Solving problems with the customer, or is the customer always right?

Inspired by the article from the personal experience of the project manager. Indeed, there are situations when customers come across "complex", that is, intractable, disgruntled to everyone, climbing into all aspects of creating websites, and having their own often incorrect opinion, which they defend as if their lives depend on it. Such people are tenderly called "demanding". So, let's try to figure out how to deal with such customers, whether to listen to them, and most importantly, how to avoid these problems altogether. Let the situation be the following: the studio made a good design (it is important that the design is really good, otherwise the customer is not demanding, but simply reasonable), and the customer does not accept it, because “ these letters must be larger, the background must be yellow, and there should be a chick with a mobile . " The situation is also taken from the above article.

Well, chick, so chick, let it be.

The first thing that comes to mind is to satisfy the customer's awakened artistic thirst, and make the design that he wants. Of course, more often than not, these are additional costs, the impossibility of sticking a project into a partnership, and a weekly depression, from a sense of unfulfilled public debt. It depends a lot on the designer, can he talentedly and skillfully translate crazy ideas into a good design? I also saw yellow designs that looked great, and there was a lot of “chicks” with telephones.
Another thing is that this approach, although it has the right to life, is fundamentally wrong. Still, the project manager is the leader to create the project. He should invent a site, see and feel it. Its' his job. I personally deeply doubt that the customer understands design better than the manager and designer. So if you allow the customer to dictate the terms of the game (if, of course, he dictates them incorrectly), then the site will be pretty mediocre.

Defend your opinion.

In my opinion, this option is much more correct, another thing is that it is not always possible. There is 50 to 50, who will beat anyone, either the oratorical ability of the manager or the obstinacy of the customer will win, and the customers are VERY stubborn. It is necessary to put pressure on the fact that the project manager and designer (and for persuasiveness you can assign an art director, and come up with a couple more posts with the prefixes “design” and “art”), they know better what a design should be, and in general, they ate on the creation of sites. Do not be afraid to explain to the client that he doesn’t understand the design, don’t be afraid to offend him, because he really doesn’t understand it, just like the project manager of the studio doesn’t understand the customer’s business (besides what you need to know to create quality site). If you still hear the stubborn "Do not like", explain that your task is to attract not potential customers to the site, and if he doesn’t like the design, it doesn’t mean that the design doesn’t like the rest (again I’ll make a reservation, the design should be good and the customer is stubborn and wrong).
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How to prevent this.

And of course, the most correct decision is to prevent such a situation altogether, for which it is necessary to “work out” the customer before creating the first layout. For such purposes, there are special questionnaires (briefs, questionnaires) that will fill the client, and thanks to which you will have a complete understanding of what the customer needs. I will share with you some good and necessary questions that should be present in such a brief, and make a reservation that the authorship is not mine.
Does the company have a corporate identity?
What style should be designed?

• conservative, strict;
• modern, technological;
• specifics, using illustrations related to the scope of the company;
• abstraction;
• bright, entertaining;
• informational (large amounts of information on the pages);
• other (specify)

What colors are desirable or mandatory for use. Also indicate unwanted colors.
Name three sites whose design you think is the most successful and harmonious. Specify the criteria by which you rated these sites. Comments
What are three sites, the design of which, despite the accuracy and technical clarity of implementation, seems to you unsuccessful The criteria by which you rated these sites. Comments
Of course, this is not the whole brief, it should also include a functional requirement, general information, and a couple of other, more banal design questions.
After filling out the brief with a client, you will have enough information to create a good design based on it, or to cancel the order immediately. And if the client once again says “Not this,” just stick his nose in this very brief, and see if he finds the answer.