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5 Tips for Conveying The Right Information to Clients

April 19, 2010 by Joel Reyes 15 Comments

Effectively conveying any form of information to your clients is not only good practice, but it is vital. If you’re not equipped with the right communicative skills, then you’re more likely to loose clients rather then gain them. Whether it’s you or your client that takes the first step in communicating, you need to understand that this is the beginning of a relationship.

Like any relationship, if you don’t convey your thoughts and feelings (likes/dislikes) the right way, then the relationship will eventually die out. Same goes for you and your client.

Within this article we have taken the time to dissect a variety of tips that will help you convey information to your clients the right way. Let us know which practices work best for you!

Better Emails

Better Emails

Unless you’re working in a design firm or you advertise your phone number freely, then my guess would be that the main and the most important form of communication between you and your clients is emails. Although emails are key in the process of communication, they can also be a detrimental factor if not used correctly.

You should always make sure that you’re straight to the point, keep it as simple as possible, avoid a marketing tone of “voice”, and tacky lines. Conveying confidence is also important. If a client can’t sense confidence, then in most cases they won’t be confident in your ability to complete the project.

Sending out a generic email which you’ve sent to 100+ potential clients is far from professional. It’s ok to have somewhat of a template or guideline as to what you’re going to email, however, you should customize it to specific client/project needs.

Use Your Listening Skills

Use Your Listening Skills

I don’t know how many designers I’ve come across that do more talking than listening. They jump at every opportunity (even when it isn’t given) to talk about their services, what they can do, how they can do it, and the benefits. You don’t want to be that designer. You want to be the professional who’s going to take in and understand your clients needs and address them accordingly. Besides, they’ve most likely already seen your portfolio and they know what to expect.

Give the client time to express their concerns and ask questions. When it comes time for your client to listen, you’ll be prepared and you’ll show them that you do care.

Be Elaborative

Be Elaborative

You can talk all you want, but if your client is not understanding you, they will look for a designer who will. A majority of the population in actuality have no clue as to what really goes into a website or logo design. This is why it’s our job to elaborate and use effective explanations. For one, you will better educate your client, and they will have a bit more insight as to why it is we charge what we charge.

Referencing back to the above section, you must also make sure that when you explain something to your client, you don’t over word or extend your explanation. Keep it simple and easy to process. This is key to a healthy, communicative, relationship.

Ask Questions

Ask Questions

One of the most overlooked aspects of the communication process is refraining from asking questions. It is my belief that there are no stupid questions, we are the only ones that can make them invaluable or “stupid”. Sometimes the simplest question you can think of, is likely to save you or your client money. Here’s an article that was written a few months ago which addresses the need and also the questions to ask about your clients and the projects you’ll be commissioned to work on.

Questions are important, they’ll help you further understand and define the needs of a project. However, you must also know how to convey your questions the right way so that you don’t hinder the opportunity to work with a client. Right before you’re about to ask your questions you should reflect on what your client has told you a bit deeper, conduct some further research, and remember to word your questions as easily as possible. This will help you avoid questions that have obvious answers, and convey the message that you haven’t been listening.

You can take this question: “I Normally Use PayPal With All My Clients, What Do You Prefer To Use?” and reword it to this: “What is Your Preferred Method of Payment”? It’s the same question, just easier to process, and it gives the client to describe various possible method of payments rather than thinking they strictly have to use PayPal.

Take Advantage of Helpful Tools

Take Advantage of Helpful Tools

There are a ton of tools that will help you convey information to your clients. Twitter, Facebook and Screencasts are just a few of the tools you can use to better communicate. Sometimes phone conversions, emails, and other conventional methods may not work and your client is still lacking full understanding, this is where you could use a screencast to really get your message across. It’s easy to make, quick, and many times extremely informative.

Twitter is more of a Social Media tool, however I’ve heard of designers using this tool to send quick and small updates to their clients. Facebook is also another social media tool, however, much like LinkedIn, it provides professional connections and you can chat as if you were face to face.

Whatever tool or route you choose to go, the important thing you must remember is how will this tool help me convey information to my clients?

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you liked this post. Any other tips you’d like to share that could help better convey information to clients? Feel free to chime in by leaving a comment below.

Filed Under: Article, Business

Comments

  1. Lena Tailor | DT says

    April 19, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    Your examples well support your statements! Thanks for taking time to compile a very useful list.

  2. Catherine Azzarello says

    April 19, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    I’ve been very happy with Snagit (Beta for Mac). It’s the big sibling of Jing by Techsmith. Lightweight and simple to screen capture an annotate for clients.

  3. Joel says

    April 19, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    Thank you for your comments :) Snagit for Mac works very well, it gives you crisp screen shots with a high resolution.

  4. Nick Burd says

    April 19, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    Thank you for this post. I enjoyed the read!

  5. Oliver says

    April 20, 2010 at 3:22 am

    Well, some nice guidelines for good customer contact! Thanks!

  6. Matt Pritchett says

    April 20, 2010 at 10:34 am

    Very nice read! Lots of good tips in there. I have found that many designers do much more talking than listening, like you said, and I am able to scoop up the clients that they pushed away by simply listening to their real needs before I launch in at them with my marketing “ploys.”

  7. Travis Ulrich says

    April 20, 2010 at 11:32 am

    Nice read. :)

    I’m probably the opposite of the graphic designer who “talks too much”. I feel like I need to encourage myself to talk more because otherwise I’m not participating in the process enough. But more often than not, the client is willing to talk at great length about what they are looking for, so I find that the cure-all for me is (as you suggested) to ask questions. It gets the dialogue going and ensures that you’re getting as much information and ideas as you can.

  8. cooljaz124 says

    April 20, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    yeah, A professional , but freindly mail to a client always helps :) Nice post

  9. Rhonda B says

    April 20, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    This is a great article! I definitely agree with the tip about asking questions. I ask my clients lots of questions so that I know exactly what they need or want. It saves you from making mistakes that could cost you later.

  10. Derrick Workman says

    April 22, 2010 at 12:12 am

    Great article. But I would agree about the asking questions point, probably one of the most important I think. If you are designing a piece for someone you must know what THEY want and you find out what they want by asking questions.

  11. Paul Conrad says

    April 23, 2010 at 10:45 am

    Great article with very helpful information.

  12. Debby says

    April 25, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    Thanks for the tips, certainly stuff to keep in mind.

  13. walter ludwig says

    September 9, 2019 at 5:05 am

    I would like to thanks to you for taking the time to write this article. You were explain very important and necessary points. I think the best one for me ask the question is very important in communication.

  14. Anik Singh says

    September 11, 2019 at 4:35 am

    Awesome article! Really you were talking about some important steps. For example, ask questions in the some meeting or discussing is very important. if you ask questions the man or woman who is opposite to you will understanding you care about talking. thanks for you sharing this with us.

  15. Anik Singh says

    September 11, 2019 at 9:32 am

    Thanks for this great article. really you explain some valuable points. I like it.

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