I cannot tell you how many times, while working for past design firms, the generally accepted attitude of the client’s ignorance and unrelenting demands were so often received with rolling eyes. Too often teams ignore the potential of investing in your client(s).

We must remember that our clients trust us with their baby. Their golden idea and dream of self employment. Or their hope of spreading a message they are passionate about. Perhaps their website simply serves the purpose of leisure. Whatever the case may be, we have been chosen to bring their idea to life. When a home builder is approached with inquiry about building a new home, they do not scoff and roll their eyes when the home-buyer flip-flops on what they want for the layout of the bathroom.

Granted, there are instances where a finished bathroom being re-built is irrational and indeed a just cause for frustration, but a home-buyer is not greeted with passive hostility upon that request.

When my wife and I bought our first home it was custom built from a wide selection of available options. Each stage of the building process is segmented much like a project would be in the sense of building a website. Stage two review came and we noticed a half wall had been framed, dry-walled, and nearly painted in place of what we had requested as a banister railing. We mentioned this to the manager of the building team and with profuse apologies we were assured it would be remedied (and it was three days later — an impressive accomplishment in all accounts) immediately. The rest of the process continued and we were consistently shocked at the level of care and pride the builder took in the quality of their work. We were given clipboards to take notes, and stickers to place on items we wanted fixed or repaired, and yet the builder still managed to note and sticky more items than my wife and I combined.

Too often firms forget that their clients are the reason they make websites and if they fail to be passionate and excited about their work how can their clients? The best client you can have is one that emails you a dozen times a day with things he or she needs to be fixed, because those are a dozen different opportunities to exceed their expectation. The best advertising and marketing comes from your client, and nobody markets your work better than a client who is thrilled with his or her website.