How to be an excellent client and help your partners do their best work?

What is a good client?

A good client is one who is easy to work with, has realistic expectations, and communicates openly and honestly. The easier you make it for them to do their job, the better they'll be at doing it!

Some people mistake a good client for being someone who is always right. A good client understands that no one is ever 100% sure about everything. Being "right" doesn't mean you're right all the time, it means you have enough confidence in your opinion to back it up if needed and admit when you are wrong.

In a similar vein, a good client recognizes that no one is perfect. If you make an error (which we all do), you need to be able to own up to it and apologize sincerely.

Being easy to work with goes hand in hand with being flexible. You will never have the same needs as someone else, so asking for things to be done in a certain way or having the ability to change your mind about an issue from time to time is vital.  

A good client understands that not everything can be done immediately and that deadlines are just estimates.  If you get too stressed out about dates, you will only make things more difficult for yourself (and possibly your technical partner). You will feel better if you can just be honest about the situation and communicate openly and honestly.

Why is it important?

Being a good client is important for many reasons. For example, it's more pleasant to be working with someone who is easy to work with and communicates well. It also makes things less frustrating for the developer if you make life a little easier for them by meeting deadlines and being realistic about cost.

It's also important in the event things don't go as planned or if things come up where you need to communicate with the developer quickly and clearly.

Lastly, being a good client will help you achieve your goals faster because you'll have more clear communication between all parties involved which results in better results for everyone.

How to become a better client?

In order to create an excellent relationship with your technical partners (web designers/developers), here are some tips on how to be a good client:

• Be as clear as possible about what you want to be done. The more detailed your request, the clearer it will be for both of you.
• Give feedback in a timely manner; this way there’s less chance that things will get missed or misunderstood. It also gives the developer time to correct any mistakes before moving forward if need be.
• Be realistic about your budget and time frames, and allow for unforeseen circumstances (up to a certain extent).
• Communicate openly and honestly. Let your developer know exactly what you see working or not working within the website/application, so that they can correct it as soon as possible. This is important because technology changes at a fast pace, and what may work perfectly today, might not be working in the future.
• Understand that mistakes happen. It happens to us all (even professional developers) from time to time! Don't get frustrated or treat your developer as incompetent if something goes wrong or doesn't work properly. Let them know and they'll fix it straight away!
• Be fair and reasonable. If they're doing a good job and on schedule, give your developer feedback as to why you think it's going well, or commend them for the work that they've done to date. This will motivate them to do their best work!  

We hope that these suggestions will make it easier for you to be a better client, whether you're working with an in-house team or external service providers. These guidelines should also result in more successful projects due to better communication between all parties involved which would lead to fewer reworks and back and forth.

Our team at BufferMint is always eager to partner with clients who want the very best from our services so they can achieve success faster than expected. Reach out to us by booking a discovery call.