It’s really upsetting. Your client has gone DIY, and they’ve done it badly. What are they thinking? And more importantly, what can you do?

It’s a totally WTF? moment. You’re scrolling social media, checking your emails, or just happily out and about in the world, and suddenly you see it—a sign, an EDM, an ad…OMG it’s a completely ruined version of a beautiful design you created.

Your client has knocked something up themselves, and they’ve made a mess of it. It devalues their branding, reflects poorly on their business (and yours—you don’t want to be associated with that!), and it’s just…well…it’s butt-ugly. You don’t want to offend your client, but you do really want them to rectify their mistake.

So, how do you handle this? Especially when your insides are squirming about approaching them at all. Should you just pretend you haven’t seen it?

No. Do not just let it go. It’s time to be brave.

Reach out to your client

The first step is to find out what’s actually happened. Why has your client chosen to go it alone? You’ve already built a relationship with them, you know their communication style, now it’s time to use that knowledge to gently check in and discover what’s going on.

Ask the simple questions:

• I noticed you’ve made a change in your branding, what did you have in mind with that?
• Are you changing your brand direction?
• What are your objectives for the changes you’ve made?

It may be that they don’t even realise they HAVE diluted their branding, because design is your specialty, not theirs! 

Be kind and respectful, don’t make them feel less than, but always ask your questions in a way that brings them back to the intention behind the beautiful brand you created for them.

Let them know you are here to solve things for them

Perhaps they have not even thought of reaching out to you—and this could be a YOU problem. You may not have been consistent in your correspondence. You haven’t been in their inbox or their DMS, you haven’t maintained the connection, and they simply didn’t think of you when they needed a design solution.

This is one of the basic business systems we teach our 1:1 coaching clients and Academy students – always have touchpoints in place to keep yourself in the client’s mind as the place to turn whenever new design needs pop up. So if this is what’s happened, it’s definitely time to rejig those systems!

Let them know they CAN bother you!

They may have been in a rush, they needed to create this thing on a tight deadline, and they were too embarrassed to contact you at the last minute, so they just decided to try to do it themselves.

OR, they may have thought you were too busy. You might be projecting an impression of being very in-demand or booked out and they assumed, ‘Oh, they’re too busy for this little project’.

Again, good systems can help you circumvent this. It’s SO important to stay in contact with your clients and let them know they’re loved and valued and you’re always here for them. This is absolutely the KEY for creating the kind of loyal clients that form the stable backbone of your business. It’s ok to tell your client, ‘Please bother me! I’m here to build this brand with you’.

What if it’s the money thing?

Your client may have been thinking, ‘I already spent up on the big-ticket stuff and I can’t afford to invest in every little thing. I’ll just do this one myself’.

This is where you need to educate your client. They may not understand the importance of consistent branding, or the way shifting branding touchpoints can erode the trust of their clients – but you do.

So… share your expertise. Explain how the beautiful, consistent branding you’ve created is part of their relationship with their dream customers. The ones who are are completely engaged and feel a strong connection to their brand and identity.

Let them know that when these inconsistencies pop up, they won’t feel right. Their customers won’t think, ‘Oh, the spacing is off’ or ‘The font is all wrong’, but they’ll feel it. They’ll get the impression that something’s a bit wonky, a bit lower end, and ultimately that impression damages the confidence of the customer and devalues everything your client has invested in.

Never be afraid to communicate!

And not just when something’s already gone a bit wrong. Effective communication with your client will keep them calling on you for design solutions, and maintain their understanding of the importance of a cohesive and consistent branding and message.

So have the conversation with your client on a regular basis. Validate the success of their brand—their colour palette, their logo, all the elements you have pulled together. Celebrate with them how they have elevated their business with their decision to invest in strong, beautiful branding and the quality it represents.  Point out the way all the touchpoints are working seamlessly together to create a total brand experience. If they truly understand the absolute value every part of your design solution brings to their business, they’re much less likely to muck with it.

And be brave! Your client has invested in the branding you created, and guiding them away from diluting its message is just one part of your excellent customer service. If you approach this problem with total respect for your client, their brand, and your business, you will grow your client’s confidence and loyalty and ensure the integrity of the work AND the relationship between their business and yours for all of their projects to come.

So take a deep breath and reach out – you’ve got this!

Much love

Kris & Donna xo

Podcast #48 Full Transcription

[00:00:00] Kris: Hello everybody.

