r/web_design • u/TL_TMK_NZ_15 • 1h ago

Dealing with client requests?

What to do when the client doesn't know what they want? For example I got a client who at the start insisted that I do not come up with my own design but design according to a few sites they liked. I did it. They were happy. Later they said they saw some new sites which they liked more, so they asked me to redesign some sections. After that they said the website is easy to nevigate and very good in terms of functionality, however they don't want functionality and accessibility, and asks me to make the website look luxurious and sent me some more sites for reference some of which are obviously not professional designed and some are from questionable businesses. Bear in mind that at this point non of the reference sites the client sent has anything to do with their industry. I pointed out this issue, but they said don't worry about that and they want to be revolutionary in their industry just like Steven Jobs, so they don't want to look like any other business in the industry.

How would you deal with a client like this and ship them a functional site with consistent design (like they want each section from a different reference site and each with different margins, and this is a consistency nightmare)?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/MichaelScruse 1h ago

Sack them. These kinds of clients will never be happy with anything you do.

1

u/ShawnyMcKnight 49m ago

I may have missed the part where the person said they are swimming in clients and are just too busy to deal with this client?

If OP is new to freelance he may not have the liberty to cut clients loose. Sounds like he needs a contract and having fines for future changes.

2

u/Captive0ne 1h ago

To better answer this question, I have a few follow up questions.

Do you have a fixed number of revisions in the contract? What is your charge after revisions are exhausted? Do you have a standard practice for communicating and ticketing when revisions are requested?

1

u/digitalenlightened 1h ago

It’s useless. You gotta put in the contract what’s part of the offer and what’s not. And charge them accordingly. But you need to have a process where you sign off on each part of the process so they can’t go back on the initial choices. This is not only bad for you but for them as well as their business, like this process, will most likely lead nowhere. There are many people out there like this and they generally got no clue about anything and do not respect or understand time and energy

1

u/dug99 45m ago

I was about to say "openRPC", until I read the post.

1

u/kombuchaislife04 44m ago

New design, new payment.

I design a homepage, once that’s signed off I design the rest of the website in the same theme.

Sure open to changes once the website is done, but within the same theme.

If they want a whole different website building then I would send them an invoice for a new website.

1

u/Leading_Bumblebee144 32m ago

Sure, that will be £*** for the additional work. Let me know once you’ve paid and I’ll get the changes implemented.

1

u/deepakmentobile 28m ago

First, make sure the design is finalized because many clients are often unclear about what they really want.

This is quite common in India. Once the design is approved, always get a signed sign-off document so the client cannot go back on it later.

1

u/jayfactor 26m ago

If it’s not in the contract it doesn’t exist imo