Let's talk about the challenges that every website designer and developer has faced at one time or another: those “pain in the arse” clients who constantly try to override your creative process, push for shortcuts, or ignore the boundaries you’ve set.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie!

I’m getting honest about what it feels like when a project just isn’t sitting right—when your heart drops at another problematic email and you start questioning your own approach, especially as everyone else seems to be breezing through perfect testimonials and happy launches.

I’ll share my practical strategies for protecting your boundaries, saying a firm “no” to unethical requests (like copying someone else’s design), and managing difficult clients who want you to queue-jump or abandon your process.

You’ll hear some real stories from my own experience, including how to handle disagreements over design decisions, document your advice, and know when it’s time to offboard a client altogether.

If you’ve ever lost sleep over a challenging project or wondered how to keep your business running smoothly without sacrificing your sanity, this episode is especially for you.

Listen in and let’s talk about how to thrive as a web designer, even when you’re dealing with the trickiest clients.

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Dealing with Overbearing Clients

04:36 Client Feedback During Design Process

07:23 Client Boundaries and Collaboration

10:15 "Importance of Client Communication"

13:40 Avoid Problem Clients' Retainers

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Resources

If a client is asking you to queue jump, then it's

a pretty big red flag. If you break your

boundaries, first of all, you'll just feel terrible about the whole project.

It's not you, it's those clients.

You know that feeling you get where your heart drops when you receive the email

from the client and they made some suggestions for the website

design, or when you feel everything's

kind of not going as well and you're not sure why.

We're here to talk about this today.

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple. This is

Holly Christie hosting the podcast to help you website

designers and developers have a much better

web design career. Because, trust me, it doesn't matter how well

it starts off, at some point we'll hit that bump on the road.

And today we're talking about what happens when the

clients decide that they are going to overrule you during the

website design process. Because we've all been there,

we've all heard the, oh, just make it look like this, or that doesn't feel

quite right, or I have a friend who has mocked

up this or that, and it is so

incredibly frustrating. But it can also feel quite

alienating, particularly if we're in those spaces where we're seeing other people

produce project after project, testimonial after testimonial,

and it looks like everything is going amazingly

for them and you're there with your sleepless nights, hanging on by

your fingernails, thinking, what am I doing wrong? It's not you, it's

those clients. Anyway, let's crack straight into it.

So when you have a client who tries to override the

project for whatever way or reason that they

are doing it, and as said in the intro, this could be

that they want to lead the design, which

is always a bit of an iffy thing, but sometimes they want to

do that. It could be that they've seen something on someone else's

website. Whatever it is, the first, first thing that you

need to do is work out

if what they're trying to override this design. And this

process about actually aligns with how you work as

well. So what I mean by that is I have a really

strong we do not rip off other people's work

policy. So every design someone gets from my

websites is created for them. And

I, whilst we'll all use inspiration of previous designs or

other designs or something like that, if someone says to me, could you copy

this design? It is an out and out. No, no, I cannot. It doesn't

align with my work. If a Client repeatedly comes up with that

saying, I just want it to look like this. We want an exact copy of

this. That is the point where we need to off board that client

and to say to them, this isn't working out. This

isn't how I work. I have this covered in

my terms and conditions. It says, you know, we will not copy other people's work.

If you don't have your terms and conditions sorted out, I can

help you out with that. Just go along to websitesmadesimple.co.uk

and my website Designer's Contract pack, which is my best selling

product for a reason. It has editable contracts

for terms of service contracts, everything and anything you need for

running your web design business, it is here in the Web Designers contract package.

Either refer to your own terms of service or get these whipped up very

quickly and explain it is immoral and you would be ripping off

someone else's work. Someone's already been paid for that. You also do not

want to end up in a lawsuit because when your client says copy

this, you don't know who owns the copyright to that work. So it's an out

and out. No. And usually I will say to someone,

well, I could produce something similar to that, but it would be produced

for you, so it wouldn't be an exact copy. We don't do that

at this Demanding Life or Websites Made simple either. That's

the first thing. If they're just saying I would like something like this,

find out what it is they like about it and then you can use that

to inform the design. And if you are

not sure or not very tight on your design process again,

hop over to the website and I've got loads of resources there

which will help you kind of really nail your web design process as well.

