How do you handle clients that wants ugly site?

thegoldeneye · Oct 29, 2019

A few days ago I've found one local client that needs real estate website. At the first I was thinking he is a good clients, it was very easy to make a deal with him.

I finished website and sent it to him, so he can review and tell me what he wants to be changed, what filters to use and so on.

We spent more than one our trying to get on the same page. He was sending me image of the footer telling it's great and at the end I figured he wants footer to be at the top, at the same beginning of the site.

I told him it's bad idea, then he said let's make slider only to have black background color instead of image...

Now, he will make a sketch of the website and how he wants it to look like. Dude, then go and work as a web designer.

P. S. I am not beginner in this job, it's almost 5th year I am working this but sometimes I still don't know how to handle these smart ass clients.

DropshipDave · Oct 29, 2019

When I explain something to a client and he still wants it his way. I just do it.

There is a saying "The customer is always right"

He is paying you so you have to do what he wants at the end of the day, even if we think he is wrong.

QTB · Oct 29, 2019

Easy, if it's paid by the hour why should you care? If it's not paid by the hour make concrete agreements with the customer on what needs to be done and charge him for the job. If the client changes his mind then you have to charge him extra.

You should know how to deal with clients if you have 5 years of experience.

AeroXbird · Oct 29, 2019

In some cases being creative won't work, hence why you need to just follow what the client wants in this case and close the deal.

theRevolt · Oct 29, 2019

The problem is that you thought you had an agreement but did you specify the details of the work?
How many revisions? Client input etc...
You will always have clients who think they are designers etc. So you just word the agreement
built to client specifications with 1 round of changes after that costs extra...

You likely sold him on a website that you had in mind and did not get him to sign off on it first...

TBolts20 · Oct 29, 2019

I would just give him what he wants despite that sounding horrible and then don't affiliate it with your business at all.

If you normally do a "designed by Company name" at the bottom just exclude it, take your cash and don't deal with him again.

The MOOK · Oct 29, 2019

Just give the client what he wants honestly. It's not worth it to try and fix stupid. You're still getting paid.

GoGuerilla · Oct 29, 2019

Unless you are doing the pro-bono as a portfolio piece - He's paying you. You aren't paying him.

You are the employee here.

Honestly, I would be pissed off if my designer didn't take into account my feedback (even if you think you know better).

Deleted member 15724 · Oct 29, 2019

I had a friend who's a talented web dev and designer, and filled me in on a project he was working on. The site looked horrendous, but that's what they client wanted and they were extremely happy with it. It was a $20k project that looked like a starter site from flippa. Needless to say, it didn't go in his portfolio.

Cedric Writes · Oct 29, 2019

Deleted member 15724 said:
I had a friend who's a talented web dev and designer, and filled me in on a project he was working on. The site looked horrendous, but that's what they client wanted and they were extremely happy with it. It was a $20k project that looked like a starter site from flippa. Needless to say, it didn't go in his portfolio.

Does your friend run his own web design business? or is he employed by a big company? 20k seems outrageous for anywwebsite

rafark · Oct 29, 2019

DropshipDave said:
When I explain something to a client and he still wants it his way. I just do it.

There is a saying "The customer is always right" He is paying you so you have to do what he wants at the end of the day, even if we think he is wrong.

I agree. When I freelance, a lot of the times I don't like what the client wants. We have very different "tastes", but as long as he pays, I do what he has in mind, even when I think there's a better way, because at the end of the day, it's his business not mine.

Deleted member 15724 · Oct 30, 2019

Mollerucksack123 said:
Does your friend run his own web design business? or is he employed by a big company? 20k seems outrageous for anywwebsite

He was subcontracted for that job. His cut from that was $4k, I believe. It was a woocommerce/wordpress setup, so it didn't even take long to complete. If you're good at networking, you can definitely get contracts for web development in that range. It's more common than you'd think. Especially for ecommerce projects.

