Episode #11 Transcription - Managing Client Expectations During Renovation

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word of mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level, and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it,  occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and helps you transform your clients' lives. You can do this. 

Hello, my beautiful friend. And welcome back to another podcast episode. I hope you're having a fabulous, fabulous week. And I am really excited about today's topic. Today we are talking about handling client expectations during a renovation. Now, this is one of those things that I will admit, we have refined over and over and over the years because with every project, we learn something new about what we could do differently to get ahead of issues, how to prevent them, how to handle them when they happen. And I'm not saying it's perfect. Today, we're always learning we're always refining. But over the years, we've learned a few things. And so today I just wanted to give kind of a brain dump of like, what are some of the ways that we can help our clients have a better experience through a renovation process? So you know why is so important? I always like to start with why right? Well, one thing is, I think we tend to forget that clients don't do this every day. This is brand new for them. Now, I've worked with clients who've built custom homes, they've been through renovations before, that sort of thing. But this is a whole new project for most are a whole new experience for most people. And even if they have done it before, it's not like they do it every day, they've had one experience. And this is just a different experience. This is a new opportunity. So keep in mind that so much of what we do is second nature and we expect certain things to happen. But clients don't always expect it. So just keep that in mind. It is stressful. 

Yes, being able to do renovation is a privilege. And there have been times where I've thought to myself, you know, like oh my gosh, if they really they only understood what a privilege it is to be able to do what they're doing. You know, that's not being very empathetic. If I'm being honest, I we have to remember that whether somebody is living in a home or not, whether this is a second home, it doesn't matter. It's still stressful, it's their money, it's their home, especially if you're a residential designer. And all in all, it's just a very personal experience. So keep those things in mind when it comes to handling your clients expectations through innovation. And I think you'll find better results. 

So how do I do this? Well, first, it starts at the beginning of design. You want to start by building a great relationship with your client, one that is open and honest, its communicative and most of all, it's direct. You You need to be comfortable having hard conversations, you need to be comfortable talking about money, you need to be comfortable. Being the bearer of bad news, whether or not it's your fault. You need to be able to have direct and frank conversations that are honest, clear and communicative. So keep this in mind that when you do this that this will translate into more business in The future through referrals, or future projects, I can't emphasize the importance of this enough for you. 

Next, you want to set goals for the timeline. But remind your clients that they're things that you just simply can't control. I always tell my kids, I think about this, not that I'm treating my clients like my children, but I tell my kids all the time, you can't control other people's behavior, but you can control how you respond. And then in construction work and renovations or, or new construction or building, you as a designer can control some of the issues that are going to come up such as back orders or damages, but you can't control how you respond to them. And I think it's really important that you set these goals for a timeline so that they have that to work towards, but know that there may be things that come up along the way. And we need to maybe reset that goal line. 

Next normalize issues. Remember, clients don't do this every day, when you normalize issues that come up, it helps to remind clients that this isn't a house of cards, this one issue usually isn't going to affect the whole project. So tell them to pick up, tell your client, you know, pick up any shelter magazine and actually read the articles. Publishers love to share the juicy stories of problems that arise in projects and how designers and the build teams, creatively solve them. Remind them that things will come up. If you're in a renovation project, it's usually one of the first things that happened during demo.. And if you can get past the demo without any major surprises or hiccups, you're usually in pretty good shape. Not always the case. But if there's going to be a big surprise, it's usually at that point. But this is why remind them that this is why they have the team in place, you are professionals and you troubleshoot for a living, you've seen it all you're their agent to find creative solutions when things do come up. So normalizing issues, you know, there's going to be stuff that you're gonna be like, who this is going to be a tough one to figure out, you know, I mean, I'm just I'm gonna.

