Got Customers?
Take the case of “Jesse,” a brilliant web designer. It’s obvious that he has serious skills in design and can run circles around other web designers when it comes to talent. But oddly enough, he doesn’t have many customers.

On more than one occasion he tells his customers that he is “overworked” and complains about what his clients are requesting from him. He likes to lecture his customers on why their ideas won’t work or why the concepts are dumb. Added to this he is often condescending in his attitude towards his customers. He fails to keep his deadlines and is obstinate in working out solutions for his clients.

He wonders, “Why don’t I have more customers?”

Word of Mouth Spreads
There is an old axiom in business that states that for every customer that is dissatisfied with a service or product, that customer tells at least 10 others. And from these 10 people, they tell an additional number of friends or acquaintances, and so on.

In the city of San Francisco, the failure rate of restaurants is one of the highest in the nation. Why is this? The city has an abundance of eating establishments and as a result, clientele have many restaurants to choose from. Once a restaurant receives negative reviews or comments from customers, the restaurant in question is all but doomed. Bad news spreads quickly.

As a web designer, this is also the case. There are an abundance of web designers out there and to distinguish yourself from everyone else you have to offer outstanding customer service, excellent communication skills, and the ability to see the vision of what your customer wants.

Other Traits of Successful Web Designers
What do perspective clients want from their web designers? According to those who have responsibility for hiring them, some of the qualities they seek in a web design professional are:

* Meeting Deadlines - Clients want dependability when it comes to meeting deadlines. Your clients run businesses and are expected to deliver products and services when promised. It should be no different for you, as a web designer.

* Professionally Designed Product - There are a number of real case stories that tell about business owners who hire web designers and are presented with websites that are poorly constructed or amateurish. Make sure that your designs and coding are the best possible.

* Able to Make Changes in a Single Bound - No, you don’t have to be Superman, but it does help to be quick on your feet as far as last minute requests from your clients. Nothing drains away trust from your clients more quickly than constant excuses on why you can’t make alterations or needed changes.

* A Sense of Humor - While this quality won’t be taught in Web Design 101, it does help to have a good attitude and a sense of humor to put your clients at ease. Coding, by its nature, can be a very isolated endeavor. Just remember that web design is not just about programming and design– it is a business dealing with people.

* Keep the Tech-Speak Down to a Minimum - Your clients want good results. Try not to over do it on technical terms that they don’t understand. As an example, instead of saying, “This Java app is conflicting with the display routine on the main page,” perhaps you could rephrase it to “There’s a problem with the first page on the website but it should be easy to fix.” Remember, your clients are just regular people. Communicate to them as non-web designers.

Now You Know
Successful web design is a combination of talent, communication, and good people skills. Talent can always be improved upon. Clear communication with your clients is crucial in producing a good product. Good people skills may be the difference between getting a web design project or not.

It’s important to get a good graphic design education, but don’t forget about honing the qualities of how to get along with people.