But you should be having points during the website design

where your clients do get to check in and they get to give you feedback

on the website. Do not go and build an entire

website and then show it to them at the end. Make sure that they do

have this back and forth on the way through. It will make it much easier

for you. But it does need to be a controlled back and forth. It can't

be that they can just drop a message anytime you do need set times that

you speak to a each other around them.

So the next thing is if it's just that they have a set idea of

design and it's not really the way that

you design, but you also know that the website's not going to be

signed off without this part of the design being in

there, then sometimes you just

gotta get on with it and do it. You know, the client is the one

who has to live with it, not you. If it's just a

really crappy design. Like I had a client who they were really lovely

and we've got a great working relationship and I do still manage their website and

everything, but they very much wanted to lead the design. And it wasn't

a design that I particularly wanted to put my name to, but the

only way we were going to get this website project over the line was if

I did build it out this way. So that's what I did. And

I just removed the site credits. So it doesn't tell you who built the website

there. It's not on my portfolio. The client loves it.

That's the most important thing there. As I say, the first thing work

out is it moral issue. If it is, don't do it. And

if it isn't, then kind of put up and shut up, build it

and move on. Something really important when a

client is overriding, because they don't always just override in

the design areas, they can try and override in

other areas of the contract as well. So the first thing is

really do not break your boundaries around timescales and

around payments. You have those boundaries there for a reason.

We have the boundaries of the timescales so that we know that we can

deliver the project in its entirety within that time

and still be able to do the other things that we need to do within

our businesses. And that could be the marketing, it could be looking at

other projects. I am always working on more than one project at a time, so

I can't necessarily, necessarily rush something and I can't queue jump

a project. And if a client is asking you to

queue jump, then it's a pretty big red flag.

And one of the things you'll find is if you break your boundaries, first

of all, you'll just feel terrible about the whole project. It just won't sit

right with you. But also, the client will most

likely be trying to get you to break other boundaries around stuff

as well. So. So really stick to your guns. I have some

terminology that I use for clients and I often say to

them, I want us to have a really good working relationship. In fact, that

is like one of the first things at the beginning of my terms of service.

I want us to have a really good relationship. And the way that I can

ensure that we do that is if we stick to the process that

I've mapped out. I'VE been a web designer for a long time

and I know that this is going to give a really meaningful experience

for you and that's it. And if they push back on that,

it's up to you. Whether you reply, you've said your part and it's time

just to move on, or it's time if they keep pushing

back, it might be worth considering whether they are the right client for you.

And I know that it can be really frightening offloading clients

or choosing not to work with someone, especially because sometimes

work can feel quite sporadic. But it is never worth

working with clients who keep you up at night. Clients who try to

break boundaries around payment. No,

it's just that's a flat out no for me because if

they've engaged you and they've chosen to prioritise their

website build, then whatever comes up next isn't

your problem. There are a couple of things where obviously if there was a

family bereavement, you might want to flex your

payment terms for them. But really, to be

careful with this one, I sometimes

offer clients payment plans if I know that they would maybe

struggle to come up with the payment at the time. Again, you can find the

payment plan template in the website designer's contract pack

and it's a binding document. It says what everyone's going

to set up to do. And sometimes I've even had clients

who had an unexpected issue and we said,

okay, well let's extend the payment plan and make the payments as small,

smaller amount until it's paid off. But remember, just as much

as they need to organize their business finances, you need

to organize yours. And you can't do that if you are flexing on those

payment terms. So work out what works for you and

then be watertight with your boundaries around them.

So if you push back with clients, particularly when it's design work,

but with kind of anything that comes up within the project, make sure you

explain your thinking to them because often if it's

like a flat out, nope, we're not doing that, bye. That's where

people like developers can get a really bad reputation where

people say my developer's been ghosting me or I

can't get an answer for them. And often they've actually had the answer from the

developer. The answer's been no and there's been

no like explanation around that no.

