Hi Guys,

Thought as I currently have a fairly hard to please customer at the moment, It would be interesting to find out how you deal with them..

For example:
They give you a design spec. ( What they want, how it should look, colours etc )

• You give price..

• They accept.

• They then choose one based on your "mockups"

• You then start on that one design. Checking they are happy as you go along.

• You then build your template ( customer is still happy )

• You start the hard work of actually now DOING the site.

• Customer starts making "small" tweaks ( that are actually quite major changes )

• Customer still making "tweaks" due to their ideas.

• Still changing.

• Webmaster dying ..

• Still tweaking

• Website looks completely different to the "agreed" spec.

How on earth do you deal with these people?
I can honestly say I must of been lucky with so many happy decent clients.

But this latest one can be challenging.

Im loosing what remaining faith I have in the general public.

I'd tell them before hand that the agreed upon "mock up" cannot be drastically changed. I would specify what I'd be willing to change "link colors, text etc" but the design cannot be changed.

If they really want it changed, there's an extra charge.

Been there, done that a couple of times.

now they start with "can that bit go over there"? questions the answer is.

"Yes of course it can"!

"It will take x days and cost £nn" ... "Make the cheque out to ....... please"

They either pay up or stop asking.

I have this twice and in both situation I stop to change anything and ask extra price for my work. In both situation I am ready to loose all money but... I didn't

you definitely have to put your foot down up front. you can be firm and nice at the same time. offer alternatives that are not structural/major changes but may accomplish the same thing they want

we've encountered lots of clients with that kinds of attitude. that's why we always required to pay us upfront and give them extra charge for additional changes they have requested.

I agree with all that has been said. Sometimes consumers think that because you are to PROfessional that things are quick, simple and easy. Educate them and they may have a better understanding and not be so quick to make changes. And oh yeah, charge for major revamping. )

I require 50% deposit and 50% before upload to customer's server.

Include in contract that custom template must be approved before any actual pages are built, and state that you are happy to make changes to that template after approval, at a charge of $50 per hour, or whatever your "going rate" is. You must make sure the customer understands what the template includes.

I would recommend you re-invoice every time there is an additional charge to the original contract, just to make sure your customer is totally aware of what the final payment will be. Also, do all this in writing. Customers tend to get amnesia when changes are verbal.

Have a look at http://www.squidoo.com/web-designer-versus-client

Your situation reminds me this comic strip.

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

To avoid this situation...

1) Ask them to sign a contract, before you start the work. Usually, good clients will like this approach. If your client is not willing, you can avoid that project because they might not pay you or will pay less once you deliver the site.

2) Mention all your terms and charges for every change after the design gets baselined. Also outline what changes are available without charges and what changes will get charged in the contract.

3) Get an upfront fee to start your work.

Negotiate for the scope change. If the scope goes beyond the agreed one earlier, you have the right to reject the changes, if they are not willing to pay more.

i was once not paid for my work and still being ****** off

Originally Posted by vivekar

Your situation reminds me this comic strip.

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

Oh! The Oatmeal.
Related: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-ru...e-design-curve
(From when The Oatmeal was still a full-time web designer, SEO guy and not a full-time comic-making awesomeguy.)

Originally Posted by lynxus

Hi Guys,

Thought as I currently have a fairly hard to please customer at the moment, It would be interesting to find out how you deal with them..

...snip, snip, snip...

Can't say I was in YOUR shoes, but I can say I feel that same general thought...I would give up on doing for them, and do for YOURSELF. You can be kind hearted by doing for yourself, and not for others. This is quite a good example of that. Hope you learned a valuable lesson with this.

The answer is nothing to do with payment its about professionalism and skill, I have had 2-3 of these clients when I first started which I was gullible enough to do as I was told, I still do get a few, and when I do get them I say

'You hired me as a designer, I have a qualification in design, I am going to continue to do my job the way I which I think is right, If you are not happy, go and find someone else who is less of a professional willing to be told what to do.'

I trust that If your work is of a professional standard and the product looks good, You'll pass, but use this mentality.

Wait till you get to the corporates, thats hard.

I've been caught as well. I now take:
1 Design deposit BEFORE I do designs - stops people getting me to do work when they're not really committed
2 50% deposit before I start coding
3 Remainder once website is finished
I specify in writing that I am happy to make as many changes as they want before coding commences; once I start coding, any significant changes OR multiple changes will have to be paid for.

I use an analogy of a builder - if a client asks for a 12foot x 12foot extension, and they wait until the builder has built the walls, installed the windows and doors, plastered and tiled and painted before asking for a 14foot x 12foot extension with the window moved here and the door a bit bigger and could you just paint this wall white not cream - then the client would expect to pay for changes. Exactly the same with web design.

Of course, I expect the ODD little "tweak" but I'm not as soft as I once was. I'm also not as green - I've now installed a Paypal link on my site after a new client wanted a website yesterday, assured me the cheque was in the post and I started designs; then he sent another email to say he'd just had a bereavement and been ill but definitely wanted a site etc etc. He still hasn't paid for - or seen - the designs I was stupid enough to do on trust.

Three words.
SIGN A CONTRACT.

Now do yourself a favor and watch this:

http://www.dvafoto.com/2011/04/****-...n-and-payment/

It is a challenging task, give them more alternatives......