Time

As a designer, it's important to me to know what my customers want. Because of this, I joined a mailing list for digital scrapbooking customers. The entire idea behind the list is to offer a neutral place for customers to express their opinions and for designers to learn without feeling attacked. It's a sharing environment, and so far, it's been great.

Today, a customer made a comment that it sounds like many designers do not have the time to listen to their customers. Her comment implied that designers will not make the time to listen. Her comment got me thinking. This whole discussion started over a website. Some designers stated that they just don't have the time to check a website on a regular basis- they have other commitments. One customer came back with the 'now I hear that designers don't have the time to listen to their customers.'

I have an email sitting here that I haven't sent yet. I'm debating it. I don't want to sound like I'm flaming or anything, because I'm not. I'm pasting part of the email below, because it states exactly what I feel.

Every day, I see designers bending over backwards to help the customers. There are many designers who are on design teams or who frequent message boards and who answer questions and give feedback for layouts. We see it here just as much as we see it anywhere else- we saw it with the discussion over drop shadows, we saw it with the discussion of coming up with a list of standards, we see it whenever a customer makes a suggestion or has a complaint. Yet, when a designer stands up and says ‘what a second, I don’t have the time for that’, the designer is told that they don’t care about their customers or what their customers think. This just isn’t true.


I'm one of those designers who belongs to a design team and who tries to help customers out whenever I can. I don't enjoy being told that I shouldn't stand up and complain when I see something that I feel won't work. Hey- my opinion is just as valid as the next person's.

I don't think that the site will have the same effect as the mailing list. There are too many designers who won't join the site or who won't visit the site often enough to actually take into account the comments being made there. The way that it is set up now, more designers are able to see the comments and are able to act on them. They don't have to remember to go check out a site. They don't have the same risk of skimming messages or ignoring posts completely. I'm more likely to read every email from a group than I am every post on a message board. At least how fast I can access emails isn't dependent on bandwidth. If a site is slow loading, I'm less likely to visit that site. I know many customers who are like this.

I highly suggest that customers join this list. It's a great place to post your thoughts and feelings so that most designers see them. It'd be great if all designers joined the list. The intentions behind it are awesome- and I've learned so much in my short time there. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigiScrapCustomers/