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5 Good ways of dealing with clueless clients

zooboole

Published By zooboole

As I use to say it, in many occasions you will meet clients who definitely don't know exactly what they want or who don't know how to say what they want and therefore the work goes to you. I call such clients clueless clients(no offense).

In this post, I would like to share with you some few steps I use to follow in order to make business with them and reduce my stress and theirs as well.

Like I said in this post, it's part of those jobs you should always pay attention before accepting them. Here I am in the angle that you've decided to accept such job, for many reasons:

  • You need some urgent cash
  • You need to give it a try
  • You need to help the client
  • You're a bit free
  • The client has a strong faith in you and is determined to have you to do the job
  • Etc

Anyway, there is always a good reason for us to accept such types of jobs. In case you do accept it, how do you manage to:

  • Understand what exactly the client wants?
  • Make him produce the right content for his job?
  • Reduce the struggle between both of you?

I. Understand what exactly the client want

1. A meeting - live, online or phone

Have a good meeting with the client of some few hours. Ask him all sorts of questions in order to understand what exactly is/are their goal/s. How do they want to achieve them? How are they expecting the platform to perform(in their manner)?

Listen to him more. Any question you ask should help him break down more what he says, or an aspect of it.

2. Go through all sample sites and ideas he gives

Any source of inspiration he has is useful. If it's not exactly what he wants, it might be the opposite. It will always orient you.

Go through all and try to see the correlation between the resources. Establish a line of ideas you got out of it, and start drafting.

II. Make him produce the right content for his job

1. Form with a questionnaire

This is an old tradition used anywhere to collect a set of data. It still works. Prepare a clean form based on what you got from his ideas and plans. For example, from his ideas, you decided to create an About us page for his website, and you want that about page to give more details on his business and his team, because of the type of business he does. So, a section in your form could be:

+ About your business

-- A brief story (why and when did you start this business, your ambition, and strategy, etc.)

-- Who is behind the business

-- Person one

  • Name:
  • position:
  • profile:

-- Person two

  • Name:
  • position:
  • profile:

With this, he will clearly provide the information that is required to make the about page very rich. But if you simply asked him: About your business he wouldn't have been able to provide those details. He would just give you a brief, and you may even think he's shy to talk about his business.

2. Place yourself at his audience/clients position and let him talk to you

The second option here is to allow him to enter into an imagination context whereby he should be talking to you as if you are the one he's going to sell his business to. This helps some clients to get very serious instantly and they will start spitting anything from their mind.

III. Make what he doesn't want

Yes, this option is the strangest ever. But, believe me, people tend to realize what they want after seeing what they don't want. That's the spirit.

If your client is a very busy person and they don't have enough time to listen to you, the optimal solution is to make a mock-up of what you think is what they want and show it to them.

I bet you the next answer will be: Nooo!

  • I was expecting you to use some images here
  • The color, can you make it light blue instead of red?
  • The images you placed here, you need to remove it, I don't want black/white people images
  • The size of the text look too big
  • ....

If I were you, here is where I open up my notepad and start taking the real content. After his remarks, you can see you are half way in the job. Brainstorm with him on what you understood and how you are going to fix it. The chances are he's going to say, Yes that's it.

IV. Reduce the struggle between both of you

Definitely, if you follow this process and focus on getting the right information and the correct need from the client rather than teaching, sermonizing, or educating him, you are going to gain a lot of time. Plus, you will be confident while you are developing the project because you know you are doing exactly what the client wants.

If you feel like you are not on the right path, do not hesitate to get in touch with him and clarify the issue before you continue. One big mistake you should always avoid is not to complete some tasks and start showing them your work. Do all possible changes before showing, otherwise, they may see more changes to do, or think the work is not being done, etc.

V. Brainstorming

After all these steps, explain to your client what you understood out of what he said, and ask him if your idea matches his. In that case, there are two options:

  1. Yes, it matches. Then pursue by telling him HOW you are going to make that technically. Give him a detailed plan how your work and the result he should be expecting, even things you are not sure to make exactly as he wishes. A clear understanding is always a key to good human relations. Let him know the strength and the weaknesses of your technologies in achieving his dreams. How are things normally done? If he's ready to cross the normal line, what are the pros and cons?

  2. No, you didn't get it right or it doesn't match altogether. Then repeat all the previous process by asking different questions and taking your time to listen to him before moving to the next.

Remember your main goal is to understand what he wants. Make him talk much. Don't go against his ideas. Don't mention anything that could make him reduce the volume of his ideas and dreams. You don't judge his content type or the project's workflow.

Bottom line

This may sound very tedious, but I believe it's the agilest way of helping people to help you in your job. Believe me, every time you use this process, by the time you finish its different steps, you and your client will be on the same wave, and your job will look so fast and easier.

Take all possible time in this process. It may go from days to weeks, do not rush to designing or coding. Get him right before moving.

Once you have the OK to continue, let him know in return your schedule. Let him know when your job will be probably ready, how can he be following you up, etc.

In some cases, you might want to charge this process, or not. It's definitely up to you, and the type of relationship you have with your client.

This is it. Thank you for reading, if like this post please share it with your peers, and if you have any question just comment under the post.

Cover picture by expertbeacon.com