[00:00:01] Donna: Hello everyone. Okay. So you are scrolling through your Instagram feed or you’re taking a wander through stories, just innocently, and then you see it, you see this butt ugly approach dilution, devastation to the design work that you’ve done. It’s so offensive. It’s, it’s offending you on all levels and your beautiful client is responsible. They are the ones that have posted it. So what happened? What happened? How did that happen? How did they not get the design memo that they cannot do that to their brand?

[00:00:43] Kris: Yeah. Oh my God, it’s, it’s upsetting on so many levels, isn’t it? it’s like, it’s embarrassing to you. It’s like, oh my God. What if people think, I did that.

[00:00:53] Donna: That’s that’s my first thought, my first thought with all of my design clients in the past has been what have they done? And will people think that I did it? Total ego trip! Total ego trip. I know, I know, but it’s like my whole design business, my whole reputation is on the line. If people think that I am responsible for producing work like that, so straight away I go there, I’m like, oh no, I have to fix this. I have to fix my business’s reputation because I can’t have that out there. You know? it’s terrible.

[00:01:29] Kris: Oh look we’ve had it happen so many times, just over the many years that we’ve been designing. So because Donna and I have been designing for decades, so we’d drive past a, a business and there’s a God awful sign. Or like you just checking emails, innocently. And usually it’s like just before bedtime or sometime when you’re not supposed to be checking email. And you’re like, what, what is that thing? 

[00:01:49] Donna: And that just sets you off into insomnia. like, I can’t cope. Yep. Totally do not check emails just before bed 

[00:01:58] Kris: Yes, that’s right. So you’re worried about yourself and your reputation, but you’re, you are worried about them as well and their brand and the dilution of their investment and the fact that they’re not getting it as well, that, that it could hinder their growth, that it could confuse their audience.

[00:02:17] Donna: Yeah, absolutely confusion’s a big thing. So like I said, egotistically. I go straight to, oh my goodness. Will people think it’s me? And the second thing I go to is nooo! All that hard work, all the money that the client has invested in it’s being wasted. It’s being diluted. They’re really compromising their message. So straightaway, I think they’re wasting their money. The they’re all of that precious groundwork that has been done to get them and their brand to where it is today. And it’s almost like you’re just happy to just throw it away. So yeah, it’s, it’s scary and has to be corrected, but you have to be gentle and you have to tread lightly because these decisions can be really. innocent. They, they, don’t really intend to dilute their brand. And often when they find out that they are they’re horrified and they want to correct it. So there are usually some things that are happening when you see this. And be prepared to sort of gently, gently bring them back into line, you know, be the design police and, and just let them know, Hey, Hey, come back over this way. your focus is this way. 

[00:03:31] Kris: We talked about being the design police in episode 46, where we talk about design boundaries and check that out if you haven’t looked at our entire boundary setting series, we’ve got four episodes, and we love the idea of the design police. It sort of cracks us up you’re getting in there, like, you know, making sure that nobody’s doing the wrong thing, making sure that. 

[00:03:50] Donna: tapping the shoulder. 

[00:03:51] Kris: Yeah, oiy 

[00:03:53] Donna: Excuse me. Oiy, what are you doing? 

[00:03:56] Kris: So what do you do? How do you, how do you broach the subject? What do you do? Well, it does actually require some bravery. It is a brave step that you have to take, but we know that you can do it and you have to reach out to them. You have to talk to them. 

[00:04:13] Donna: You to ask. What, what exactly was your intention? Have that conversation really gently, but you’ll have a relationship with these clients. You will have worked on their beautiful brand. You will have some insight into how they think and what they do. And so the conversation needs to just match where they are at with regard to their communication style. But regardless of that, it has to happen. There has to be some communication and you have to ask the question. 

[00:04:41] Kris: Yeah. So was it intentional on their part? You know, are they going on a brand direction change that you don’t know about? What was their thought process behind it? 

[00:04:52] Donna: Yeah. Tell me about it. It’s it’s that, conversation I see, you’ve made this change. Do you want to tell me about it? what’d you have in mind with that? What were you hoping to achieve with that? What were your objectives for that? So always bringing it back to that beautiful intention that we as designers have whenever we design a solution, we want to understand what their intention was for this change or sudden shift in their branding 

[00:05:18] Kris: There’s a few different reasons why this will be happening. One of the reasons, is that you haven’t been in communication with them enough over the past little while. You might not be reaching out regularly, they may have just forgotten about you as awful as that sounds. 

