5 tips to help graphic designers provide great customer service

We often think of customer service as one of those things you look for when going into a shop or dealing with a large company, but even a freelance graphic designer can aim to give their clients a good customer experience.

For this blog post have listed 5 simple things we can do to provide our clients with good customer service, ensuring they want to work with us again and again.

1) RESPOND TO EMAILS AND MESSAGES QUICKLY
The one thing that clients hate most is waiting answers. Whilst most of us freelancers tend to be self employed and not have an army of assistants, we can take advantage of mobile technology to enable us to respond promptly. It doesn’t have to be a complete response, sometimes a quick “thank you for your email, I’ll get back to you later today with an answer” is enough. Which brings me neatly onto to tip number 2…

2) ALWAYS KEEP THE CLIENT UPDATED
This is particularly important when working on large or longterm projects. Give clients updates on the progress and let them know that you’re still on target to meet the deadline. You don’t need to bombard them with detailed emails all the time but just a little progress report now and then helps keep their mind at ease and is good practice.

3) HIGHLIGHT TYPOS AND ERRORS TO THE CLIENT
There is a saying in design, “not just a crayon pusher”! It means don’t just plop in text with errors and typos thinking to yourself, “it’s not my problem, I’m just the designer”. Let the client know of errors and check if they’d like it correcting. Whilst it may not be a graphic designers place to edit someone else's words, it’s good customer service to highlight it to the client so they can be corrected before they are published.

4) ALWAYS BE HONEST
Always tell the client if you can’t achieve a deadline or if a project is more complex than you thought. If you suddenly realise it’s more work than you estimated or will take longer then pick up the phone and talk to the client to let them know. People are often grateful for your honesty and it will help you both review the situation and find the best solution.

5) GO THE EXTRA MILE
Sometimes it’s the small things that make a difference. Try to exceed your clients expectations. Delivering artwork ahead of deadline or providing them with some ideas of your own for a project all help add a bit of value to the service you’re providing.