Clients From Hell: Another Lesson in Dealing with Clients

[elfs]

There's a Clients from Hell entcry called Can you show me some shades of blue?" in which the client asks for a certain shade of blue, the designer opens up Photoshop and shows off all the colors of blue possible on his monitor, the client complains that the color she wants isn't there. The designer submitted this as an example of a Client from Hell.

Here's what I would have said: "Well, you're looking for a shade of blue and it's not here. Maybe you're looking for a shade of blue next to something else, or a shade of blue you experienced that gave you a certain feeling. Can you give me an idea of what feeling you're looking for, or where you experience it? A favorite dress, or a dinnerware pattern, or maybe just the sky at a certain time of day?

The other explanation is that your list of things-that-are-blue covers more than just the shades of B in the RGB world of design. Maybe just a touch of red brightness or green light into the blue is what you're looking for. Should we look for one of those?"

Hey, if she's paying for my time, I'm aiming to satisfy.

Omaha says, "And you say you're not a designer." And no, I'm not a diplomat either. But this is obvious: you're asking someone-- a client no less!-- to justify his or her feelings to you about a very fundamental issue. This isn't the "Design Goes to Hell" comic issue of "I don't like it, let's do more." What the designer needs in this case is to be clear: he can't go where the customer wants without more information. Something that reaches into what it is the client is trying to express.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

It's a problem, though, when you are being paid a flat fee, or by the milestone and the next check won't come because because you've done everything you can for this part... except found the RIGHT shade of blue.

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

Eh, you can't get all blues in a 2D space very well (unless you do something clever with fractal folding)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

True, but that wasn't the point. Some of these "clients from hell" come across more like "designers straight out of art school, with no real world experience."

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. The same goes for "Tech support stories from hell". Having done tech support for 10 years, it's actually pretty rare that I see such a story and say "Oh yeah, that guy's a complete moron." More often I say "Um, yeah? So?"

At the same time, I've heard from the trenches that we currently have one customer who's *constantly calling us* with questions completely unrelated to what we do. Like, calling us at least 5 times a day. *That's* a customer from hell.