Keeping Healthy Boundaries with Your Interior Design Clients
Have you ever received a late-evening text from a client and spent 10 minutes deciding how to reply?
Or have you ever had a client that just couldn’t make decisions?
Perhaps you’ve continued to work on behalf of a client who had an unpaid invoice?
I’ve experienced all three of these scenarios in my business and talked with countless designers who have as well. It happens.
But I found that once I started to set clear expectations with clients early, these uncomfortable (not so mention draining) experiences were infrequent and easy to address if they did come up.
My desire for you is to run your interior design business without hussle, stress, and overwhelm.
My hope is that you will use this as a guide to evaluate your relationship with boundary-setting and progress toward setting and holding boundaries with ease and confidence.
Today I’m hoping to make this as easy as 1-2-3.
#1 Decide what your boundaries are
#2 Establish how you’ll communicate your boundaries
#3 Commit to holding the line
#1 Decide What Your Boundaries Are
Are you okay with texting? How about evening meetings? (Your clients are very busy after all). 🤷♀️
To be perfectly honest, I cringe at the idea of evening meetings or texting with clients yet - some designers are perfectly okay with these methods. Some prefer evening meetings because they start their days later.
The truth is, Only YOU can decide what your limitations are around your time, money and energy.
Here are a few of my favorite policies that allow me to protect my time and calendar.
No Texting - Exceptions include quick logistics such as a client who is running late, should feel free to communicate that with text.
Phone Calls - Calls welcome during business hours only
Set Meetings Times - For me that’s Tue-Fri 8am-5pm. No Meetings on Mondays, Holidays, Weekends, or Evenings. (Actually I will meet with a client on evenings for 1.5x my rate. Then they usually find time during business hours to meet. :)
Timely Feedback - 3-5 days feedback on all presentations and deliverables or clients may lose their place in our calendar. Period.
Set Email Response Time - I tell clients typically they can expect an email response within 24 hours - except for holidays and weekends of course.
Project Dates - If a project goes on hold - through no fault of your own - you have the right to table your responsibilities if you’ve moved on to other projects. I realize in the new world we are living in, this may be harder to enforce. Use your judgment and your heart. If a client is indecisive (see #4) that’s very different from a project going on hold for health concerns or safety.
Prompt payments - Let your clients know when to expect invoices when they are due, how to handle objections, and consequences of unpaid invoices (i.e. all work will stop if prompt payment is not made).
#2 - Establish How You’ll Communicate Your Policies
Establish your policies early - All of your policies should be in your signed contract. Additionally, I recommend highlighting them in your Welcome Kit.
Communicate clearly - There should be no confusion about your policies. Once a client has received their Welcome Kit and signed their contract, it’s a good idea to check in and ask if they had a chance to review everything and what questions came up for them.
#3 Hold the Line
Your policies mean nothing if you don’t enforce them. If you have a “no texting” policy but you reply to a text, your client will continue to communicate via text.
If a client texts you design-related information, simply don’t reply. Instead respond via email the next business day (or even a few days) without mention of the text. This sends the message that email is your preferred communication platform and they won’t receive a prompt response by texting.
Enforcing your policies is admittedly uncomfortable at first, but the more you do it the less awkward it feels. People need to be given the road to go down and it’s up to you to give them the path.
Keeping healthy boundaries takes practice. The results when you make - and keep - boundaries are game-changing. It will allow you to run a business without burnout. Here is my challenge for you today.
CHALLENGE
If you DON’T have your boundary-setting policies in place, take 10 minutes, get out a sheet of paper and write out a few. Think about your communication policies, meeting policies, business hours, and payment policies.
If you DO have boundary-setting policies in place, ask yourself, “How good am I at enforcing my own policies”? Pay close attention to how you interact with clients over the next week or two and start to notice if you are holding that line or if you tend to waiver. If you aren’t enforcing your policies, ask yourself why? What do you think will happen if you enforce your own policy? Perhaps a journaling exercise will help you uncover what results you are afraid of if you don’t hold yourself and your clients accountable for how you work.
