Oct 23, 2024
Building client relations is not a mysterious task . It’s all about being empathetic yet assertive, making the client feel heard and attempting to stir them to what’s good for the product. Everyone has their own way of accomplishing this.
These are some basic practices which we follow here at Red Baton with an acquired client . There might be cases where the PMs might not be on every call or the designer is working on a Full Time Project where they are responsible for the whole account and have full responsibility for a client. These are some basic practices which we follow here at Red Baton with an acquired client and we hope these will help you and your team to start building client relationships.
Before any meeting, greet and introduce yourself for the first time.
For example, Hi, good afternoon, Im Dhwani, a Lead UX Designer, here at XYZ design studio, I have a total of 6 years of experience. I will be leading the project with XYZ and ABC designers.I am looking forward to working with you all.
Then set the meeting’s agenda, flow of work and leave room for client’s feedback. Understand that the client with other people like PMs, Design Ops, CEO, CTO etc will/might come from different contexts and might not remember the content of previous calls. Setting context immediately sets the expectations and brings them mentally into the meeting.
Also known as Perception Management, each client has a unique personality and preferred style to assessing your designs. Some like the clarity with a prototype or the designs backed up with market research or multiple iterations for business requirements. Take time to understand their way of seeing and questioning it and then adjust your presentation style to better connect with them.
Sometimes, it may seem like the client is not satisfied with any of your designs. In such cases, it’s important to delve into the “why” behind their feedback. Ask for specific references or examples they have in mind to gather more detailed and quantifiable feedback.
While your design might be up to the mark or better, the way one presents the deliverables makes a huge difference, having a solid narrative (start, beginning and end) in your presentations, increases the visibility of your work and leaves a lasting impression. As humans we recall how we felt about a situation more clearly than the situation itself.
Pro tip: Know who you are presenting to and anticipate what kind of information they are expecting. For example, a developer will need details about a new feature’s functionality and flows but a CTO will expect only a high level update.
As a designer, approach discovery calls with curiosity to extract valuable information, enabling you to design impactful solutions that drive business success.
Focus Areas:
Snooze any notifications and eliminate any noise to focus on client meetings.
In many SAAS products, the client is the end user. There have been cases where we have extracted customer journeys, user pain points just by listening or following the client’s cursor on the existing product.
Be a keen observer and be ready to ask follow-up questions, especially if the client struggles with language or has an accent that is hard to understand.
Since the client might not be familiar with the designer’s processes, it’s essential to communicate your blockers and challenges clearly. This helps set boundaries and build trust and reliability. Additionally, communicate your needs and dependencies to your reporting manager to ensure smooth project progress.
Client meetings can be long and there might be multiple people working, try to take notes as minute details can be easily forgotten . In some cases, share the MOM’s with the client to make sure all the people involved are on the same page and the discussions can be quantified to be understood by a new person.
Some projects can last for a long time, when the client is looking back on design it might be hard to remember a 6-7 month old design decisions .It is essential to document and share client requirements,designs, major design decisions and reasons for the same. The document can also contain impact and user research data analysis.
Also Read – Top 10 AI Powered Tools for UI UX Design
Trying to ask feedback from time to time, this helps in improving designing as well as style of presenting. As a designer it helps to strive for better by getting quantified actionables and also makes the client feel heard.
Before ending a client call, summarize the meeting and what will be the possible actions from both the sides and ask whether there’s anything else the client would like to convey or would like the designer to have context on.
The client will always see the UIUX agency as one team, even if there are multiple teams like developers, PMs, UI and UX designers. Here it’s important to take time to identify the client’s design-related questions and concerns. As a new designer, it’s natural to feel eager and accountable to provide answers. However, while these are valuable traits, be mindful not to overstep into other departments, which can lead to confusion and passing incorrect information
The above guidelines are time tested and while these guidelines are good to follow, one needs to understand that personal effort goes a long way. Building Agency- Client relationships are extremely important to UIUX agency as the business depends directly on Client satisfaction.
All the best 🙂