[00:05:35] Donna: Yeah. Out of sight out of mind. It, yeah, absolutely. And they think that they, they have to solve this problem all on their own, which could be another reason it’s happening. It’s it could be a panic stricken, knee jerk reaction. They’re being reactive to a situation that happened. And. They, they think that their timing is really tight and they’ve just got to do it and they’ve got to get it done. And you haven’t been in their inbox or in their DMS and communicating with them. So they don’t, they don’t even think that you would be a solution to this problem. They think they’ve got to solve this problem themselves. So they just go for it. They just get in a little bit panicked. And create something. and that can be dangerous because they they’re coming from that really turbulent emotional knee-jerk reaction state rather than a really considered, you know, getting out ahead of it and understanding what they need to do. So often those decisions that are made on the fly like that, bottom line is they’re just not considered. They’re not taking into consideration their brand as a whole. They’re just responding to that one thing that they’ve done, that one little problem that they have to solve immediately. It’s got to happen right now. So I’ll just do something right now, DIY this thing, and I’m going to get done. Yeah. 

[00:06:46] Kris: Yeah. because if you’ve got really overwhelmed and busy clients, they don’t have time to contact you. They don’t have time to reach out to talk about this project. So that’s why we’re always encouraging our designers, our one-to-one clients, and our academy students to reach out, be consistent with your communication because you need to be front of mind and you need to be the solution for when these things pop up. Cause you, you never know. They, the client might’ve had a really tight deadline on something and they might’ve worked on it themselves at 11:00 PM one night just because they felt like they had to get it out the door and they’ve left it to the last minute. And that they’re desperate for it. 

[00:07:23] Donna: Yep. And at 11:00 PM, they’re not going to reach out.

[00:07:26] Kris: No.

[00:07:27] Donna: They’re just going to get it done, you and the other thing that could happen is they just don’t want to bother you. Because are so busy, they assume you are so busy. So they’re like, oh no, this is a really quick thing. It’s just one little thing. It’s just one little thing that I’ve got to do. I’m just going to get it done. Or it might be, uh, social media campaign. It might be, an ad. It might be something that they think, oh, I’ll just do this one thing. And I won’t bother my designer so that regular. Correspondence and communication with your client, assuring them that you want to be bothered. Yes. Please bother me. I’m here to be bothered. I want you to bother me is what we want to say to our clients with that regular communication. 

[00:08:08] Kris: Especially with those beautiful, ongoing repeat clients, because you never know what impression you are projecting on social media. You might be projecting an impression of being very busy, very booked out. So they might assume, oh, they’re too busy for this little project. This is the kind of work that both Donna and I have loved and embraced that ongoing regularity, um, those beautiful ongoing clients. They’ve been so wonderful in providing stability for our business.

[00:08:36] Donna: Yeah, we absolutely love those retainer clients, those monthly recurring revenue relationships that we have with clients where they can come to us for all the little things. We want them to come to us for all the little things, because all of the little things, point to the big picture, and it’s the big picture we want to protect and make sure it maintains the integrity of their intention and their objectives for their brands. So all the little things count and we want to be available for that 

[00:09:05] Kris: Yeah. And just hearing you talk about that, Don it’s like, maybe these clients don’t know about the importance of branding. Maybe they don’t know about the importance of all the little things. It’s all the little touch points as well, that build up a brand and help to create growth in a company. So maybe they just need a little bit of educating as well. 

[00:09:27] Donna: That’s right. Yeah. It could be a cost thing as well that they feel like, oh I can’t afford to invest in everything for my business, all these little things they add up. But the question that Kris and I would like to ask is what is it costing you if you don’t, what is it costing your brand, if you don’t, if you dilute it. So it’s important again, to educate your clients on the value so they get comfortable with investing in all the things and not just the big ticket items. 

[00:09:57] Kris: Yeah, you just need to point it out to them and point it out on repeat. Clients need reminders and consistent education. Honestly, your audience does, even if you think everybody’s talking about it. If you’re not talking about it, your particular desired audience, isn’t finding out about it. So make sure that you’re talking about this on your socials and in blog posts and all that sort of thing. 

[00:10:20] Donna: And have the conversation with your client on a regular basis that says to them that their brand is working. Validate to them the success of their brand. Point it out to them because often They don’t really get it. They don’t understand. Oh yes, I’ve got a good, um, logo And my colors palettes working on my socials and look for ways to actually show evidence to them that it’s working. So then they can see the value. We see the value, we understand the value, we’re educated in how to actually extract that out for our clients. That regular conversation and validation look at how wonderful this is. Look at how this has, has elevated in your business. Look at how your business model as a whole has elevated, whatever it may be. Look out for clues and validation so that you can highlight that for your client to let them know, look, it’s working. got this beautiful brand and it’s strong, and we want to maintain that. We want to keep it that way. 

