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Disappointing Clients

A cute lion on top of a stack of books

Although we would like to hope that we will never have a bad experience with a client, it is unfortunately bound to happen. At some point, there will be some sort of miscommunication, or misrepresentation, and the interaction will become marred by unpleasantness. You can guard yourself against it, and perhaps in the future I can write about my methods for doing this, but you cannot avoid it forever.


I had an experience recently where things didn't go quite how I would have liked with a client. I was hired by a small publishing house to create an illustration of their mascot to be put on their website and for merchandise. We called, discussed the project, and they even provided reference images for what they wanted the final to look like. Our talk was upbeat and perfectly pleasant, and I was excited to be working with them.


Working off of their references, I created the illustration seen above. I thought it was cute, and definitely matched the vibe they were going for. I sent it off and eagerly awaited their response, sure they were going to be as happy about it as I was.


Instead, their response was one of confusion and disappointment. Although they thought the drawing was well done, they had been wanting something a bit edgier than what I delivered. What!? I thought I had captured the vibe perfectly, and to hear that they weren't happy with it was honestly crushing. I offered to try to fix it, but as we had already reached the time limit they wanted spent on the project, they decided to simply not use it. Another major blow. I was feeling a lot: defensive, confused, apologetic. I had wanted to do a good job, had thought I did a good job, but somewhere along the way we had mixed messages and they had ended up with a product they didn't want.


At the end of the day, these things happen. Thankfully, they were quite gracious in their dismissal of my work, but it still sucked to have it happen. The important thing to keep in mind is to continue improving our communication skills, keep asking questions, and keep getting back up when those inevitable disappointments come our way. Not every client interaction will be perfect, but we should treat each opportunity like it could be. Don't lose hope, and keep moving onward.

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