Responding to A Request

My son is in Kindergarten. At his first three-way conference his teacher said he was doing great. Except for one thing. Sometimes he has trouble following instructions, i.e. he’s either selectively hearing or he’s distracted by all of the exciting and wondrous things his five-year-old self is discovering. She recommended that when he’s not listening at home to just utter the phrase, “responding to a request” (it actually works).

As adults, when a child is disagreeable or slow to respond it can be frustrating. I can’t speak for everyone, but being ignored or asked over and over, “why?”, makes me feel like what I’m asking isn’t important and it makes me feel disrespected. But, because I’m adult, I have to take the high road and calmly ask for a response to my request, instead of yelling at him to respect my authority and obey me.

It kind of reminds me of how a customer feels when their service provider ignores, scoffs at or otherwise disregards questions, ideas and suggestions.

Not to say that every theory, scheme and inquiry a customer makes is based on good reasoning. Ideas that fly in the face of every best practice aren’t uncommon in a relatively new industry with rapidly changing technology. Even if we make our living developing software for the web, we have to stay on top of our profession by doing almost constant research and learning. So, is it really a surprise that those who come to us for our expertise may have opinions about websites that aren’t informed?

How we react to requests can either gain respect and integrity or it can compromise our professionalism. How we respond to suggestions that we recommend against can make or break a relationship. It can also greatly influence the outcome of a project. Understanding what the client is trying to accomplish and coming up with a good strategy to meet those goals can make all the difference in your success or failure.

Over the years I’ve worked with all kinds of individuals, businesses, non-profit agencies and educational bodies. I’ve worked with people at all different levels of technical understanding, with varying levels of success. I’ve found that the success or failure of a web project does not depend on the client’s understanding of the medium. It depends on your ability to communicate with each other and the level of trust your client has in you.

It is not the client’s job, for example, to know why it’s not a good idea to turn their logo into an animated .gif, or put a slogan in red blinking text. It’s our job to educate and provide alternatives.

Dig a bit deeper into where those little suggestions are coming from. If you show the client you have a genuine interest in solving their problems, they’ll know you have their back. They’ll get why their request isn’t in their best interest, and even better, they’ll trust you to come up with an idea that meets their goals while conforming to your technical sensibilities.