[00:11:18] Kris: Mmm, point it out to them, point out, um, what exactly has gone wrong with the branding as well and why it is not elevated anymore because they might not really understand that as well. So just say, they’ve done a layout in Canva and they’ve just got all the spacing wrong. Or the font size is really off or there’s terrible tracking, terrible spacing. There’s just issues. And you can see it as clear as anything, but that is harder for the client to perceive. And it’s harder for them to understand that the consumers, their consumers can see it too. They don’t articulate it in their minds. They’re not going to be able to, to express it and say it out loud, but they can feel it and they can see it. They’ll get the impression that, oh, something’s a bit off there, it’s a bit dodgy. It’s a bit lower end. 

[00:12:05] Donna: yeah. Or the messaging might be wrong. They might rush their messaging. They might really consider it. and that could be something that really is diluting the brand overall. could be multifaceted. 

[00:12:16] Kris: Yeah. And it could be just that they’re using a completely different tone of voice that they’ve never used before or some kind of language that’s really odd for their brand, which causes market 

[00:12:27] Donna: That’s the key Kris market confusion. That’s what happens when we are not consistent at every touch point. And it’ll be a little erosion of trust as well for their clients. They’ll look at, they’ll look at something or they’ll be completely. Engaged with this particular brand, they will be all in, they are a dream customer for this client. And then these funny little things will pop up and they’ll be like, that doesn’t feel right. And all of a sudden that trust is eroded a little bit by little bit by little bit. So really highlighting the importance of a cohesive and consistent branding and message to your clients will really get them to understand that it’s important that all the touch points are considered and are accurate and on-brand. 

[00:13:11] Kris: Mm, so talk about these ideas with your community. I know as designers in our industry, we’re seeing a lot of this, but your audience is most likely not seeing it, they’re new concepts to them. So make sure that you are creating that concept so that you can build up that impression of being the trusted professional, the person to respect in all matters of this. Cause you are the design police. 

[00:13:38] Donna: Yeah. you are the authority 

[00:13:41] Kris: You, are the authority, that’s it.

[00:13:43] Donna: in the nicest most gentle way. 

[00:13:47] Kris: That’s right

[00:13:50] Donna: of It can be a really respectful like by now, you know, we’re nearly 50 podcasts in, you know, that first and foremost for Kris and I, we are respectful. And we really treasure kindness and a conversation that can be had where It’s a beautiful exchange where nobody feels less than. So it’s important to, take these really tricky conversations on that do require bravery and courage with kindness. Be kind about it because they might not know that they are actually diluting the brand. completely stuffing up depending you’d like to see it. Um, they might not know that. gentle and be kind and just pull them back, pull them back, pull their focus back this way and with the strategies that we’ve outlined 

[00:14:37] Kris: So we did say before, it does take courage. It does take a lot of bravery to point this out, and to do it in a caring way that the client is actually going to hear what you’re saying as well. But if you don’t do anything, if you ignore this issue, And you’re just pulling the blanket up over your head and going, no, I can’t deal with this. Well, then you might be missing opportunities as well, because this could lead into extra work for you. This could lead into more projects, open up the door, open up the conversation to this and to see what, what, comes of it, but be brave. 

[00:15:10] Donna: Be brave. Yeah. 

[00:15:12] Kris: We know it often asking you to be incredibly courageous. 

[00:15:16] Donna: It’s a big part 

[00:15:17] Kris: of 

[00:15:17] Donna: business. Isn’t it though. Kris I think you, are already innately courageous if you are running your own business, so congratulations to you. And that tells us that we know you can be courageous. we know you’ve got this. You can do it.

[00:15:30] Kris: Yeah. I wanted to read out a beautiful quote on courage from Brene brown because it’s just so beautiful and it speaks to the way that we love to operate a business as well. So You all know Brene brown by now. Right? She’s just amazing. So check her out. Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is core. The Latin word for heart. In its earliest forms, the word courage meant to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart. So speak up beautiful, brave souls. 

[00:16:01] Donna: Quote Yeah, you have got these beautiful souls you really do. protect your business and Protect your client’s business. And it will be a win-win for both of you. 

[00:16:15] Kris: Yeah. 

Okay. Good luck with it 

[00:16:18] Donna: Okay. 

[00:16:18] Kris: next time. 

Bye.