Hey Guys! I’ve been talking with designers recently about the workflow they use to get work done for clients. And one of them said that they limit the number of changes. For example, when you show the clients your first version, they would ask for a change. And after you do that change, you show them the new version of your design, and so on. But note that, according to this method, the designer would limit the number of revisions he/she can do for this client.
Although this idea seems valid, I’m not sure how that would help designers improve their reputation and get more clients. Let’s say for example a designer only do 2 rounds of revisions. After the last round, the client asked for another change, and the designer refused to do it. What would the client think of this designer then?
So my question is, is this a well-known, used method to deal with clients. And if so what’s the main advantage of using it (other than protecting the designer from doing endless work for the clients). Also, do I fully understand this idea or I’ve missed something there?
That’s not its purpose. It’s purpose is to prevent a client from running you back and forth to/from the proverbial “drawing board” in an endless loop as their whims swirl in the wind.
I’ll do any number of revision rounds for my clients, but only the first 3 are included in the price as-quoted. That’s how I play the limit. After 3 rounds, subsequent rounds are subject to up-charge, and my contract states it up-front.
That is the main reason for it. Time is money, and when you’ve agreed on a price, every extra hour spent on a project beyond what was anticipated is money lost. Limiting the number of revisions (beyond which extra fees are incurred) serves as an incentive for clients to be efficient and think things through rather than dragging out jobs with endless little tweaks, changes and add-ons.
Thanks so much for your answer, Just-B – it’s pretty clear to me now. So the main confusion for me was that I didn’t think that designers would charge extra for more changes. I thought that they would just shut down the project, send the client the last version, and move on to another client. The reason I asked this question, btw, is because one of my clients of unblur.io is asking to include this feature so that they can limit the number of revisions. But they forgot to mention that they need a way to resume the project if the client agreed on paying extra fees. Thanks again for this clear answer :).
It’s not usually a good idea to shut things down (unless you want to fire a client). Clients have a tendency to come back (which is good) needing changes, updates, add-ons and fixes. Placing a limited number of revisions paragraph into the contract helps make it clear that these kinds of extras will incur additional fees. (In my standard contract, it’s a hourly rate that kicks in.)