12 Breeds of Client

[gnubler]

This is not necessarily specific to freelance, but also to clients in general when working in print/prepress. I'm sure you have at least one of each of these:

Client Breed #1
The Low-Tech Client

How to spot one:
Looks confused and disoriented when discussing anything high-tech, calls rather than emails, wants everything to be faxed. The Low-tech client needs to go through everything twice to get it, but will then happily take your advice.

The Highs:
The Low-tech client will rely solely on your sage wisdom for all things technology related. They will look to you as your technology saviour and will stroke your ego with their reverence of your knowledge and advice.

The Lows:
The low-tech client will need to be handheld through everything from setting up their email to opening up PDFs. Charge accordingly. They can also be particularly frustrating if they decide to 'work it out themselves'. A Low-tech client's idea of how a website should work for example is often not pretty.

How To Work With One:
The low-tech client needs to be handheld. Make sure everything technical about a job is in writing for them to reread at their leisure. This will save you a lot of time explaining things repeatedly. It's also best to just accept that you will not be using a lot of the technology that makes our lives easier these days (email, online project management etc) and should instead budget in time for phone calls, faxes and face to face meetings.

It is very easy to start to patronize your low-tech client unintentionally. As you can imagine, this can damage your relationship and even worse hurt their feelings. Make sure you balance the playing field by asking for their input in the areas they know about – their business. This will keep them happy stop them feeling the need to weigh in on your area of expertise – which can waste everybody's time.

Finally if you work in technology, make sure that your Low-tech client knows how to use whatever product you give them!

Read about the other 11...

[born2print]

"The Website looks great, can you fax it to me"
Classic!

[David]

I don't know what I want, but I know that's not it.




I wish I had a nickel...