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Customers who just don’t get it
I just sent this is to the customer who has told me to hold off making pounce patterns for the design she had decided upon because her kid wants a crack at designing her sign (would any other trade have to put up with that?). This will be the second time I’ve more or less told her to hit the road…(hot)
I just tried to call to explain this to you but the phone cut me off. When you decided on the design, I arranged to go do the pattern tomorrow morning – remember I told you that most of this takes place away from the actual painting of the sign? First I did the mock-ups for your approval, which amounted to about 2 hours worth of work on the computer, now I need to go make the pattern that I will use to make the sign – that’s all done on sign design software and printed out on a special large printer. I calculated the time for doing the designs and making the patterns into the price I gave you for your signs. Now, if one of your kids designs something, I cannot just paint it freehand off of their design (the sign above your door right now – that’s an example of how that sort of sign painting turns out) – I would need to turn it into something usable as a sign first, lay it out and clean it up, and then print that out as a pattern – that would be several more hours of my time, for which I would need to charge you. Not only that, but I do not have use of the system I need to make the patterns any time I want it – I have use of it only by appointment since I do not own it myself. I need to go use the system in the morning, and do everything I need to do to prepare the pattern, or else we won’t be painting this weekend. If you wish for me to proceed, then we need to agree upon it first thing in the morning, if you want to change the design completely at this point, that is going to cost you both money and time.
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10 Replies
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What a polite way of saying ‘DON"T MESS WITH ME SISTER!’ :lol1:
I’m not sure you were direct enough Kimberley. I’d love to know here response.
We all ave these ‘situations’ from time to time. I’m rather pleased actually, because if it was just me it happened to, I’d be rather upset 😉
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quote :What a polite way of saying ‘DON”T MESS WITH ME SISTER!’Yup! They just think we pull this stuff out of our ears.
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quote Kimberley Edwards:quote :What a polite way of saying ‘DON”T MESS WITH ME SISTER!’
Yup! They just think we pull this stuff out of our ears.
The real problem as I see it, is their kids have a PC and a printer, do a quick design on Corel in 5 minutes, and they think its that easy.
I get customers come in with publisher files, the size of a postage stamp, and want me to enlarge it to cover their van.
‘But it looks OK on the screen’ is the most common reply. Drives me nuts.
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We offer 2 hours of design with our vehicle wraps. We get the same thing but as soon as we tell them they are going to get charged they change their tune very quickly. This stops those clients who can never make a decision because as soon as they know they are going to pay for it they decide. Customers who agree to pay more cause they really want to see the changes we don’t usually charge anyways. They are usually more direct and know what they want.
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yesterday i went to see a college/school who showed me how kids were doing artwork and making banners for the school, all put together in a webpage. Some were fantastic and no paper in sight. This going to be marked as exam grade.. amazing
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I would cut to the chase.
Hello_____,
The patterns I made after receiving your deposit and go-ahead are ready so that I can be there Saturday morning to do the job.
If you require me to change the design, the fee for the new patterns will be $250.
I will come over at 11am today to get the check.
The sign painting will have to be delayed until next week due to the complexity of the new pattern making.
Thanks.
KimberleyI hate things like that. And I always charge more if the customer provides the artwork, unless it is in a file format which I can actually use.
Love….Jill -
I, and I assume most of us on here, have lost count of the number of times people ask for a banner from their website to be made into a sticker/sign/large banner.
I had a customer the other day who is getting a design for their trailer done by a friend for me to print. When he said the friend was doing it in photoshop I immediately told him he bast start again as in my experience with received photoshop files, it defaults as 72dpi!
People often seem surprised I charge for time. I bet builders don’t get that response.
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To follow up on that, the reply to my e-mail was "never mind, we’ll go with your original idea."
Deposits were collected, patterns have been made and everything is in order. 😀
Good to know we all get this sort of thing, good to hear how other people deal with and avoid it. Thank you. -
I’m pleased it turned out well for you.
It’s very frustrating to put everything into your work then to have the client not recognise the true value in the design you have produced for them.
They are some that think they can do better, when in fact they don’t know the first thing about the principles of good layout and design.
Thankfully they’re in the minority – most people do recognise good layout and design when they see it even though they don’t understand the underlying principles of what makes a design work.
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In general , folk are LOATHE to pay for design or design/prep time , they see no "value" in it cos there is nothing tangible they get for their money………
We all know good design makes the sign etc – but customers never see it that way.
I normally use clothing to negate this notion they have , IE ppl pay $100 for a bikini but the materials cost penny’s – why? Cos the bikini looks good on em and makes em feel better – so if it applys to them , surely the same applies to the design of what is most likely the FIRST impression a person has about their business.
At any rate , the idea is to make money , so if the kid comes with a design , just do it and charge accordingly…including any work you put in. Everyone is happy , you get paid , the kids parent is beaming with pride etc. Yeh , perhaps a while down the road the customer realises that the sign etc is not the best and might come back to you to do it again , so you make MORE money.
I must tell you , we have had customers with designs that ARE better than ours …we often dont think out the box enough..opting to do thigs the "safe" way.
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