacturers have to educate everyone on the intricacies of automobile engineering, they give you a user manual and that’s it. You want more, go learn yourself. We are service providers, not tech-handymen. We deserve a measure of respect. And we deserve our prices. Our tools are not getting any cheaper, no thanks to Adobe and Apple. We also deserve to live good lives like other professionals do. We deserve our pay, we work hard for it. We also deserve our respect, if not more than other professionals. Web design education never ends, there is always a new version of html and css and then some geeks might come up with a new programming language and then we all have to be abreast with it. It’s also not easy sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time. We might enjoy it, but that is our own personal satisfaction, not reason for the clients to devalue our work, because we do not live busy work lives based on their own definition of busy work lives. We are professionals and it is about time they started seeing us that way.
So I love Clients from hell, since we can’t fight for our rights for fairness, we can at least laugh about our career prejudice….

By: Ravikumar V.

Ravikumar V. — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:27:17 +0000

what you say about clients is a truth one…

By: Guy Labbé

Guy Labbé — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:31:19 +0000

What helps a lot about communication between client and designer is when the client hires a consultant to take care of finding designer/developper, and manage the project. This way you talk to someone that understands all, and often the client is 100 % confident to his consultant, so that’s pretty nice work being made in the end.

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | PixelRaves

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | PixelRaves — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:59:13 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: PixelRaves » Blog Archive » There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client

PixelRaves » Blog Archive » There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:39:10 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client « 聚合·分享-CN华

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client « 聚合·分享-CN华 — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:36:27 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | i know idea

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client | i know idea — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:52:58 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]

By: Lou L.

Lou L. — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:11:56 +0000

Hey Inayaili,

I think you raise a great point here. I think there are two categories: clients who are just unaware of certain things, and clients who are just rude, clueless on human conduct, and disrespectful to you and what you do.

With the first kind of client, I agree that we shouldn’t get frustrated with. Also, why would we expect someone who hires us to already know everything and be familiar with everything? After all, that’s what they’re hiring us for! It wouldn’t make sense for them to be a super savvy design enthusiast. The only thing – I think – we can really ask from the client is to recognize precisely that – that they’re coming to us because we’re the expert and they’re not, so to trust our judgment and suggestions when it comes to design.

And the second kind of client…well, those I just rather not work with.

Thanks!

By: There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client - Programming Blog

There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client - Programming Blog — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:31:47 +0000

[...] Clients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer Notebook [...]