Clients are evil… at least it can feel that way sometimes. They seem to hinder more than help and so often they “just don’t get it”. We can talk enthusiastically about accessibility, standards and best practice but so often we are met with the blank stare of indifference from clients. They interfere in our designs and won’t pay for proper testing. Next to Internet Explorer they are probably the biggest frustration we face!
A Clash Of Culture
There is a very real divide between clients and web designers that seriously undermines many web projects. Moreover, the frustration is felt on both sides of the fence with many clients perceiving the web design community as “not living in the real world” and obsessed with technology for technology’s sake. They might also believe that they are being asked to pay for things that they don’t need.
At the heart of the problem lies a failure to communicate effectively. It is almost as if the two sides are speaking completely different languages. The aim of this article is to help you learn the language of clients and to be able to bridge that cultural divide, meaning a healthier working relationship and the business benefits that brings.
The Language Barrier
I am British and we Brits have a terrible reputation abroad. When we meet somebody who doesn’t speak English we tend to think they are stupid. We speak slower and louder in the hope they will understand us, when the reality is that they probably speak multiple languages and are far more intelligent than us.
We are often like this as web designers. Just because clients don’t know their XML from their CSS we presume they are stupid and start speaking slower and louder. The truth is they are often very savvy business people who have expertise of their own (just in very different areas).
The reason we find ourselves in conflict with our clients is because we make little or no effort to either understand their “culture” or “speak their language”. If we wish to convince them of the value of accessibility, standards or any other best practice technique, we need to learn to present it in a language they can relate to.
Return On Investment
Every culture has its defining characteristics. Understanding those characteristics and tapping into them is what allows you to really be accepted. Clients are no exception. At the core of their world view is return on investment (ROI). If we speak the language of ROI we will quickly find clients much more amenable.
Saying that the culture of clients is built on ROI does not mean they are solely concerned with making money. After all we know that not every website is directly about generating income. However, all clients desire to see some form of return on investment for splashing out the cash on their site. That return could come in many different forms depending on the type of site. While an ecommerce site is going to look for increased sales, a service-based company may focus on more enquiries. A charity website might want more volunteers while a government site might desire to educate or inform. Whatever the case the client will be constantly asking how any decision related to the site helps increase that return.
Let me give an example of where things can go wrong. If you read this website the chances are you are passionate about web standards. As web designers we are often put in the position of justifying our desire to implement web standards and it can be frustrating when clients fail to grasp the benefits. After all they seem so obvious to us:
- Separation of design from content makes a site easier to manage
- Semantic code makes it easier to read and interpret
- Standards make it easier to comply with accessibility guidelines.
The list could go on. However, unless properly presented, none of those reasons will resonate with a client. They are about making your life easier as a developer not about increasing ROI.
With a little “translation” the same arguments outlined above can be made more client friendly by focusing on their return for investment:
- Standards-based design will significantly reduce the ongoing development costs associated with your site.
- Web standards will make your site more search engine friendly so driving more potential customers to your site.
- A standards-based approach will ensure that as many people as possible have access to the products and services you offer.
When you are pitching to a prospective client, or even working with past customers, it will pay dividends to do as much homework about the client’s objectives, their target market and their business model. Then you can deliver the right solutions, framed in the right language that will really resonate with them. It also means of course, that the solution you put together is the best it can be, which will pay for itself when happy customers recommend you to their friends and associates.
Margin Of Return
Just because a technology or technique can provide a return on investment doesn’t mean it is justifiable from a client’s perspective. A client isn’t just concerned with whether it provides a return; they are also concerned with the margin of return.
A good example of the “margin mentality” is AJAX. The whole web design community is excited about AJAX at the moment. It can provide improved usability, a richer user experience and is basically damn sexy! From a client’s perspective AJAX offers return on investment in the form of increased customer satisfaction and repeat traffic. However, AJAX isn’t always quick to implement and that can damage the margins of return.
