Deadlines for clients
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- i_monk
What sort of deadline standards does your agency, studio, whatever, try to hold its clients to? If Johnny Client calls you up and wants a complete brand overhaul by noon tomorrow, what do you do? How last minute is too last minute?
- madirish0
that is too last minute.
- wwfc0
...most agency deadlines expired yesterday!
- madirish0
"You're Fired."
- acescence0
i will reverse time for the right price
- emokid0
occasional clients like that are not a bad thing. you work a lot less than for a normal client with a normal deadline, you do mediocre work because there isn't a whole lot of time (which the client understands because he/she is in a rush) but you end up making the same amount of money as you would for a project that takes a lot longer.
- i_monk0
And when everything is last minute on a very high volume/traffic account?
- lvl_130
well, then you end up having a nervous breakdown of course.
that, or you get so burnt out on design you would rather drop everything and start working at the mall in some retail shop.
- jamble0
the more you meet impossible deadlines, the more clients will expect it as standard. Always be flexible in doing work but don't let them take the piss too much.
- i_monk0
So it's unrealistic for me, a lowly designer/production monkey, and my annoyed colleagues to hope we can talk our boss into enforcing some sort of cut off for last minute work? Did I mention the main client is a personal friend of his?
- a similar situation made finally become a freelancer.Daro
- To be blunt, you're fucked in that situation.flashbender
- _salisae_0
you're obviously walking around with your feet up. clients can smell this.
- sofakingzero0
"lvl_13
well, then you end up having a nervous breakdown of course.
that, or you get so burnt out on design you would rather drop everything and start working at the mall in some retail shop. "
This is possibly the most accurate statement I have read on NT...
...lol
- joyride0
The problem is the boss thinking last minute changes are the ok and acceptable. I'm sure he has nothing to do with the changes, he doesn't stay late to get them done or make sure they get done, right? If you make him stay with you while things are updated, last minute, he will see how much of a pain it is, and start to see why you hate it.
- the PROBLEM is, the boss/acct manager has not put a diplomatic foot up the client's ass.madirish
- exactly. i can't stand the 'bend over' nature of this business sometimes. backbone. it does a body good.lvl_13
- "you don't make money by good work; you make money by good salespeople and better collectors." - P.Randmadirish
- point being- it drives me nuts when the attitude is put forth that this is a slacker indust. and the deadline-less attitude is ok.madirish
- would your plummber drop everything to fix your sink?madirish
- i_monk0
Because the 'brand overhaul' example above? That bullshit's happening right now. It has to go out in two dozen ads tomorrow by noon for ads running the first few days of January.
- flashbender0
lvl is right, I just wound up a really busy stretch and the client wanted to "get one last project in" before the holidays. I told them that I would do it, but their timeline left basically no margin for error and the chances that something getting fucked was pretty good, so they agreed to wait until after the first of the year... sometimes just explaning to them a situation will help them figure out how important it is. I would have done it, becasue they are a good client, but it would have sent my stress through the roof leading up right to christmas day.
The other thing I like to do to gauge just how "last minute" the changes/project are is to charge a rush fee - let the client know that if they look at a realistic timeline it would be X amount, if they insist on a compressed timeline, then it is going to be Y amount. Where Y is 25-40% more than X depending on the timeline difference and how badly I need the work/money.
Obviously this assumes you work for yourself.Bosses get off on the last minute shit, because that is what they do.
- perfectly said, flashbender.
have a cocktail on me- but don't bill me w/ a rush fee... ;)madirish - right-o one gin on tonic on your tab ;)flashbender
- you are a man i could drink with.
;)madirish - perhaps someday :D
I'm all about travellingflashbender
- perfectly said, flashbender.
- visualplane_0
It's funny how I'm in a similar situation. I just got dumped with 80 hours worth of work, and they expect me to drop everything and get it done??
- sofakingzero0
I know this topic is my life last week, I had to put things in to perspective to my client (which is really a design firm)
The expectations they had were getting out of control, the harder and faster I worked the crazier my deadlines, stress, and pressure got.
I had to pull the E brake on the situation. If you let people push your limit to the max they will and they will go 100 times further if you let them.
At some point you have to smack shit back to reality.
For yourself and them.
- visualplane_0
So what's the best way to handle the situation without losing the client?
- see flashbender post above ^madirish
- yeah, I plan on telling them about the rush feevisualplane_
- that's a really tactic to see how serious they are.flashbender
- i_monk0
Or your job. My job would be easier if we ditched this client, honestly.
- joyride0
As long as your upfront with statements like, so your good with this and ready to sign off on dev/design/functionality. Make sure they know, changes will cost money. Then bill them, when they make changes. Changes happen, it's just how it goes. But make sure they don't sign off to sign off... then still expect changes for no cost. get some balls
- joyride0
BTW - i'm in the same situation, I was supposed to leave for the holidays today, but my clients client wanted changes. I've tried telling my client they need to manage their client and his micro-management because his changes are costing money. I'm sure I'm going to have to explain why the cost is so high, but, oh well. Time is money, changes take time. just don't mixup changes for mistakes/bugs, those should not be added cost... IMO