Episode 61: Making your Design Clients Happier

Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:00] This week we’re brainstorming how to make your design clients happier
[1:45] A happy client has endless benefits
[2:30] Quick responses to clients are Dustin’s magic ingredient
[3:40] Setting client expectation on what times they can expect to hear back
[4:10] Building up trust with your clients
[4:50] Tom gives Chris Spooner a mention and we’ve had him on the show in Episode 20: The Power of Side Projects, With Chris Spooner
[5:10] Chris runs a very successful business, a blog, and multiple YouTube channels on his own
[5:40] Tom really appreciated Chris responsiveness to emails while collaborating with him on a project
[6:20] The huge difference between being responsive and delaying getting back to clients
[7:00] Responding to delayed emails in a thoughtful way
[8:00] Ian often doing the ‘sorry for the delay…’
[9:00] The effectiveness of live responding on Twitter
[9:40] Tom getting back to client emails instantly and seeing the benefits
[10:40] Dustin getting out of bed to reply to emails helped with his early customers
[11:20] Trying to reply live to at least a few people
[12:30] Anticipating customer needs and concerns
[13:20] Think of similar issues other companies are experiencing
[13:50] Dustin’s email marketing example for his latest Procreate pack
[14:30] Going the extra mile to inform your customers of time saving solutions
[15:30] Run your clients to your processes and provide them with plenty of information
[16:30] Show your process to potential clients and make it easier for them to contact you
[17:30] Add a breakdown of the process followed by call to action on your website
[18:40] Client communication is a huge aspect in making clients happy
[19:50] Dustin’s pleasant experience receiving informative newsletters from Sprout Social
[20:50] Tom’s not so good experience with clients customizing and destroying the websites design he created
[21:50] Offering your client solutions to avoid damaging the website design
[22:40] Clients not having access to a logo they paid for
[23:30] Creating informational resources of things your clients might not be aware of
[24:15] Clients fearing things they don’t understand
[25:00] Ways of increasing your value proposition
[26:00] Dustin’s example from the ‘Rework’ book by Jason Fried
[26:30] Analysing what worked and what didn’t from previous client processes
[27:20] Examples of useful guides: e.g. how fast design can become outdated
[28:20] Dustin’s fear of not getting what’s been promised from a project
[28:50] Offering small things in advance, even if there’s no remuneration
[29:20] Tom was giving Dustin useful suggestions even before becoming partners
[30:00] Tom giving social media advice to his local café owners
[31:00] Start providing useful information at a personal level before scaling up to more customers
[32:00] Becoming someone clients come to for suggestions
[33:30] Loving to help people as a graphic designer
[34:00] Do something small and meaningful for someone once a day
[35:00] The feeling you get when a client is so happy because you’ve helped them with a problem
[35:30] Tom mentions Dave Clayton who is helping people connect
[36:00] Find out what your skill is: teacher, connector, listener etc.
[36:45] Dave making Dustin feel like he’s his number 1 fan
[37:15] Ask your family and close friend how they see you
[38:10] Dustin mentions the ‘Anything you want’ by DC Baby founder Derek Sivers: ‘when you make a business, your make your own world
[39:20] You set up your own rules for your business and make it run the way you want
[40:00] Tom mentions one of his early businesses – Discover Unsigned
[41:30] A lot of designers are musicians
[42:40] Tom reiterates the importance of good communication with your clients
[43:15] Think how you can over-deliver communication
[43:50] Assume your clients won’t know much about the technicalities of design
[44:50] Think communication is an extension of your brand
[46:30] The hosts try to remember the name of the John Cusack Boombox movie and Dustin agrees the first person to name the movie on social media gets one Retro Supply product
[47:20] Ian shares his experience with the car mechanics and the lack of communication
[48:30] Ending up with a hefty bill after a visit to the car mechanics
[49:50] Ian finds at least having a list of prices would be very useful
[50:30] Communicating any changes in cost during the project and not at the end
[51:20] Tom’s advice to any struggling designer – rebrand yourself as the trustworthy designer
[52:00] Breakdown invoices to show where the time was spent
[53:20] Thank you all for listening to this week’s episode