I was recently working on an ecommerce website aimed at an elderly audience. Although the site was generally very successful we were suffering from a significant dropout rate when registering address details. Usability testing revealed that users where confused by the address fields which required them to enter information onto multiple lines. Unfortunately we were unable to simplify the form and so decided to solve the problem using an AJAX postcode lookup. We then carried out a second round of testing and found that the new approach worked extremely well. Users found it much more intuitive and it successfully helped them complete the registration form. However, one user commented that an even easier approach would have been to simply add an example address next to each field showing what the user was expected to enter. Such an approach would have achieved the same aim as the AJAX solution but could have been implemented in a matter of minutes.
The problem is that, as developers, we are often drawn to complexity. We love technology and enjoy developing complex technical solutions. The downside of this is that complexity can be expensive. A client wants to achieve his aims for the smallest investment possible and so maximise his return. In the registration example above it was much more cost effective to implement the example text than it is to develop a sophisticated AJAX lookup system. So not only do we need to be considering return on investment when proposing a development solution, we also need to be looking for an approach that maximises the return.
Success Criteria
Even if we are thinking in terms of return on investment, that doesn’t automatically mean the client will see things the same way we do. As I said earlier it is important to understand what forms of return are important to an individual client. For some the cost of development might not be as important as speed of delivery. Others might be more interested in seeing increases in traffic even if conversion is low. That is why it is important to discuss what the client’s expectations are up front. The most common way of achieving this is to agree on success criteria for the project before work commences.
Clearly documenting a project’s success criteria right at the start not only improves communication between designer and client it also helps manage expectation and focuses the client’s mind on exactly what they want their site to do. Too many projects suffer from scope creep partly because the client doesn’t have a clear vision of what they are ultimately trying to achieve. Without that clear objective clients can often move the goalposts on a project as they gain a greater understanding of what is achievable.
The process of deciding on success criteria should be a joint venture between designer and client. This ensures that all parties are committed to the objectives and that they are realistic. Too often clients set unrealistic expectations on a project because they have no frame of reference as to what is possible. It is your job as the designer to provide that frame of reference to help them strike the right balance. Of course as with everything they will want to maximise their return and so you will need to clearly explaining the constraints you face in a language they can understand.
Not only should the success criteria be realistic, they should also be specific and where possible measurable. A desire to improve usability or increase sales does not constitute success criteria, rather these are broad objectives. The problem is that the designer’s perception of improved usability may well be different from that of the clients. Instead, try setting specific objectives such as a percentage increase in users reaching a certain call to action or key page. This will gives the client something tangible against which to judge the various development decisions being made. For example, if five hours of development work will be required to implement an approach that satisfies one of the success criteria, then the client can judge whether the return on investment is worthwhile.
It’s The Thought That Counts
Of course the reality of working on projects isn’t as black and white as I have outlined above. Sometimes it can be hard to quantify the return of a particular approach and even the best predictions can be wrong. However, it is the mindset that is important not the specifics of the implementation. We as designers and developers have to stop seeing our clients as the bane of our existence and start trying to understand what motivates them. We pride ourselves on being user centric designers however I would dare to argue that first and foremost we should be business centric designers. I believe that our primary role is to meet the needs of the businesses that commission us and that in order to achieve this we need to understand their aims and objectives.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the nice article! I must say you made a couple of very viable and helpful points which i’ll certainly take on board, and my my did you hit home when referring to clients as “Next to Internet Explorer they are probably the biggest frustration we face!” - it made me chuckle ^^
Very well said. Respecting clients’ intelligence and not talking down to them (and no sighing!) are the most basic building blocks of a successful client relationship.
The cornerstone is trust. If a client doesn’t trust you then the second-guessing starts. Pretty soon they are citing opinions from their web designer friends (”$5,000 for a design?! I do complete sites for $375 + $20/page and $10/graphic!”) To avoid this kind of situation requires trust, because most of the time you will want to give them a short answer that sums up your reasoning, but without an explicit justification which is usually too technical to be of interest. After all, they are paying you to take care of the technical details, so they should trust your judgement. If they don’t, get out as soon as you can.
Every client is different, but you have to feel out their ability to absorb different kinds of information and tailor your response accordingly. Whatever the question is I’m always prepared to deliver a one-sentence non-technical statement about the merits of a particular approach. I work with whatever vocabulary the client has and use phrases like “in general” to cover my ass when I start the extreme generalizations. The most important tool is just to look in their eye and see when they start zoning out. At that instant you must shut up within 2 seconds and let them ask another question.
