We’ve all been there. You have a customer with a “vision” of how their custom product should “look” or “feel”. Regardless of the business you are in, we all have clients who have an idea that may not be in their best interest. Whether you own an ice cream shop and someone requests pickles on their ice cream, or you’re a car dealer and someone orders a Mercedes Benz with bright orange polka dots (go ahead and laugh but I bet this has happened!). As consumers we can all be a little 
impossible to please at times. So what do you do? How do you handle this and still make the customer happy?
In the world of web design, this arises all the time. On one hand, we want the customer’s input; we want to know the colors they prefer; the layout they have in mind; and what they want their site to do for them. After all, knowing this in advance will only help meet expectations, leading to a very satisfied client. However, there are times when our clients want something that is not so appealing and may clutter up the website. What is the best way to handle these issues?
The most important thing to remember is: you are the expert in your field. Your client trusts you and your opinion. You cannot go wrong if you understand your client’s needs, give expert advice on the project, and even tell them when they are wrong (in the most politically correct way of course!). There are very few times in business when a client is so demanding that they will not be open to at least hearing your advice.
In web design, we generally start by looking at all elements of the current website including what is working and what is not. Then we take a peek at what their competition is doing. For the new website, we consider the client’s brand and image, how special functionality will work (event registration, ecommerce, photo galleries; just to name a few), where users will go once they enter the home page, and internal promotions and/or events. Web design may sound like a simple arts and crafts project, and even though we all love coloring with crayons and connecting the dots, we realize there is more to a design than just matching swatches. Just like there is more to our clients than just a website. Knowing that we only have 3-7 seconds to capture a user’s attention (or maybe even less nowadays) we take the design very serious and understand that nailing the perfect layout is the key in getting users to do what you want them to do on your website. Once we have achieved the perfect design, we move on to other important elements such as SEO, content, functionality, etc… So you see that an Account Manager’s job is never done :)
The moral of the story is that if you truly make an investment in the success of your client, then you will not fail them. Even if you don’t see eye to eye, or color to color in this case, you have the client’s best interest at heart and will ensure success by building a relationship based on expertise, trust, and honesty.
Resources and Tips:
Ever wonder what your customers think about your website? Here is a list of 5 simple things to think about while designing your site...and keeping your customer in mind:
1. People generally browse in an "F" shape- hence the reason left side vertical navigation is so popular!
2. Customers like short paragraphs with short sentences- yes! we are all ADHD these days!
3. With the short attention spam, as users we tend to get lost...very easily- so make it easy for us to find the information we are looking for. Follow the 3 click rule- no more than 3 clicks away from finding what their looking for!
4. Users do NOT like being forced to register or login for information- so give us what we want!
5. And finally....users want to find you by searching your name, and the service and/or products you sell. So- do your research and invest in SEO!
Want to see what captures your customer's attention on your website? Take a screen shot of your home page and upload your image to Feng Shui for Graphic Designs - it will generate a heat map simulating movement of the human eye! Pretty cool huh? I thought so....