As a designer, it can be frustrating when you have an unresponsive client. You may have met with them and sent them the design proposal, information, design options for selection, or anything, only to hear nothing back. A nonresponsive client may not respond to your emails or phone calls promptly – or at all. You can’t move forward without their approval or input, so what can you do to ensure the project gets started or keeps moving?
Clear communication
First of all, it is important to establish the importance of clear communication at the very beginning of your relationship. At the first meeting, set expectations as to how often you will communicate. Let them know what kind of updates to expect from your office and establish the preferred method of communication for both parties (email, text, call, etc.). Clarify who the main contact point for each party is. Explain the effects on the design process if there are delays in things such as decision-making or confirmations. With this in mind, see if there is the possibility of adding a backup contact for the client, ideally a spouse or trusted friend.
Share the importance of clear communication on your website. Let visitors understand how important it is to your firm.
Establish trust
Establishing trust is important for long-term client relationships, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. Transparency about your firm’s processes, timelines, and how you address challenges that may arise will help you build that trust. Again, sharing some of these types of things on your website can help to begin building trust before you even have your first meeting with the client. Just make sure that you stay consistent during meetings and projects.
If you establish clear communication and trust up front, you decrease the risk of your client going silent. But it may still happen, and you need to be empathetic as to why they have suddenly stopped responding. Gathering as much information as possible about your client at the very beginning may help you identify possible reasons – it probably isn’t because they want to ghost you! Sometimes, we just need a reminder that there may be a very good reason they have not responded:
- What is their business schedule like? Does it often involve travel? Their own business challenges may at times cause them to be slow in responding.
- Unexpected family obligations may come up, and realistically, notifying their interior designer may not be the top priority. Caring for an elderly relative or a child who is sick may delay their response. Things happen, including accidents, illnesses, deaths, births, and graduations. Try to be understanding, and always assume nothing malicious is happening.
- Celebrations can redirect their focus. A graduation, a wedding in the family, a new grandchild, or a business promotion are just some of the reasons they may be slow in responding.
Identify risky project stages
If you start seeing a trend of when clients tend to become unresponsive, see if you can optimize that part of the process. Consider automating the approval process. Set up a system so that you can move forward with just one click from the client. Have the process also set up to send friendly reminders when you are waiting for a response to move forward. Basically, try not to get hung up on a call or other roadblock. Rather, make it as simple as possible for your clients to take the actions you’d like them to take.
Understand your clients’ schedules
Gather information about the client’s schedule at the initial meeting, or as soon as possible after the client has approved the proposal. Explain that this allows your team to understand what the best times are for you to communicate with them. If they travel a great deal, you want to identify times that work for both of you. This is also where an automated system can be helpful if you are in very different time zones. You can also then let them know when they should expect responses from your team and find out how long you should wait before following up with them. Give them a chance to be honest about their availability. Do they like to respond within the hour, or do they know that they take a day or two to get to an email?
Prioritize deadlines
Prioritize deadlines so the client understands which tasks are most important. This way, the client can know what events to look forward to and be more aware off, and it will be more understandable when they’re unresponsive to less impactful deadlines. Consider that some clients may respond more positively if you present deadlines using “within X number of days” rather than by a specific date. This way, rather than requesting a response by, say, October 15, you might instead state “Within three days of receiving a confirmation of approval for X, we will place the order”, etc. This may help them realize that without their response, the project may be delayed.
Follow Up
Today’s life often involves being overloaded with emails, text messages, and life in general. After a reasonable (or preferably predefined in your contract) length of time, reach out and follow up. Again, this is something you can cover in your initial client meeting when discussing communication. You can let them know that if your office hasn’t heard back from them within X number of days, your team will reach out to them again. People forget, and things get lost in the shuffle, but you don’t want to
Among your firm’s processes and procedures, develop an email that can be used to reach out to unresponsive clients. In it, state that you are following up on the progress of the project (be sure to be specific!), which you have been working on with them. Explain that you understand they may have been busy, but that you have not received any response in some time, and you want to be sure they intend to proceed with the project, and you hope it can remain on schedule. Request an update on the project from them, as well as asking if they could please let you know when you can expect to hear back from them. Let them know that you are available and happy to address any questions or concerns they might have. And don’t be afraid to know that you’re giving them the benefit of the doubt
Always document
As overwhelmed as we sometimes feel with emails and texts and phone messages, they can be very helpful. Save all emails, text messages and notes from conversations. Having a clear record of your interactions makes it easier to refer back to specific conversations. The same holds true for records of conversations with vendors and other external team members. Depending on your CRM, you might already have a great place to organize this information and make it available for your entire team.
Sometimes ending the relationship is the best decision
Ideally, you have been effective in your interviewing of potential new clients to identify those who will not be a good fit. But if not, and if the client is continually unresponsive, the best thing to do is to end the relationship and focus instead of more ideal clients. Be professional and respectful and explain why you are ending the relationship. Offer the necessary documents they have already paid for and other information that might help them move to another firm or possibly a retail store. In other words, fulfill any promises that you are contractually obligated to do, if needed.
Remember, there are some things you can do to help reduce unresponsive clients. Be clear about who fits your ideal client profiles. Develop a strong relationship with clear communication that is built on trust. The stronger the relationships you build, the more likely the lines of communication can keep flowing, and flowing smoothly!