Tips For Working With Offshore Clients

1. Build Trust From The Start

A client’s trust will make or break a project. Without it you’ll spend endless hours explaining and defending your ideas. It’s easy to build trust when you’re meeting once a week to present your work and report your progress, but how do you do it with someone 10,000 miles away?

2. Write A Bulletproof Contract

As a general rule of thumb, if I estimate spending more than 10 hours on a project I will craft a contract and get a client signature before I start working. It doesn’t have to be complex, but it should always include:

* A detailed scope of work.

* A list of deliverables.

* A limit on revisions.

* A plan for client delays.

* Payment terms.

3. Set Deadlines (And Enforce Them)

This is important for both sides. You already know you need deadlines to keep yourself on track, but you need to set them for the client as well. Asking for timely feedback keeps the project moving forward. Every time you produce something that requires feedback or sign-off, set a short-term deadline and make sure it’s documented in writing somewhere. If the client lets the deadlines slip repeatedly, they can’t complain when the project is delivered.

4. Communicate Clearly And Often

Since you’re not meeting face-to-face (and probably aren’t calling too much either) the limited interactions you do have are incredibly important. Make sure you craft your emails and messages carefully; realize that every word you write is amplified and your dry sense of humor isn’t going to come across very well. Best to just be straightforward.

5. Use Web Apps To Facilitate Communication

There are tons of great tools out there for online client collaboration. Pick the ones that work best for your process and use them religiously. Insist that your client uses them too.

I’ve run into quite a few clients who don’t want to be bothered logging in to a new tool – they would rather flood your inbox with email after email after email. Trouble is, email does little to keep everyone on the same page. Unless you have a dedicated project manager,get yourself a web-based project management tool. Make to-do lists, set milestones, and keep discussions in a public space where you can easily point back to them.

6. Use Design Documentation

As you move through your design process, think about the many ways documentation can help to get you and your clients on the same page. Although documentation takes time up front to create, it can save you endless hours in unnecessary revisions caused by miscommunications. These documents also become natural check-points for approval and sign-off. Below are the web design documents I find most helpful:

* Creative briefs.

* Sitemaps.

* Content matrix.

* Wireframes.

* Notes on mockups.

7. Avoid Assumptions

With meetings few and far between and communication somewhat limited, it’s very easy to assume you “know” what your client expects or wants without actually asking. As designers, we are trained to believe that we know what is best. While this is often true when it comes to design decisions, it’s not always true about other parts of the web design process.

8. Be Accessible

When you are miles away, being accessible is incredibly important to maintain healthy client relationships. Make sure you’re quick to respond to emails and voicemails, and let your client know that they are welcome to contact you during business hours to discuss any questions or concerns they have. If you take days to respond to email or never answer their calls, they’ll start to wonder how far down they are on your priority list.

Clients need to know you take their project—and them—seriously. Being accessible makes it obvious that the work you’re doing for them is one of your top priorities.

9. Be Honest and Admit Mistakes

During the course of any project, no matter how great the communication is, there are bound to be a few things that go wrong or don’t meet client expectations. Most clients understand that setbacks are a natural part of the process. While your first reaction may be to cover up or make excuses for the mistake, it pays to be honest and carefully review the error (and the subsequent solution, which of course you took care of right away!) with your client.

10. Trust Your Instincts

You’ve heard it a thousand times before, but it’s important to trust your gut when working with clients remotely. Your intuition is a biological survival tool you shouldn’t ignore. Keep your feelers out and pay attention to that little voice in the back of your head. Even if everything appears to be moving smoothly, if you feel like something is off, you are probably right.

The best thing to do is address the issue directly, then move on. Simple as they seem, these proactive approaches to working remotely with clients can have a huge impact on the success of your projects. Incorporate a few into your workflow today and reap the benefits..