I'm thinking of one example, off the top of my head, we had a project in Texas, during the freeze that happened in February house was unoccupied. The water was turned off, but still somehow pipes burst and there was brand new flooring brand new custom cabinetry installed. And they did have to replace a couple of pieces of cabinetry, but at first it just seemed like so overwhelming that it it was like, Oh my gosh, what is this is what does this mean for this project? And when you take a minute, you're like, Okay, we're just gonna, we're just gonna figure it out. We're just gonna keep going, you know? So, normalizing issues is a big part of managing expectations. 

All right, next great communication. And this is, you know, has to do not only with frequency but how you communicate. And I can't stress enough to maintain regular communication. And I'd say weekly at least you don't want to you don't want to overwhelm your clients with communications. I do believe in the weekly email but every now and then you do have to,you know, communicate with him more frequently than that. But when issues come up, they will feel more supported than if they haven't heard from you in two weeks or three weeks. Over communicate, get in front of their questions, assume they know nothing. Always be telling your clients what to expect. So when I say over communicate, I'm not talking about frequency, I'm talking about content community, there may be things that come that seem obvious to you that aren't always obvious to a client. So if you can get in front of those questions, assume they know nothing, be, and always be telling them what to expect. Next, you'll, you'll be in a better place. 

And this includes, you know, don't be afraid to talk about the budget, it can be hard at first, but the results of not talking about the budget. And certainly at this point, you've been talking about budget the whole time, right? This should never be the first time you're talking about budget. We talked about budgets early and often I say, but, you know, there's gonna be budgetary things that you're gonna need to talk about during construction as well. Don't be afraid to talk about that. It can be hard, but the results of not talking about the budget will be way harder than if you've communicated clearly and set expectations around the budget ahead of time. What's next PDF, so we I love having these in my business. 

What's next PDFs are one page PDFs that you can present to your client at various stages of a project. These are standardized for all projects, so you're not recreating them for every project. But here are a couple that you might think about putting together for your business. Number one at the presentation. So once you've presented to the client, one of the big questions always is what's next. Okay, so detail that in a PDF that you present to them, there's what's next PDFs that you might provide earlier than this. But since we're talking about the construction process, right now, that's what I'm focusing on. Another one might be at the construction kickoff meeting. So have you and your contractor established, you know, hours when people will be there working. And when people will be wrapped up those kinds of things. Prior to the installation, you might have another what to expect PDF that you presented them at that point, as well as after installation. So what's next PDFs might be a really good thing for you to spend a minute creating so that you have those ready to go for every stage of the process. All right. 

And finally, be a good listener. Even if a client isn't right about something, sometimes they just need to be heard. Your expertise matters. But make sure you're asking good questions to get to the heart of issues. Before trying to problem solve. You want to make sure that you're showing empathy for your clients concerns, remind your clients that you have their best interest at heart and that you are here to help them see things through to the end, there's the phrase, if it's true for them, it's true. If your client perceives you are responsible for a certain thing, you might not agree. But rather than trying to be right, it might be better to just acknowledge their perspective and focus on problem solving, rather than trying to prove to them that you weren't the one at fault. And if you can do that, and you can come up with a creative solution and help them work through an issue or even see things differently, you're gonna be so much better off, but that takes really good listening. So renovations are hard, especially if you have clients living in a part of a renovation. Anytime you can avoid that I would but it's not always possible. And I totally get that. 

So just to recap, you want to start from the very beginning of a design establishing a great relationship with your client, one that's built on trust, setting goals for the timeframe, but being flexible enough to move that goalposts if you need to normalizing issues, being a great communicator in terms of frequency, and the content and the level of detail that you're providing, and making sure that you are being an excellent listener. So I'm sure there are more things that you can do to help your clients in handling and setting expectations for your clients during renovations. But I hope this at least gives you a jumping off place. And maybe some ideas for ways that you can improve your communication with clients, and let them know that they're supported and that you're there to support them. You're there to be their creative problem solver, and it's going to be so worth it in the end and just treat those little hiccups that come along as just part of the deal. 

So,alright, thanks for hanging out with me today. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app. And leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help, please know, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time.