In fact, procrastination in some instances costs a client in many ways from cost breaks to timing losses; and, from team coordination opportunities to goodwill.
Your professional team makes a substantial up-front investment in you and your potential project, long before the paperwork is presented. It is easy to make assumptions about what is a “reasonable” investment of time, travel, speculation and ideas before an agreement is signed. And, that reality is worth discussing.
Sensitivity in this matter of hesitation is important, and there are certainly two sides to the situation.
When a prospective client begins to investigate the appropriate and available professionals for their planned project, it is reasonable for them to want to learn some of the basic approaches that designer takes for certain challenges. It is equally important to learn the financial parameters on fees and charges, and to explore the professional’s background.
Most professionals will have representative installations for their prospective clients to view in order to illustrate their various approaches. Because each project is unique, a prospect may not see what they exactly have in mind. (It’s because it hasn’t been designed yet!)
Questions must be freely asked on both sides; and answers need to be relevant. However, sometimes, a prospective client wants to move over the line from general concepts and understandings into specific design! That’s where a professional must put on the brakes and point out the difference between discussing the possibilities, and actually beginning the work.
Unfortunately, that may also be the place where a prospect begins to procrastinate concerning finalizing the details and actually beginning the project. It can get dicey.
Your design team is a business enterprise with precise guidelines and parameters, concerning what is presented to their prospect(s) before and after signature. Every situation presents definite challenges. It requires skill and patience to illustrate that the client’s vision is understood and will be designed to their satisfaction. But, often a prospective client really wants to know – in advance – what the completed design will be!
A designer and design teams must successfully acquire the confidence of their prospects without actually beginning the work as part of the preliminary presentations they make up front – at no charge.
It must also be remembered that the interior design of an environment begins with basic concepts then evolves, develops and establishes itself as the project moves through its stages. Much is learned – and often changed – as client and designer collaborate in the process. Not everything can be known in advance. Client’s often change their mind.
When all preliminaries have been covered and a reasonable number of factors have been considered, it is then time to complete the paperwork and begin. Yet, when a prospect truly feels that they should have more in advance (at no charge) than a professional team considers reasonable before signature and retainer, the whole process can bog down.
That’s when damaging procrastination may set in. Although questions have been answered, credentials and portfolio have been presented, references have been explored, and the designer and team have invested time and expertise cost-free – the decision and actions necessary to move forward may still be withheld!
That’s also when potential timelines, cost benefits, sub-contractor availability and a projected place on your designer’s schedule are placed in jeopardy. Most professionals ordinarily project tentative space on their critical path schedules. When a prospect has indicated satisfaction and intent, then procrastinates on follow-through, it is usually the project itself that pays the price.
It must be acknowledged that sometimes hesitation involves factors outside of the design project, perhaps of a personal nature. The prospect may also have a conflict of choice among available contractors. In any case, it’s fair, and it is good business to communicate such cases to those who have already invested in you and your proposed project.
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
