Working With Clients

Running an interior design business isn't just about making sure the little numbers in the plus column add up to more than the little numbers in the minus column in your Accpac Vancouver accounting software. It's also about creating something worthwhile with your artistic skills, and most importantly of all, about dealing with clients on the job. Without clients, there are no rooms to interior design, so learning how to relate to your clients is one of the most important skills you'll need to be successful. If you're not naturally a people person or could use a little advice, you've come to the right place. The following series of articles is all about how to work with clients.

Though you're the person with the training and the lofty design ideas, interior design is still a collaborative process, like internet project management. One side has the skill, the other has the money. You and the client must work together to achieve a positive result for everyone: the client gets the house they always dreamed about, and you get paid. We'll give you tips on navigating the collaborative process from initial pitch right down to the final payoff so that the process runs smoothly and everyone knows where their responsibilities lie.

One of the most important aspects of your relationship with a client is the fact that no matter how many skills you have that they don't, or how much training you've done that they haven't, or how much better your ideas are than theirs, they are paying you to do a job. Sometimes it can be difficult to adjust to your employee status, especially if your clients like to hug trees and want to line the walls with old labels from natural baby products. We'll advise you on certain ground rules for dealing with clients and which areas you can and can't challenge them on.

As an interior designer, you'll often be called upon to act as a sort of foreman or site manager for the building project, in essence handling communications between the PCB designer laying out the electrical boxes and the clients themselves. Getting caught in the middle of this process can sometimes be awkward, especially if lines of communication get crossed and the results don't come out as planned. To help keep everything clear and simple, we'll help you create designer-to-English and designer-to-builder dictionaries so that you can explain to everyone what's going on in a way they'll understand.

Even if you discharge all your responsibilities perfectly there can still be friction, especially if you end up with a difficult client. There may be some days when you'll have trouble keeping yourself from smashing their faces through the modern glass vanity they special ordered then decided they didn't want. You might be tempted to quit on the days when clients yell or refuse to make up their minds. To help you preserve your sanity, your paycheck, and your freedom, we will teach you some simple anger management and psychological techniques that should give you the inside edge on dealing with difficult or unreasonable clients.