5 Phrases AEC Firms and Web Firms Hear From Clients

AEC firms and Web firms have one main thing in common, they have to design or build something in order to please the client. The way something looks and feels is subjective, making it difficult to please everyone. As we reviewed some of the comments we've heard when building sites, we realized that A/E/C firms have heard similar ones from their clients.

1. "I really like purple. Is there a way that you could work that in?"

Sure, a client might like a color, but that doesn't mean that it makes sense to make it a prominent part of a building or Web design. If a client is particularly pushy, you can compromise by placing that color somewhere that is less prominent.

A possible response: "I have concerns that purple isn't going to fit in with the overall design concept if we place it here. What if we try adding it here?"

 

2. "I took drafting/design in high school/college, so I understand the work that you do."

Taking one class doesn't compare to doing design work for a living. Clients like this might end up second-guessing all of your decisions based on their limited knowledge. To appease them, they just might want to feel validated and like more of a colleague. You'll also need to be firm and let them know that you are a professional and have their best interests in mind.

A possible response: "We'll consider your suggestions as we work on the next draft to see if it would fit with your overall design. If it isn't a fit, we hope you'll trust that we're making the best design decisions for you."

 

3. "We just have one small change that we want to make. Why is that going to cost extra?"

Most of the time design is something that is done behind closed doors - with your internal team. The client doesn't get to see you toiling away drafting and re-drafting until you feel it's good enough to present to them. As a result, clients don't understand that one change can create other ones, almost making you re-think the entire design concept. What seems small to them can be significant overall. You can explain this process to them and let them know how their change will affect everything else.

A possible response: "Although it looks like a small change, it will affect <fill-in-the-blank>. Could I ask why you want to make that change? What we could do is <fill-in-the-blank>, which will accomplish the same thing, but not affect everything else."

 

4. "We really need to have this done by <date>. Would it be possible to accelerate the timeline?"

Accelerating the timeline is riddled with problems. 

• We've all heard of the Project Management Triangle of Cost-Quality-Time. You can only choose two.
• You probably have other projects that you're trying to juggle along with theirs. Accelerating the timeline on their project could delay your other ones.
• Working more quickly can cause you to overlook some important quality control items. Web sites are virtual locations - intangible assets. When designing them, we have security issues and error messages to address. Designing a building is a whole other bag of beans. It's a tangible asset - errors could cause safety issues for people.

A possible response: "We could get this completed by <date> and it will cost more to meet this new deadline. We have concerns about completing this any earlier because it might cause us to skip over some important quality control steps."

 

5. "We really like the design, except could we add this, remove that, change this, and move that?"

By far our favorite challenge is the client that just never seems completely happy. We can setup our usual two to three rounds of reviews, but somehow other changes sneak in making it difficult to complete the design phase cleanly. Clients like this are perfectionists. While some of their requests can be legitimate, others are requested just to make sure they look good (either to themselves or to their boss). The best way to handle this is to keep a detailed list of the requests, indicate which ones are within scope, and have the client sign off on items before changes are made.

A possible response: "Let's prioritize these items to see which ones are most important to meet before finalizing the design. We can always revisit the others later."

 

We welcome your comments on our 5 items and additional phrases that you would like to share.