Comments on: Communicating with Indecisive Clients

By: Website design Hull

Website design Hull — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:00:11 +0000

The toughest part of any website process is dealing with the enevitable delays caused by clients. Its usually content/pictures but i have known clients to change their mind all over the place, or even worse take ages to make even the simplest of decisions. I recently re-wrote my terms and conditions in and attempt to tidy the process up a little!

By: Arbenting's Best of the Week (08/03 - 08/09) | Arbenting

Arbenting's Best of the Week (08/03 - 08/09) | Arbenting — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:42:57 +0000

[...] Communicating with Indecisive Clients – We’ve all had those clients who feel like since they are the customer, they can change their minds and keep you jumping through hoops to keep them happy. This is a great article on how to handle those clients and stay in control of the situation. [...]

By: MetaExecutiva » Como lidar com clientes indecisos

MetaExecutiva » Como lidar com clientes indecisos — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:15:33 +0000

[...] Essa é a minha versão pessoal para o texto Communicating with indecisive clients [...]

By: NumbSpring

NumbSpring — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:43:21 +0000

Uggh. I hate dealing with clients who can t make up their minds…find out how to handle this.

By: Mike - Elegance in Design

Mike - Elegance in Design — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:02:11 +0000

I agree 100% with #4, coach the client giving weight to your experience. After that, layout what’s included in the contract and make sure they know anything above and beyond they will pay. People like this will keep you on the hook for 6 months with small changes that pile up so fast the project has changed and you aren’t getting paid.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:19:03 +0000

Getting as much info as you can up front is key. I will not even start working on a site until I feel I have enough content to work with. You will just end up spinning your wheels until you do.

By: Email Designer

Email Designer — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:29:11 +0000

I’ve been dealing with these types for years, from my web design years, to my current email marketing design commissions.

I’ve learned that charging for additional changes is key, people have easy access to email, and whenever they think of the smallest thing to change, they won’t hesitate to let you know.

I’ll offer 1 free round of light edits after delivery, and I define what the light edits are in my terms of service. It’s always good to lay out the specifics for your customers in a TOS so there are no grey areas.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:47:01 +0000

I’m not a web developer but I am a programmer and I know all about indecisive clients, and these steps are as true for programming as they are web dev.

I generally try to tell them what I would do in their situation and it seems that this often works for me. Clients often don’t know what they want and will take the advice of a “professional” (you) very quickly.

If a client is dead-set of doing things themselves I’ll tell them to think about it for a few days and contact me later.

By: CHelmertz

CHelmertz — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:11:48 +0000

A good rule of thumb is to reassure yourself that the customer orders what he/she needs, not what the customer thinks is needed. An in-depth analysis is good to fall back on, even if it’s only used for keeping track on those main goals of a project.

By: hull web design

hull web design — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:01:58 +0000

Almost certainly providing a list of things required for the client is one of the best ways to keep the flow of communication organised.

Just make sure you don’t say something like “just fill in the details and that’s all we’ll need”.

Keep transparent about everything, be open and honest, if you’ve forgotten something just say so.