How to Make it Easy for Interior Design Clients to Work with You
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Written December 2020 | Updated August 2025
What if you found out you're confusing your potential clients and making it hard for them to work with you? If you’re familiar with Donald Miller and The Story Brand, then you also know how true the expression “If you confuse, you lose” is. When I start working with clients, we start by identifying their client-facing touchpoints so we can ensure that potential customers find it easy to work together right from the start. How many times have you gone to someone’s website and been so confused about how to work with them that you leave and never go back?
I’ve had conversations with other consumers about this, and I’ve also heard feedback from my clients that their customers are telling them, “You’re the only company I interviewed who provides this level of information. We’re ready to book!”.
And the thing we did to get those kinds of responses from their customers time and time again was created once and continues to attract clients who are eager and ready to book.
By fine-tuning a few key customer touchpoints in your inquiry phase and onboarding phase, you’ll be helping your customers to say YES to working with you.
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But first: what is a touchpoint?
A touchpoint is defined as “…any time a potential customer or customer comes in contact with your brand–before, during, or after they purchase something from you.” Every interaction with a client is an opportunity to create a meaningful or magical moment.
What are the benefits of improving customer touchpoints throughout your interior design process?
TOUCHPOINTS INSPIRE CONFIDENCE.
It gives clients confidence in your ability to solve their problems. If each of your touchpoints anticipates what your clients will need at that step, they’ll feel like you understand their pain points and have the solution for them. This will make it easier for them to see you as the best option if they’re interviewing multiple businesses for their project.
TOUCHPOINTS CONFIRM THEY MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE.
When they make a purchase, touchpoints will confirm for them that they made the right choice. The way you thank them for choosing you, the onboarding materials you send over, the gift you send out. All of these touchpoints will foster good feelings and so much confidence in you right from the start of a project, especially when some people tend to have buyer’s remorse right after making a purchase.
TOUCHPOINTS CREATE A REFERRAL WORTHY CLIENT EXPERIENCE.
Your well-planned touchpoints will allow your clients to fully enjoy their experience doing business with you because they’ll know exactly what to expect every step of the way. This will again inspire trust, which means making continued purchases from you and saying yes to your designs will be a simple YES!
When clients don’t know what’s coming next, they’ll be anxious, they’ll be reaching out with questions, they’ll be worried about whether they’ll miss something or not. The experience they’ll remember with your company will be one of stress and uncertainty, not one that inspires repeat business and referrals!
KEY TOUCHPOINTS FOR THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
When I work with interior design business owners we fine-tune the critical touchpoints in their inquiry, onboarding phase, and offboarding phases (and everything in between) to ensure a smooth, professional experience for both the client and the designer. While the specific interactions vary depending on your ideal clients and services, the key phases are the same
The key touchpoints of your interior design sales process
The inquiry phase touchpoints determine whether potential clients feel confident reaching out—or whether they leave your website feeling unsure.
Look at your website and social media. Is it easy for clients to inquire?
Are your services and prices clearly communicated?
What’s the process for booking a discovery call or consultation?
→ If these touchpoints feel scattered, our Client Experience Templates provide a plug-and-play framework to ensure leads move through your process with confidence. No more piecing things together on your own.
The key touchpoints of your onboarding process
Woo hoo! You just booked a new client. But what happens next?
The way you onboard your clients sets the tone for the entire project.
What information do they receive?
What acknowledgment do they get for this milestone moment?
Do they know how to contact you and what to expect?
A strong onboarding process eliminates confusion, reduces client anxiety, and ensures they feel validated in their decision to hire you.
→ Our Onboarding Playbook for Interior Designers deep dives into exactly how and when to onboard a client and what all happens during this phase. Then our Welcome Guide for Interior Designers gives you the exact document you need to onboard clients seamlessly, without ever having to “circle back” because you forgot critical information.
The key touchpoints of your offboarding process
The project is wrapping up, and now it’s time to say goodbye.
Do clients know the service is wrapped?
Do they know how you’re handling any open items?
Do they feel valued and appreciated?
Do they know how to refer you to their network?
This is where many interior designers miss an opportunity to turn happy clients into repeat clients and referral sources. And they miss out on refining their service (and potentially increasing their pricing by doubling down on what’s working) when they don’t ask for feedback.
→ Want a plug-and-play system for ending projects on a high note? Our Project Closing Guide + Feedback Form ensures you never miss an opportunity to create a referral-worthy experience and has helped hundreds of interior designers who are on their way to their first $100k to those making $4MM+ in annual revenue.
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Here’s the thing: once these touchpoints are identified, you can create templates, guides, and workflows to make this whole process run like a well-oiled machine.
Defining your customer journey and all the key touchpoints and then creating materials and processes around them not only gives your clients an amazing experience with your business right from the start, but it also reduces your work so you can spend that newfound free time focusing on your client work, your family, or whatever it is you want.
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