Excellent points Cliff. I wholeheartedly agree. It’s up to us to make sure we adequately communicate to our clients and that we fully understand their needs. One of the things we do is use a video brief or some other similar document where the client outlines for us all the specifics of the project (e.g. objective, audience, look and feel, etc.)

If we as creatives don’t have good, healthy communication skills in asking the necessary questions to formulate whether we as creatives can meet the clients expectations, then we’ve failed in our craft.

As creatives, we should not only be continuing the development of our creative sides, but also developing our communications skills, learning such material as 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Crucial Conversations, etc. IMO, also taking a DiSC personality Profile is critical in understanding how we are in negotiating with potential clients and having the skill sin place to read other personality styles so we can address their particular needs in relating.

I’ve taken the DiSC analysis and having it broken down for me by a qualified person has helped me to understand how I relate to others who are of different personality styles and I’m able to adjust my relating style to meet their needs accordingly. It’s a worthwhile investment in developing the business negotiating side that can result in a Win-Win scenario.

My $0.02 worth.

Thanks!

Thanks for the comment Mark. I tend to like the coffee shops in the book stores. Particularly if they let you read the books in the shop without buying. Kinda like a library. You’re able to do that at places like Barnes and Noble and Borders (hmmm. Maybe that’s part of the reason why they’re having financial difficulties. 🙂

I changed the feed delivery back to full text. We’ll see how it goes for a while. I can’t guarantee I won’t change it back some day. Maybe I’ll take a poll. 🙂

Sorry… rude of me – forgot to say that I loved the thought on this one. Here in the UK there was a book shop that used to give free coffee to those that wanted to browse books. Sadly they added a Cafe Nero (like Starbucks) in the middle of it when the shop was taken over. I don’t drink coffee but for some reason that change ripped the heart out of the shop and I don’t go there much now.

Very smart Brian. Customer service is one of the few things left that can separate a company for the competition.

First, thanks for reading the book. 🙂 And I love that you give your clients a little extra. So smart. The little extra time or insignificant cost to you (e.g. a few extra DVDs, and hour more shooting time, a couple extra digital images, etc.) can yield a disproportionately higher client satisfaction rate Thanks for sharing.