How To Communicate With Clients
Client communication is extremely important as a freelancer and as a client-facing creative. Not only is it important to do, it’s also important how you do it. Should you over-communicate? Downplay things? Be humble or cocky or smart or kind? Here’s my take.
Positivity and confidence are absolutely key in client communication. Something that Jeremiah Davis says all the time when consulting me on how to communicate with clients is, “Turn this into a positive thing.” Nine times out of ten, projects don’t go according to plan. Creatives change, talent backs out, roadblocks emerge. Communicating with positivity looks something like, “Hey client, it looks like the rustic warehouse isn’t available. The good news is we found this rustic barn, and it’s way cooler.”
Nothing is as concerning to a client as a lack of confidence. This does not mean that you always have to be right. It just means that you need to have a plan. Even when things go wrong, you can communicate the plan to make things right. As a producer, I have to do this all the time. Jeremiah Davis takes on a massive quantity of projects–in 2019 he delivered 95 videos to clients with a team of 2. Because of this volume, projects are sometimes delivered late.
I’ve learned to communicate confidently, even when delivering late. There’s a big difference between saying, “Hey client, we’re not going to deliver the video on time.” And saying, “Hey client, we’re not going to be able to deliver the video on time. I understand your launch date is on Friday, which is why after we deliver on Wednesday, we’ll make ourselves available all night to complete any revisions you have.” See the difference there? Instead of delivering bad news with no confidence, you can deliver bad news with understanding, confidence, and a plan. Bad news isn’t so bad this way.
Learning client communication takes time, and some trial and error. Once you start nailing it, though, you’ll become an invaluable asset to many creatives and agencies.
Good luck out there!