Followlix · Oct 30, 2019

I work in retouching and overall photo editing but sometimes I get this too (along with impossible requests)

I try and talk to talk to them and offer better ideas, if they still want theirs I’ll just to it exactly how they want it.

blackbeans · Oct 30, 2019

Dude, the CUSTOMER IS KING. If you think the site is ugly but they insist on that design, just focus on the following

1) You made the effort to TELL them why their choice is wrong AND
2) You explained why their preferred route is no good
3) Focus on who writes the check

That's the bottom line

thegoldeneye · Oct 30, 2019

DropshipDave said:
When I explain something to a client and he still wants it his way. I just do it.

There is a saying "The customer is always right" He is paying you so you have to do what he wants at the end of the day, even if we think he is wrong.

Well, I know that but this could be a nice 1 more site I finished and this would be my first real estate. I have never mess with real estate. Now, I am relaxed and I will take other advice too. If he wants that and he thinks it's nice, then okay. The site had the potential to be the best in the town because other sites are really old. And I will take advice from other guys to just remove my credentials at the bottom of the site.

QTB said:
Easy, if it's paid by the hour why should you care? If it's not paid by the hour make concrete agreements with the customer on what needs to be done and charge him for the job. If the client changes his mind then you have to charge him extra.

You should know how to deal with clients if you have 5 years of experience.

Yes, but I am always trusting them like we can handle this easily and then... BAM

I don't have any contracts because I am still working this as a side job.

Avoros said:
In some cases being creative won't work, hence why you need to just follow what the client wants in this case and close the deal.

theRevolt said:
The problem is that you thought you had an agreement but did you specify the details of the work?
How many revisions? Client input etc...
You will always have clients who think they are designers etc. So you just word the agreement
built to client specifications with 1 round of changes after that costs extra...

You likely sold him on a website that you had in mind and did not get him to sign off on it first...

TBolts20 said:
I would just give him what he wants despite that sounding horrible and then don't affiliate it with your business at all.

If you normally do a "designed by Company name" at the bottom just exclude it, take your cash and don't deal with him again.

Yes, that's something I will do at the end if he ruins the site.

The MOOK said:
Just give the client what he wants honestly. It's not worth it to try and fix stupid. You're still getting paid.

True!

GoGuerilla said:
Unless you are doing the pro-bono as a portfolio piece - He's paying you. You aren't paying him.

You are the employee here.

Honestly, I would be pissed off if my designer didn't take into account my feedback (even if you think you know better).

Deleted member 15724 said:
I had a friend who's a talented web dev and designer, and filled me in on a project he was working on. The site looked horrendous, but that's what they client wanted and they were extremely happy with it. It was a $20k project that looked like a starter site from flippa. Needless to say, it didn't go in his portfolio.

Mollerucksack123 said:
Does your friend run his own web design business? or is he employed by a big company? 20k seems outrageous for anywwebsite

rafark said:
I agree. When I freelance, a lot of the times I don't like what the client wants. We have very different "tastes", but as long as he pays, I do what he has in mind, even when I think there's a better way, because at the end of the day, it's his business not mine.

True, if he thinks this is good for him, then okay. Good luck man with your business.

Deleted member 15724 said:
He was subcontracted for that job. His cut from that was $4k, I believe. It was a woocommerce/wordpress setup, so it didn't even take long to complete. If you're good at networking, you can definitely get contracts for web development in that range. It's more common than you'd think. Especially for ecommerce projects.

s1mer said:
I work in retouching and overall photo editing but sometimes I get this too (along with impossible requests)

I try and talk to talk to them and offer better ideas, if they still want theirs I’ll just to it exactly how they want it.

blackbeans said:
Dude, the CUSTOMER IS KING. If you think the site is ugly but they insist on that design, just focus on the following

1) You made the effort to TELL them why their choice is wrong AND
2) You explained why their preferred route is no good
3) Focus on who writes the check

That's the bottom line

Thank you all for all advice this helped me and I am more relaxed now when I took some sleep. Never trust a client and the client is always right.

How do you handle clients that wants ugly site?

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