So the client doesn't really understand a computer and then they think, oh, the

devs just, you know, kind of ghosting me. And it's not the case at all.

I always like to explain why I am doing something and why I'm not

going to be doing something as well. And it makes for a much better

relationship with the clients. Because if you think information is power

and if we give the client that information,

it gives them the power there to understand.

When they understand, they usually always end up

having a really good relationship with the person who's explaining it to them as well.

And I often find that if I am saying no to a client about something

and I give my explanation as to why, they accept it really well, and we

can move forward really well if they go against your advice,

make sure you put it in writing, even if it's

just an email outlining the conversation.

I've spoken before on the podcast about tricky clients that I've had

and there was one particular tricky client who

I built her website for her and all

was well. And we got to the point of first draft and I

repeatedly said to her, I really think you should have individual service

pages. And she kept saying no, she wanted all the services

on one page. And I said to her, what about if we

even just bundled these services and, you know, just had a couple of pages and

we put these ones together and these ones together. And she said no.

So I came back to her with an email and I said,

I just wanted to reiterate the importance of having

individual service pages. It will really help with your SEO, it will help

with the customer user experience, all of this. She came back,

she said no, she just wanted it on one page. So

after the website was launched a little while later, she was

getting inquiries, but she wasn't getting the kind of inquiries that she

wanted and they were falling down at the invoicing stage. And she consulted an

SEO company and the first thing that they said was, you need

individual service pages. So she then came back to me and said,

you didn't do the job properly, you didn't do the build properly. And

I said to her, but I did, and I put it in writing that I

advised this for you. And she said to me,

oh, well, I thought it would be a better user experience to have all the

services on one page. And so I came back and I said, I'm an

award winning website designer who specifically won an award in user

experience and user journeys. Why did you think I'd advise you wrongly?

And she argued just a little bit. And I was able to provide the

evidence that I had recommended repeatedly that she had these

individual pages. So it wasn't an easy experience. And

luckily the website had been built and Finished. So I didn't need to worry about

off boarding her. But it was real

vital information in an experience about saying always, always put it

in writing. If you are clashing a little bit on

the way forward with the clients,

these clients as well, like I was saying about this particular

one, didn't stay on on retainer afterwards. And the one thing I would

say is if you have a clash with clients during

the website build where they're trying to override you,

they are not the clients you want to keep on a retainer. I know that

the hard work is in getting the client on board in the first place.

I get it. I really, really get it. I promise I did. And then you

have them and you, they spend the money with you and you know, you build

this great website. And so the easiest thing in the world is to say, stay

with me, I'll manage a website. It's regular money, that's great.

But if you have had issues with them during the build process, I promise you

it is not worth it. The easiest way is just to not offer them a

retainer. They can stay on for hosting and maintenance

or they can stay on for maintenance only and self host it. And there have

been a couple of times where I haven't offered that option because the

relationship with the client feels like it just hasn't been there.

And so at the end say, you know, please let me know what you'd like

to do with hosting if you already have hosting set up, or I can recommend

and set you up with your own hosting and instructions on how

to maintain the website will be provided in your website user

manual. Or if you'd rather have a professional maintain it for you, I can

recommend a couple of people who are great at this and those people will

have a different working relationship with your clients. So you don't need to worry about

off boarding someone who's been a bit of a nightmare. And if

not, just set them up with their hosting and go on their way. And if

they do come back and say, oh, well, I see that you offboard this.

It is okay to say it's been great building your website for you.

I'm pleased with the results, but I didn't feel like our working experience was that

great. And I want you to have a really good working experience with someone and

therefore I recommend this person. Usually people just don't push back with

that. So that is me for this

session. I hope you have liked this episode. It feels very

honest. We all have had these experiences. I

would to love, love to hear from you. I would love to hear your experiences,

so do drop over to websitesmadesimple.co.uk

and let me know your horror stories of

when a client has overridden you. That's all for now. See you

next.