Page 54 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - April 2017

InterIor DesIgn Focus

Challenging Clients

experience during the project. “I tell them, ‘First make the best of a bad situation? “For that less-
you will love me’ [at the consultation], then you than-positive experience client, I try to shower

will hate me [in the middle of the project when them with love and a ention,” Baron commented.
things go wrong], and then you will love me again “I try to get to the bo om of [the problem]. Is it

[when the project is complete]. I won’t take it per- that they’re in over their head, even though they
sonally. They’re only going to hate me for a minute, told me they knew they were over their budget?”

but by saying it at the outset, they know what to Unfortunately, there are times when an interior

“We all play expect,” he stated.
designer has to “ re” a client. “Before that hap-
Baron’s clients appreciate her candor, but she pens, I give warnings,” Jenkins noted. “For many

marriage also knows when to be diplomatic. “I’m very out people who have never hired a designer before,
there and have opinions on everything. My clients it’s a new experience to them. We – the designer –
therapist
like that about me, but I know they also need to already know how the project is going to turn out,

on almost feel heard,” she says. “For example, I had a client so we don’t have that anxiety. You have to provide
couple who were emphatic that they wanted to boundaries and tell them nicely, ‘When you do

all of our keep the [awful] dining table. Now if I told them that – for example, micro-manage – it makes me
right o the bat that the table wouldn’t work, they feel this way.’”
jobs. Just
would be ghting me every day about it. Instead, That said, it’s important to check your ego at the

don’t pit I let them come to that conclusion themselves as door. “You have to be extremely humble to do this
we went along with the project.”
job. You can’t be a diva. They can be a diva, since

one against they write the check. However if they start disre-
FirinG a clienT
specting my humanity, I will bow out of a project,”
the other.”
Despite one’s best e orts to pay a ention to sig- he noted.

nals, “sometimes the best of us can get married to What’s the best way to “break up” with a client?
— Robin Baron
the wrong client,” Jenkins cautioned. How do you
It’s not that di erent from a romantic relationship.

“I tell them that we have di erent ideas of how
the project will go, and ‘I’ll leave the color boards

and oor plans that you paid for with you and will

let you explore doing your vision on your own,’”
Jenkins said.

Baron, too, prefers a gracious exit — “except if
someone disrespects my sta , then that’s it. I’ve

had to re three clients in my life; two were disre-

spectful to my sta and one was unable to make a
single decision in two years.”

reFereeinG spouses

Every interior designer has been in the awkward

position of trying to please two bosses: speci cally
the husband and wife in the client relationship.

“Part of my job is identifying who the ‘power
player’ is in the relationship. Sometimes it’s him,

sometimes it’s her, and sometimes it’s both of them,”

Baron stated. “I always ask right up front, ‘Who
makes the decisions?’ If they say they both do, then

I need both of them to sign o on everything and
they both have to be at each client meeting.”

The trouble starts when the spouses don’t

agree. “We all play marriage therapist on almost
all of our jobs,” Baron quipped. “Just don’t pit one

against the other.” A contentious relationship be-
tween the clients requires delicate handling.


52 enLIGHTenment Magazine | april 2017
www.enlightenmentmag.com