Earlier this week I did a presentation at my local WordPress Orlando MeetUp about Client Transparency. This talk was a really open look at what it’s like being a creative, dispelling some perceptions on the creative lifestyle, as well as some insight into the thought process of a designer or developer working with the average client. I’ll be honest and say that most of these views are my sole perception, however many other creatives have echoed the same emotions and feelings.
The purpose of this though was to bring some light and understanding to both sides of the table when it comes to working through creative projects. The better both creatives and clients understand and respect each other, the better the development process will be and increase working relationships for long terms.
If you were unable to attend the live presentation, it was recorded and will be shared soon.
We received an email from our friends at Wallpaper Wizard for a special deal on a new Mac OSX app called Photo+ from ArcSoft. If you do photography like we do, chances are you have quite a few applications that all do certain things very well. If on a Mac, you’re probably used to using the default Preview app. While great for single images, viewing multiple images in full, zooming, cropping, and such are a bit cumbersome and limited. With Photo+ however there are a host of great features to make showcasing a whole folder of images really easy and fast to display.
Using your track pad or Magic Mouse you can easily slide left and right or hover over images to view them. Full images within large folders open quickly. As you can see you have plenty of controls to use to:
Easily start a slideshow
Navigate images
Delete images
Share to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr
Make photos favorites
Zoom
And my favorite is entering full screen while still being able to scroll and navigate images
As you can see from this screenshot, you can easily crop out and copy to your clipboard, or save the image quickly.
Well take advantage of their Mac App Store introductory sale from $9.99 to .99Cents. Within a few seconds of purchasing it was downloaded and I was up and running with no fuss. Arcsoft does have some well documented tutorials should you need them, but looking at the icons they’re all pretty familiar if you already use most other photo editing programs.
Good morning all – Jean and I had a great discussion during our video blog yesterday and we hope you enjoy it. However, if you don’t have time to watch it or take notes, we’d like to share some of the key points made. The next time you take on a new client, consider these questions or issues to raise, dialogue about and seek answers to in order to successfully manage your clients expectations.
1st Element: Understanding Who Your Client Really Is
A. Find out the type of personality they have & how they best communicate (email, text, telephone or in person).
B. Through discussions, try to extract the purpose of the website and their business goals even if they aren’t clear on them.
C. Stress the importance of branding & being clear about their business identity & its goals so that the website and/or branding efforts are successful.
A. What’s the vision of the company?
B. Who do they believe their customers & consumers are?
C. What do they think their consumers & audience want to see & expect from them?
D. Take the initiative through dialogue/research to get a firm understanding of their product or service and how they want to market it.
E. What are the goals they want their website and branding to achieve?
3rd Element: Setting Client Expectations for the Project
A. What is the projected costs & overall budget (with wiggle room)?
B. What are the time frames for benchmarks and completion?
C. Are you requesting and receiving all relevant content for each page of your website upfront? Consider how this affects time & workflow of project.
D. Are their images web-worthy (i.e. are clear, look professional), of high-resolution and large enough to scale down for editing if needed?
E. Have you established a good client relationship that can endure project delays and/or disappointments?
F. Can that rapport endure if there are issues with responsiveness from the client that affect workflow, benchmarks & completion dates?
4th Element: Clients Expectation for ROI
A. Make sure you set realistic expectations of the actual ROI and timeframe in which they might see the fruits of their investment.
B. What do you do with a client that has unrealistic expectations of ROI?
C. Explain why advertising their website is crucial once it is launched and the need for continued marketing efforts.
– They need figure out how they are going to notify current customers about their new website.
– Make announcements via Social Media platforms.
– Invest in marketing materials that reflect an online, worldwide presence.
D. Encourage them to think outside the box to market their website.
– If you’re a Mom & Pop, consider Small Business Association meetings, posting marketing materials in coffee houses & restaurant/business lobbies.
E. All businesses need to focus on and execute strategic customer outreach campaigns to see profitable ROI.
The Wrap Up It’s important to set the expectations from both parties from the beginning. Set your workflow & do your best to stick to it. Hold your clients accountable for their website’s success. Help them understand that the success of their website requires THEIR initiative, drive
& passion for THEIR business. Remember, good content does wonders for customer engagement and willingness to purchase the product or service. Understand it’s about client relationship & the longevity of that relationship.
Last week’s blog http://bit.ly/RxWTOk definitely caused successive waves of emotions regarding client communication and the rocky waters one can hit if misunderstood. Now this week I want to focus on the pitfalls of not being cognizant of gaps in communication with your colleagues. When life imitates art, reality reflects what had previously been expressed in that art (or literature, real life drama, etc). As I’m finding out more recently than ever, so does an experience lay the foundation for writing these blogs & learning how to do somethings better as you go along. If we’re not cognizant of what we’re conveying or implying to a colleague, we can misinterpret key points, directives and pertinent goals of a project. And that doesn’t just affect the working relationship but also goes to heart of productivity (or lack thereof) and the trust a client puts in you to get the task/project completed. And I’m sure we all know from last weeks blog how detrimental that can be!