I agree with Gabe, trust is imperative. I find the most difficulty comes from not fully educating clients. If I forget to explain why I built the solution like so, then they lose trust in my abilities, afraid that I might be attempting to hoodwink them and attach extra fees or features for no good reason.
Hi Paul. I wrote a book called Client vs. Developer Wars after reflecting on the frustration you’ve adeptly described in your article (it’s a free PDF and published on the site).
As you point out communication is key to effective web projects. We’ve also found that process can help a lot too (described in the book).
Great post!
Eric Holter
CEO - Newfangled Web Factory
www.newfangled.com
Sorry for the broken link above…
Client vs. Developer Wars - http://www.newfangled.com/client_vs_developer_wars
I run my own company in argentina with a friend of mine, this article is really helpfull for us, as we are learning each time we have to manage to understand with a client.
Thanks!
JW
WWDD
Great article. When I was in college, we read a book called The Art of Crossing Cultures by Craig Storti. It’s focus is on businesspeople and others who need to live and work in a culture other than their own, whether for work or other reasons. It offers powerful insights into learning to speak the language of that other culture, in more than a linguistic sense.
I would enthusiastically recommend it as a companion to discussions like this. We don’t necessarily think of clients as being from a culture that is foreign to us, but as the article mentions we often treat them as if they are, and on top of that we don’t often know how to treat those who are from a foreign culture.
Anyway. Great thoughts. Thanks.
Great article, Thanks. I think often as designers and developers we don’t give enough time to the business aspect of our design business’. Developing successful strategies to communicate with clients and helping them achieve their end needs is part and parcel of why clients seek out web professionals.
Good article, but your comment in relation to foreigners that “the reality is that they probably speak multiple languages and are far more intelligent than us” is bigoted. The likelihood is that we are neither more nor less intelligent, probably similar.
Working from a view point that the people you are dealing with are more intelligent than yourself might work if you are building a site for MENSA, but otherwise is unlikely to help. Approach your clients with confidence and as an equal.
First of all, I can recommend the read of client vs developer as I have read it myself (my thoughts).
Second this is a very good article and I think the important thing to remember is that the client pays the bills and just because he is computer illiterate does not give you the right to have a go at him.
Good read.
I need to add the thought though; why would you expect your client to care two bits about CSS/XML or Ajax? I’ve been doing business in the web design field for over 10 years and I have conversations with clients about the nuts-and-bolts of how their site is put together maybe once or twice. Most clients just want a solution that works.
I can see their eyes glazing over now as I describe how we’re going to be using CSS on their project to them…
I’ll ask this, would you charge less for a website you coded using tables vs. CSS/XHTML? Would you even do it? If not, I don’t see any point in bringing it up.
Excellent read, Paul. Love the article, nicely done.
Great article. You nailed it on the head when you say that talking ROI works with business people. I go even further and roll the big three of standards, semantic code and accessibility into the simple term clean code. Jargon seldom helps communicate unless its shared.
Of course clean code is easier to maintain and easier for search engines and people with disabilities to figure out than messy code.
I really don’t care to know all the tax laws my accountant keeps current on. That’s what I pay him for. He doesn’t care what technologies I use to build his website with. We trust each other to use best practices and keep technical communication to a minimum. It works well both ways.
Excellant article and insightful comments. Sometimes as designers we need to be jarred out of our over-focused creative state and actually look at the project from our client’s point of view. So often, the questions and the conversation that this approach creates can help your clients crystalize their goals for the site. When that happens, it’s easier for all involved.
[…] How to think like a client - Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language […]
Great article and well written.
However:
“Web standards will make your site more search engine friendly so driving more potential customers to your site.”
^^
The common sense approach for clean XHTML / CSS would be to give higher rankings. However when i researched into this i found no evidence that this is the case, at least not yet!
Bad code can decrease ranking but proper code does not give better ranking. What you will gain from having proper code is that search engines will have an easier time spidering your website and therefore be more likely to get properly indexed.
Great article!
