Christopher Carfi with the Social Customer Manifesto
NOTE: This is a diversion from my regular features, but one I feel is useful to designers in business. What first caught my attention was ‘So…were you create-ive today?’
The Social Customer Manifesto is about:
Taking the radical stance of looking at business from the customer’s point of view.
I want to have a say
The website questionnaire has been completed. Your website proposal has been approved and contract signed. A design angle has been agreed. The down payment is safely in your bank. Working away, you code the site and present it to the client. Not always, but there are times when this phase of the project becomes your first stumbling block.
While you’ve been galvanized by your creative juices, your client has had time to show their new toy to their spouse, sister, mother, colleague or neighbor down the road. Somewhere out there is one acquaintance who knows just enough to throw a wrench in the works. Someone who was not involved in the brainstorming and the design process. Someone out of the loop. It could even be your client’s boss.
What do you do when this happens? I generally take them over the reasons leading up to the decisions made. We discuss where the new idea would fit, or not. If we don’t go back to the original agreement, we go through the process from the beginning to make sure all the new elements work together, scrapping the original proposal in its entirety if needs be. And of course, I’ve explained the necessary for an additional payment to cover the change of direction.
A client having their say at any stage of a job is obviously good business practice (and common sense). But face it, at certain stages of a project it creates tension. And in my experience, a jog mid job does not always improved a project. At times it changes from what was a smooth creation, to one with a zerky flaw. But for me, what releases some of the pressure is knowing that it’s their dime, their project, therefor their right to have a say. And like mentioned in a previous post, you can always leave it out of the portfolio.
Other points Christopher makes in his Social Customer Manifesto (pertaining to the design industry, IMO) are:
- I don’t want to do business with idiots.
- I want to know when something is wrong, and what you’re going to do to fix it.
- I want to help shape things that I’ll find useful.
- I want to connect with others who are working on similar problems.
- I want to buy things on my schedule, not yours. I don’t care if it’s the end of your quarter.
- I want to tell you when you’re screwing up. Conversely, I’m happy to tell you the things that you are doing well. I may even tell you what your competitors are doing.
- I want to do business with companies that act in a transparent and ethical manner.
- I want to know what’s next. We’re in partnership; where should we go?
The Social Customer Manifesto is by: Christopher Carfi
Discovered via: John T Unger Studio
Technorati Tags: business, design, manifesto
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