Dear Dakota | What To do When a Client Doesn’t Provide Feedback on Their Interior Design Presentation
Dear Dakota: What should I do when a client doesn’t provide timely feedback on their interior design presentation?
I always say, “Tell me what happens after you present your design and I’ll tell you what’s broken in your onboarding and design phases.”
This scenario is no different. And really, it depends a lot on what your interior design contract states regarding your scope of work, included services, and revision policy.
There are two scenarios: one in which you have NOTHING in your interior design contract or scope of work about revisions, and one in which you have a detailed interior design contract and scope of work (like this one).
Scenario One: You have nothing in your interior design contract or scope of work about revisions
If your interior design contract and scope of work don’t state whether revisions are included or what your revisions policy is, consider this a time-consuming and costly lesson that will teach you how to protect your project timelines and profitability on every future project.
In the meantime, if you’ve presented the design and then hear crickets from your clients, you’ll have to do what you can to keep the project on schedule and moving forward. A few ways to do this:
Go back to your notes from that very first call or interaction with the client. What pain points did they share? What was their project timeline? Why was now the time to do this project? Find the pain points they hired YOU to solve.
Then, armed with that information, discuss with the client the importance of providing design feedback and how perfecting the design so they can approve it and move into the next phase will be “the thing” that solves whatever pain point they initially shared with you. So, if they said they have struggled to make their home feel cohesive and hate how disjoined it all feels, you may say something like, “I know you’re eager for these rooms to feel cohesive and connected, and we’re almost there! Once you share your feedback on the design, I’ll be able to make those final edits so you can approve the design and get you one step closer to having a beautiful finished space.”
Then, at this point, you can set a date for when their feedback is due. Let them know what happens beyond that point.
If you bill a flat fee and your contract doesn’t detail your scope of work or how you bill additional services, scope, or revisions, you should check with your attorney to see whether you can bill the client for revisions.
If you bill hourly and your contract doesn’t include a revisions policy, you will simply bill the revisions as design work, so you are at least covered for the time spent on these.
Once you’re coming up on the “due date” for revisions, send a reminder to the client and consider offering a phone call, virtual meeting, or in-person visit to review the design and talk through their feedback.
If they miss the deadline, share with them what happens now that they haven’t moved forward with the design or provided revisions.
Remember: your client should be MORE invested in completing their room than you are. If they aren’t, and they don’t care about getting feedback to you or implementing the design, this is something that could be better screened out during the inquiry process.
Scenario Two: Your interior design contract clearly spells out your revisions policy and scope of work
Communicate your revisions policy at every touchpoint and remind your clients they are a natural part of the design process
Before presentation
In your presentation recap email
As you’re nearing the end of your revision period
During your client presentation
If the client doesn’t provide feedback, then simply copy and paste the policy outlined in your contract and share it with the client. “As a reminder, the period for revisions closes on XX/XX. After that point, we will [insert what your policy is].” If there are other ramifications, let them know of those as well. Also, be sure to remind them how they can approve the design if no revisions are needed.
Why your interior design clients may be ghosting you after presentation
If your clients are, more often than not, NOT providing feedback on your designs, there are a myriad of issues that could be causing this. Here are just a few:
LACK OF COMMUNICATION ON YOUR PART
The client doesn’t know the process, doesn’t know how to give revisions, feels “bad” for asking you to make a change, or doesn’t know there is a timeline.
A LACKLUSTER OR NON-EXISTENT ONBOARDING PROCESS
If you aren’t onboarding your client properly and reviewing the design process and timeline, they may not realize there is a clearly defined process for getting their project from A to Z, and they may not know there is even a revisions process or understand the importance of it.
BAD TIMING
Timing is everything! If you don’t tell your client when you’re planning to present the design and they end up going on vacation the day after your presentation because they had NO IDEA, they likely will not give you feedback while on vacation. You have to communicate up front when the presentation will be to make sure that works with their schedules, knowing the revision period will follow right after.
TOTAL MISALIGNMENT OF DESIGN STYLES
If your design is SO FAR OFF (this goes back to that onboarding process), your client won’t even know where to start with revisions OR it simply may feel like too much and they just want to stop.
The list goes on.
How to ensure interior design clients provide feedback on your designs
So, when it comes to defining your revision policy so you DO get feedback (or 100% approval), be sure to:
Set company-wide service-specific timelines for when revisions are due.
Establish how many revisions are included.
Designate an approved method for communicating revisions.
Create a policy for how revisions beyond [whatever you include] are processed and charged.
Create a policy for what happens if the client goes MIA and just never ever ever responds after presentation.
Then, be sure the revisions are detailed in your scope of work, contract, onboarding process, and design process.
How to reduce revision requests in the interior design process
Every interior designer’s goal is to present the design and get a “YES, THIS IS PERFECT! LET’S MOVE FORWARD!” response. And, if your client process is comprehensive, detailed, and proactive, revisions probably aren’t a big issue for your firm.
But if you continually experience clients ghosting you after design presentations or, on the other hand, you get TONS of revision requests, find out how to reduce revision requests in your interior design process.
Then, be sure to check out our:
Full Service Scope and Service Agreement if you need a solid interior design contract to protect you against all the major hot button issues we see interior designers face, and
Our Emerson Client Experience Templates if you want to guide your clients through your entire design process (AND revision process) in a proactive, supportive, and professional way
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