I totally agree with this kind of approach. I think I’ll read it again and again since sometimes dealing with clients make me forget they’re not THAT evil. At least I’ll keep in mind why they look like they are, hehe.
“They might also believe that they are being asked to pay for things that they don’t need.”
And this is so true. If you don’t make them feel comfortable with your explanations, I believe it’s the first thing that comes to their mind.
Great article and great insights into real problems we as web designers/developers face everyday.
“Web standards will make your site more search engine friendly so driving more potential customers to your site”
I think this is really a valid point we can make. Using the correct header elements will definitely give more weight to the page by the search engines. Definitely search engines give more weight to the news item titles put in ‘h2′ rather than in a ‘p’ element or a div.
One more point which I observed from my little experience as a free lancer is that, clients have a few existing websites in mind and want their website look like those. Its pretty difficult to convince clients like these.
I don’t bring ’semantic markup’ or ‘clean code’ to the attention of clients at all. Again this is something we are overly proud of (as creators) but all we are really saying is ” I am doing my job competently”. I mean, really, wow, hooray for us using current techniques.
It would be like my plumber explaining that he is using ‘good’ standards compliant new plastic pipes and not using an old rusty wrench. I would hope so too!
It should be taken as read that we work efficiently and with modern techniques. Why mention it in such a way as to merely say “I know AJAX” but sounding more ‘educated’ ?
If my plumber said “this pipe is easy to replace, and cheap too” I would feel a lot better than the suggested alternative : “this pipe installation is standards based, significantly reducing further issues” . That would both baffle me and worry me! What standards, what do I need to know, I feel under informed now, what further issues,(etc) ?
I ‘rephrase’ all that stuff into client-centric speak, much more than indicated in the article.
EG:
the phrase “Separation of design from content makes a site easier to manage” would become something like
“Our system lowers re-branding costs by up to 80% (in both time and money) compared to equivalent technologies”
It has (bogus) marketing gravitas , seems reassuring and addresses their ROI directly without ever touching the self-satisfied jargon of our own industry ’standards’ which we should meet anyway!
The results are what we are judged on, and if we achieve the results, then the product is a success.
[…] 9). How To Think Like A Client - Vitamin A wonderful article written by Paul Boag on commercial web design. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
[…] How to think like a client - Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language […]
Hi Paul,
Thank you for speaking “on behalf of us”. I am a flash developer/designer from Sri Lanka. Frankly majority of my experiences with UK/US clients are pleasant except many European clients. But I have met some clients (as all of we designers do) who has many expectations for a very small fee. Specially they tend to ask quite lot than they are willing to pay from freelancers like us (from Third World Countries). One client set me the price and asked to do the job for that price ($500) which will take a month to complete. The reason he gave…. Since I am from Sri Lanka, $500/month is still too much and economical. I didnt have anything but laugh, but I think that portrays what is the attitude of some clients towards developers/designers like us.
Great article Paul…Keep it up :)
-Nish
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Communication is key when starting and managing any kind of projects.
I have worked as a freelance consultant, a business analyst and Project Manager in Fortune 500 companies for 10 years now.
What I have found is that you need to first communicate the process on how you are going to achieve the goals your going after.
Follow a methodology so that your client know what to expect. Document enough so that you and your client can agree on scope and requirements and provide status updates often.
Great article Paul.
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[…] How To Think Like A Client Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language, argues Paul Boag. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
[…] How To Think Like A Client Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language, argues Paul Boag. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
[…] How To Think Like A Client Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language, argues Paul Boag. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
[…] How To Think Like A Client Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language, argues Paul Boag. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
[…] How To Think Like A Client Having trouble getting clients to see things your way? Maybe it’s time you spoke their language, argues Paul Boag. He points out that when it comes to commercial web design, it’s all about the business case. […]
Well, thank you very much for tips, it’ s really helpful. Reading the article and getting in those shoes was as you were talking about me, we really have issues in this matter, I’ll take your advices.
Thanks again!
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[…] How to Think Like a Client - Clients are evil… at least it can feel that way sometimes. They seem to hinder more than help and so often they “just don’t get itâ€. We can talk enthusiastically about accessibility, standards and best practice but so often we are met with the blank stare of indifference from clients. […]