Hi There,

I'm new to the forum...so howdy.

I'm wondering how you guys manage your client expectations during the project. Here are some of the issues I have been running into:

1) Seemingly endless content changes. E.g. "Here is my page content...oh wait...change it to this. Actually, now that I see it, how about we put this instead?"

2) Clients take forever in providing content, or provide 90% and the last bit seems to never arrive. And of course they don't want to pay the remainder as they are worried it won't get done when they finally get their act together.

Does any one else find this? Any suggestions on how you handle your projects initially to address this etc. would be great.

Hi,

I get simlar problems all the time.

Just remeber, they're paying you because they're too stupid to do it themselves. I find that this calms me down whenever I get annoyed.

Anyway, here's how I would probably deal with those situations:

1) Charge them for any content changes. If they ask for one thing (and you do it) but then they change their mind, explain the extra time your spending will be reflected in their bill.

Once, a client of mind decided they wanted to review the entire layout of the website design that we'd just completed for them. We had to completely start over from scratch and took another one and a half weeks to finish. We just charged them for the extra work we had to put in.

And it's okay to charge them, as long as you did what they asked for in the first place. E.g. If you misunderstood what they wanted, causing them to ask for a change, you couldn't charge for that, because it wasn't their fault (even though it wasn't yours either!).

2) I've had clients like this as well. The best thing to do is to keep them as clients for as long as they want; but if they're taking too long, then begin charging them for work you've completed on a regular basis. E.g. Every three months (if they're really slow) charge them for the work you've done in that three months. I don't know how slow your clients are being but I've had one who's taken over 18 months to provide full content.

If they refuse to pay fo the three months, then just treat them like you would anyone who refused to pay.

That's how I'd personally handle it. If I misinterpreted any of your questions then please say, and I hope this helps.

Cheers - good luck with your clients!

Thanks Cooper, that is exactly what I am running into. Glad to hear I'm not alone and thanks for the input.

You're far from alone !

For #1 - limit them to a certain number of changes in your contract - and hopefully you DO have one - and anything beyond that they get charged more for. If you don't have a contract, get one made up and stick to it. Once they sign on the dotted line, they are agreeing to the terms and you have every right to 'enforce' those terms.

For #2 - I run into this ALL the time. I've had request for 4 sites on my desk since July - -you think I can get them to SEND ME CONTENT ??? Not so far and I'm sick of nagging them. If my 'clients' weren't internal I'd have dropped them months ago. This is something I would also put into your agreement. Once the project is approved you need to set out a timeline and make sure they are aware of it. If they force you to go beyond that time line, make it clear that their project will go on the back burner until they get with the program and provide you what's needed.