When starting on a new project one of the first things to do is to write a short client profile. Understanding your client is the single most important factor to consider before embarking on putting pen to paper and starting to plan your designs. Some designers use a questionnaire form to make sure that they gather the right information without forgetting to ask anything, and this is probably a good idea certainly when starting out. I tend to nowadays just have a bullet point check list which means that some of my initial conversations with the client are less stilted and formal.
So what do you need to know about the client? Well a good place to start is making sure you have all their contact details, mobile numbers, email addresses etc, and remember to ask your customer which is the best way to contact them. There is no use at all merrily emailing information to a client only to find that they actually rarely use email and would prefer you to phone or write to them. Then you need to know some information about their lifestyle –do they live alone? Do they have children? Pets? Do they have lots of house guests? Do they enjoy watching TV or do they prefer to read? If possible try to ascertain what they do in their spare time so you can start to build up a picture of how they may use their house. For example if they love the outdoors, and have a passion for gardening, perhaps they will want a low maintenance home without too many expensive mod cons, so that they can focus more time and money on their passion.
Once you have gathered this information you will need to ask questions about the room they are asking you to redesign. What do they want to use it for, what time of the day will they use it, what are their storage requirements, technology requirements etc etc.
As you can see the questioning should by now have led you to getting to know your clients quite well by now. I usually finish up by asking them what have they already got that has to be included in the room, do they have any ideas of style or design that they want to be taken into account and finally is there anything they would absolutely hate to see me include in the design.
All this information goes into the front of my client file, and whenever I work on that client’s project I make sure I read it through first to ensure I am working towards fulfilling their requirements.
