Stop moaning

From day-to-day I hear complaints from people in our industry. Things like “This work is out of the scope of the project”, “The client just doesn’t understand good design, why won’t they do things my way?”, “That is nothing to do with us, Bloggs’ Agency is dealing with that part of the project”. It goes on.

All I can say is “shut up and be thankful”. These clients that you are moaning about are hiring you to provide a professional service and are paying you good money because they don’t have the time or skills to do it themselves. So when they ask you to do something, either quote for the work or chuck in a freebie, it’s not difficult. If something is going to take a few extra minutes on top of the quoted work but will mean that your client has a smooth ride, then just get it done.

As a designer, developer, project manager, account manager etc., it’s your job to provide a service that your client is over the moon with. If you can’t do that then get a job doing something else.

There are some clients who can take you a ride if you are playing too nice, but that’s a different story and believe it or not, it is a very rare case as long as you have your paperwork and contracts nailed at the start of the project.

My final gripe is bad communication. Far too much communication today is done via text, email, Skype and via social media channels. This can work very well but if you run into problems then pick up the phone and have a good old chat, or better still meet up and have a nice brew. Most of the time this will solve your problems.

Apologies for the slightly negative approach with this post but I am getting rather fed up of hearing designers moan about their clients. If you find yourself moaning about something, chances are that it’s a problem you created somewhere along the line by not having the correct procedures in place or by cutting corners.