Tomato – Tomahto? If I say the sky is blue and you say yes, it’s Robin’s Egg, are we going to split hairs over which is accurate or engage in the debate of semantics (the meaning/interpretation of words or groups of words within a certain context commonly used in order to win some form of argument)? There’s nothing wrong with individual expression, however lapses in correct communication with your colleagues can cause not just frustration but a host of other issues. Some of which might include: *Lack of Productivity *Missed Deadlines *Delays in the internal workflow system *Disintegration of team morale & cohesiveness *Stressful work environment And I’m sure there is a bevy of many more. It’s an “if / then” , “cause/effect” kind of issue. Recently I had a situation where a client colleague gave me some documents and wanted them converted to another format. I thought we were on the same page, but the simple misunderstanding of “what it is vs. what I want it to be” caused longer hours, more resources and impacted the financial investment into the project. A frustrating lesson to learn but nevertheless, it’s in my handbook now! Tone Can Be Everything One of the valuable lessons my father instilled in me from almost birth is that it’s not just what you say but HOW you say it that makes the difference. Yes, I know you all have probably heard that a thousand times but as I was writing this blog, I thought about how that same motto holds true in business. Whether its in a meeting, over the phone or responding to an email and/or text; HOW you say something will certainly determine WHAT people hear when you speak and/or write. If your tone is biting, snippy or inpatient, that can determine the “joy” your colleague will have when needing to collaborate with you or fulfilling a directive. Body language also plays an important part here as well. A hand on the hip, an audible sigh or a rolled eye can easily cause a “in one ear & out of the other” effect. That’s Not What I Said!
Last week I talked about the regurgitation method or otherwise known as rephrasing. When having a conversation, try to fully engage & listen to what others are saying. Then rephrase and repeat back to them what you believe were their important points. For the time it takes to do this, it will certainly be time well spent rather than going back on multiple occasions for clarification. Not On Their Dime If you are not concise regarding the instructions on how to complete a particular task, you might waste valuable time and have to go back for a do-over. That could also cause an unexpected financial impact on the project from the clients wallet. So it behooves us all to make sure that what we are conveying to one another is accurate such as confirming the plan of action, workflow timeframes and completion dates.
In conclusion, better communication leads to a more productive workplace, which in turn increases a company’s revenue. If the company is doing well, that means clients are happy and possibly you & your colleague(s) can enjoy the financial fruits of your labors. So let’s all try to be a little more cognizant of our colleague communication so that fruit stays ripe & abundant for both the workplace and financial harvest.
When a new website is completed and launched, there is a great sense of relief and jubilation from my design firm. All the extra work we put into a project feels like it was so worth it. Almost like we could have done it for free had we been given the chance. Hearing how the client or group is so excited and hearing their praises gives us some great confidence and feedback that we met or exceeded their expectations. However the project actually isn’t completed at that point. I pull together all the staff members who were involved with the project for an exit interview.
In Corporate America when someone is let go from a job or moving to a new department, the sitting manager or HR representative will host a meeting with the employee that is moving to get their honest opinion on their soon to be previous role. Their asked to be candid and explain how they felt about their manager, job function, duties, achievements, and of course moral. The end of a design I feel should be the same in some aspects.
Some things to consider or talk about with your team or reflect on yourself would be:
Content: Was there enough content provided from the beginning? How much copy needed to be edited or rewritten? Did the client provide enough? Was I delivered or provided to us on time or when asked?
Budget: Was the client charged adequately for every deliverable we were tasked with. Did we find any areas in the project that could have been handled a different way that would have given us more services we could have offered? Does it seem like the client would have paid more for the same level of service?
Timeline: Did we beat our deadline? We’re we late and why? What were some factors that contributed to our timeline. How can we avoid any setbacks on our end or the clients going forward. We’re they’re new requests submitted that effected the timeline that was not accounted for?
Teamwork: Overall how did everyone work together? Did anyone feel like they didn’t get their opinions expressed or considered enough? Did everyone pull their weight? Did everyone feel they were given all they needed to complete their tasks? Was the communication across the team well enough or does it need improvement? What was the best medium for communication?
Customer Experience: Did the customer play a big enough role in the project. Were there enough options provided yet not too much to hinder a confident choice? Did all the team members have a chance to meet and/or talk to the client? We’re all of our responses timely? Did email communications go well, or could more phone calls iron out misunderstandings?
After reading through these I’m sure you may have wondered or even asked some of these questions to yourself after completing a project. It may seem a bit time-consuming but I promise you it’s worth the effort. It will help you avoid mistakes in your future projects while providing some self-examination to your firm and tactics. If you have some other points to add please do so in the comments below. As always we love hearing your opinions and contrary thoughts.
