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Chasing customers for info so work can start
Hi.
This comes up a lot with me and i get annoyed and feel like im chasing for work. Wondering if you do the same or just leave it until they get their act together.Customer wants job done- give an estimate- customer agrees.
Tell customer expected fitting schedule-please send your logo and details so we can begin designing
…………………………………………here nothing for days or weeks.
i then contact them to remind them and they normally send details so work can start.
So do you chase for the logos or info needed to start even tho you have told them what you need??
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8 Replies
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Think you’ve got to. If work has been agreed sometimes people forget. It’s important to us but they might be doing 100 things at once and have forgotten.
We have a Xcel sheet. Once a price is agreed we put it in there and as far as I am concerned the job is going ahead.
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Based on bitter experiences in the past, we now want a written transcript of all correspondence relating to the project, verbal just doesn’t work. I find customers have very selective memories when it comes to their particular job. “ i don’t remember the quote being that much” or I thought we were booked in for next Thursday not today” . I quote the job & state a list of requirements before work can commence. A proof comes next which must be approved by whatever means other than a verbal “ yeah thats great, please proceed” once they approve, we book the job in, impress upon them that they still haven’t provided everything they were supposed to. I tell them when I intend to start preparing materials & the like & if they miss the deadline, they lose their slot, workload is very carefully balanced & planned. I wont just delay every other job because they forgot or were too busy. I got cheesed off with shouldering the blame for their own lack of organisation, nice & easy to point to an email or text to prove their guilt. Cynical yes, but better than being labelled as unorganised or unreliable when you’re completely innocent.
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Everything in writing.
We’re currently putting together a more formal client brief.
Sick of dealing with customers, who waste hours of your time, "can you change that to red, can you change it to green, can you change it to purple", before we start any design, get a budget, get a deposit, and get a brief.
If they can’t be bothered spending 10 minutes giving us basic information, we’re not spending any time making pretty pictures and they can go and become someone else’s problem.
We also quote lead times from approval of artwork – They need is for Friday, we tell them when it needs to be approved, the onus is on them to make sure it is. Lost too many hours (even days) where we’ve had jobs pencilled in, and they’ve not approved it, or rushed about like idiots to get a job done because they’ve left it to the last minute… typically when you rush that’s when mistakes happen, I get grumpy, and generally don’t enjoy being a mug.
Customers have to take some responsibility, and it is upto us to give them some.
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I can get very pushy when customers are faffing about!
And as somebody else here has said, always keep an email trail and insist the customer keep the "reply" thread going.
Often customers give me the go-ahead on the phone, but I always make them email it. -
So the moral of the story is customers are pretty useless and need reminding about the job that they want urgently done :smiles:.
Also yes agree with all comment made, all my communication is done via email so theres a crum trail.
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Spot on Martyn, although nobody’s perfect, I do find that VERY few people are happy to put their hands up & accept the blame, they would much rather try & hang it on you, which in turn makes it your responsibility to fix. I tell clients very clearly now that my workload is a conveyor belt. If i don’t get everything confirmed, the job is pushed out of the queue & will go right to the back. I then show them the job board. Works quite well
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We had a problem regular customer who always emailed Monday requesting something for Friday. We would then have to wait for their artwork. Tuesday nothing, Wednesday morning nothing, Wednesday afternoon we have to email and ring him. Receive the artwork Thursday 3pm and he turns up Friday morning 9am…and we are the worst company ever….
We now have a step by step procedure for the customer. Including paying the deposit. After each step, it says “failure to do step 1 by return email may result in your job being delayed. We cannot move forward without the information requested in this step”
It works most of the time, except for the chap above, he’s moved on to a better sign maker lol. The best of all, he is a builder and was always harping on about late deliveries from the builders yard holding up his workers…
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Customers like that are not worth it. I used to pander to them, but now I tell them how we work or not to come back. I used to think it was a bummer loosing that £200 a week from them or whatever but now actually best thing. Improves work flow not having them.
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