I can tell when a client is going to have a great result from their video the instant that they leave their first bit of design feedback.
We rely on our clients to provide honest, exact, emotional feedback. It’s their biggest contribution to our mutual success.
Feedback is the client’s main role in our collaborative video process. Done right, it propels a project forward taking advantage of our experience and their skills. It’s a multiplier.
Done wrong and it leads to endless ticky-tack changes, revisions and delays.
When client feedback is professional they will always get to a great result, with less time and effort even.
Today’s blog post about exactly how to share feedback with any contract or in house designer.
Expect changes. I’ve turned in great work – in the end – that started out far from where it wound up. Rather than expressing dismay over what’s happened, expect changes to happen.
When you have a mindset where you expect changes to happen, it’s a lot easier to prepare for then when you expect things to be perfect at each milestone. Every good process will have some built in revision time. Being frustrated because the first draft doesn’t isn’t working isn’t a good sign.
Expect Success: When you have the expectation that you’ll get to a successful outcome after a process, you’ll have a much better chance of working productively. Don’t be alarmed that there is a process. Every great movie left footage on the cutting room floor. Every great piece of art started from nothing.
Express Yourself Exactly: A client should say what’s working and what’s not working. Specifically, to the second, and with reasons why.
Good: This isn’t great because the colors clash with our brand, and we feel it’s too “bright.”
Bad: Can we do something more “exciting” here?
Expect Resistance: A good team will always defend their choices. A great team will make choices, then persuade you that they were your idea.
The job of our designer is to present & defend and cause the client to take work that will serve the client best. Not the personalities or preferences but the outcomes.
Idiots, failures, amateurs and hacks go complain about their clients on sites like Clients From Hell. The creative underclass is filled with them.
Professionals win their clients over to designs that are in their best interest.
Expedite the feedback: Keeping it fresh is important. Try very hard to turn feedback around as soon as you can. There are two things going on: you’re doing it while it’s fresh, AND you’re showing your designers you care and are engaged. That will win respect.
Be Individually Accountable: Generally there will be a point of contact. Your client should review it initially before sending on to their team at large. Always. In situations where the point of contact hasn’t worked with us early (for fast fixes), we all wind up spending more time working on a project. Where a great client exists, and can make choices, good things can happen.
On the design side:
Get to the specific “why” behind it. When a client leaves feedback, try hard to understand what their goal was.
Take Responsibility For Client Communication: Some of the best clients don’t have great design vocabularies. They’ll express things in a slightly insulting way as they feel their way towards what they want. Don’t get personal or chippy. Without being condescending, rephrase the clients intentions in a correct vocabulary, and tell them what’s next.
Refer to the brief and project plan: If circumstances have changed, that’s OK. You can get back to the brief and make sure it’s right. If it’s changed, then we need to talk about a scope change or change order.
When we can do this – client feedback can work swimmingly. It can be a joy to get – even when the changes are tough to execute. Having engaged clients is really important to getting every