Trust is something that has to be earned. I’m a trusting person by nature, but I also think that I have a very good intuition when it comes to people. For a lot of people, when you first meet somebody, you can’t be expected to automatically trust them.
As your interior designers, we are asking for you to believe in us and trust us right away, which we understand isn’t exactly natural for everybody. Today I want to explain how we spend time building trust with our clients, so much so that we have clients that return to us for their new home designs each time.
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them” – Ernest Hemingway
How we build client trust – the little things
It starts with the little things. Always showing up on time when we say we will. We will always be there to answer calls, emails and messages. The important word in that sentence is the word ‘always’. I am always available to my clients during working hours, you are never kept at arm’s length. After time, this ongoing commitment to communication and building firm relationships between us and our clients, creates long-lasting, mutual trust.
Consistency is key
Everybody in the MSID studio follows the same processes, protocols, systems and policies that I created and implemented some years ago, based on my extensive design and relationship management experience. We thoroughly outline, explain and agree on our processes with our interior design clients before we start any project, and when we demonstrate that we follow through with this every step of the way, this leads to trust. Find out more about The Importance of Following a Design Process.
Trusting the design process
I am flattered that my reputation as a high-end interior designer in Sydney often precedes me and most clients naturally find themselves trusting in us as a business to work with. But that does not always mean that they have the same confidence and trust when it comes to our design for them. When they hear that we will take a brief and will deliver to them a final design two months later, there is often a natural hesitation of ‘what if I don’t like the final design?’.
Know that I have been doing this for many years now, for a wonderful variety of clients, all with their own unique tastes, styles, requirements and budgets. During our initial consultation, I make sure to take a meticulous brief, and discuss the scope of work, providing the deep insight needed to create the designs for a fantastic outcome.
Very rarely do we have to change many elements of a design, if any, once we present it to our clients. Most of our clients are working with us because they have been impressed or intrigued by our previous work and they like what we do. Naturally of course, it is a process, and if we need to tweak things after our meeting we will, but have never had to completely start from scratch and deliver a full design.
Credibility is important
Interior designers are like any other professional industry; we each have our own unique way of working, often refined as a result of decades of experience.
Credibility is a major factor in considering whether or not my clients can trust me to work with them, as a business owner and as a designer. My credibility can be easily found when reading any of my client testimonials, our clients that have worked with us on multiple projects spanning many years, and our glowing reviews online.
The credibility of a business or interior designer should be one of the most important consideration factors when deciding who you would like to work with. For example, for clients that I work with, I ask for a retainer as part of their agreement. The retainer provides sufficient funds to allow MSID, if necessary, to purchase goods, services and manage project expenses on the client’s behalf. Our clients not only understand the need for this but are also grateful not to need to worry about the finer details being taken care of, so it is paid in good faith. With credibility on my side, clients respect our process.
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