If you work for clients, you will not always agree with how they want things done. Sometimes, it will just be a matter of personal choice so you stay quiet and do things their way. Other times, your professional experience and knowledge leads you to believe the client would be better off following your way.

So how do you tell a valued client that you disagree with their request?

Let’s take a simplified situation - the client asks for bright red and you think pale blue is a better option.

The first response to come to mind may be “Bright red won’t work so I’m going to use pale blue for you.”

However, the client is likely to be annoyed at being told they’re wrong and you’re making the decision. Result? They will dig their heels in and insist you use bright red without further discussion - or just find another supplier.

Another response may be “Pale blue is best and applies in 90% of cases” and just going ahead with pale blue. Taking control of the project like that shows no respect for your client and may just end your relationship.

Here are some better ways to approach your client:

• Bright red would certainly attract attention! However, did you know that colour experts consider red to mean…?
• Is there a particular reason you want it bright red?
• I will do it in bright red, but first I wanted to make sure you know you have a choice. The alternative is pale blue, which has the advantages of …
• I have found an example of bright red for you, and a pale blue example as a comparison. I think the pale blue works better because… What do you think of them both?
• That’s an interesting thought - I would never have considered bright red for this project. To me, bright red doesn’t always work because…
• Based on my experience, bright red is less effective than pale blue because… Would you like me to try both colours so you can see the difference?

If you handle it politely and with respect, your client will appreciate you speaking up and sharing your expertise - after all, that’s why they are using your services! You may still have to complete the project in bright red, but at least the client has made an informed decision and you have respected your professional opinion.

The pronunciation of peace and piece is the only thing that these two words have in common.

piece:

Would you like a piece of pie?

peace:

He now has peace of mind

A good way to remember the difference is: “a piece of pie because ith as pie in it”

Sometimes suppliers and clients don’t agree on the  best way to do something - that is natural and understandable. But if the client is paying for the work, I believe that the client has the deciding vote.

I have had situations where a client has insisted I do something a particular way against my better judgment as a professional writer. A few times, I have done what the client asked for and an alternative version the way I think it should be done and given both versions to the client. In all these cases, once they have seen it in context, the client has agreed with my version. Other times I have just done what the client asked.

But what happens when a supplier decides their way is correct, or at least better, and just implements it without even telling the client they are making that decision?

For instance, if a client asks for certain paragraphs to be in italics in a brochure their designer may disagree and not use italics. The client, trusting the designer to do as asked, doesn’t notice this omission until after the brochures a reprinted and is rightly upset because those paragraphs were quotes and need to look different.

A much more professional approach from the designer would have been to say “I don’t think italics is a good idea as they are harder to read” and then discussed it with the client.

Clients do not appreciate loosing control of their own projects, nor the suppliers who take that control. And once you do something like that, the client is likely to double check everything you do for them which is a waste of their time and goodwill - and not likely to get you more work or any referrals.

As a supplier, you can disagree with a client but you should never presume to control the project contrary to your client’s request. Remember, if the final result is not up to your standard because the client insisted on doing things a certain way, it reflects more on the client than you - their name is on it, not yours. Just don’t add the project to your portfolio!

“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important’. Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”
Mary Kay Ash

I just found this quote in the Small Business Diva blog and I  really like it.

From a business point of view, treating people as if they are important is a great way to build relationships and provide excellent customer service - and a good way to get word of mouth referals, too.

But more than that, it is a sensible way of treating every human being you come across - we are all unique and have our own talents and gifts that deserve recognition and respect. You never know who you are talking to - they could be the one who turns your life around or the one who desperately needs to feel valued.

So how do you make others feel important?

Have you ever done some “mad libs”? Is this something you remember fondly from school days?

Personally, I hadn’t heard of mad libs until finding them mentioned in another blog, but apparently they have been widely used to teach children some grammatical terms in a fun way - maybe this is more common in the USA, or maybe I just missed out!

Anyway, a mad lib is where you choose some randoms words - nouns, adjectives, verbs and so on - and they are inserted into a piece of writing. The end result is usually nonsensical, but funny - and especially so for children I suspect!

I remember playing games where we each wrote a type of word, folded the piece of paper and passed it on so write another word on someone else’s piece of paper. The final result there was a funny sentence. Mad libs are similar to that game, but you don’t come up with the entire story with your words.

There is a website that actually creates the mad libs by asking you for the words and then producing the story for you. I tried it, inserting various Australian nouns, verbs and adjectives (in bold below), and got the following story as a result:

Finding a fun way to teach children the different ypes of words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc) is important for them to be able to construct good sentences and stories - but it isn’t always a fun topic to study! Mad libs are certainly light hearted but do require some knowledge of word types to work. The mad libs site includes definitions of the word types, too, to help children learn as the select words.

Do you think this is a useful tool in teaching children what a noun/verb/adjective/etc is? I’ll be letting my children have a go at these stories and see what they think of them. If I remember, I may even ask their teachers how they view this from an educational point of view.

These two can be very tricky.

stationery:

The pencil case was full of new stationery

stationary:

All the cars in the car park were stationary

Stationery can be stationary but not the other way around.

For many people, knowing what they don’t know is just about impossible. These are the people whose behaviour led to the saying “A little knowledge is dangerous” as they don’t understand how little they really know.

Consider a young child who has just learnt that 2×3=6. That child will proudly tell you she knows what multiplication is and how to do it. Yet if you asked her 34×76, she would have no idea how to solve it. As adults, we expect her to have limited understanding and give her time to learn more about multiplication - and encourage her learning to date.

What is a bigger concern is adults who act like that child - they know a few things and assume that makes them an expert - and charge people as if they have an extensive knowledge. Or use their assumed knowledge as a basis for applying for jobs above their level.

I have dealt with suppliers who believe in their own expertise to the point they can’t admit any ignorance or lack of knowledge. They assume a superior attitude to their clients and tell them how to do things, even if they are wrong. And even argue with clients who suggest or request an alternative.

The hard part is in dealing with these people as they aren’t likely to listen enough to learn how little they truly know, or even recognise how much someone has been coaching and helping them.

In some situations, I have taken the time to lead someone towards a greater understanding - and sometimes they have accepted the new knowledge, too! Some tips I have found to be more effective are:

• never patronise them - they don’t like it any more than the rest of us!
• occasionally add in why you are doing or requesting something even if you are in the position of being able to tell them. For example, I may say something like “I didn’t include that example because it was negative and I think a positive example will be more effective”
• maintain their self-esteem by asking questions to either help you or confirm your understanding. Remember that they will have some expert knowledge even if not as much as you want or need!
• if providing them with resources or information that may help them learn, present it carefully. Instead of “here, you need to read this”, try “I found this article very interesting - what do you think of it?” or “I’m not sure I agree with this document - do you?” or even “I want to go to this seminar - would you mind coming with me in case it gets too technical for me to understand?”
• put your expected answer in the question so they can be involved in decisions and learn from the process. For example, “I assume that the second quote is better because it includes delivery as well. Do you agree?” may work better than “Which quote should we choose?”

We all have things to learn - and usually the more we learn, the more we realise we have a lot more to learn! So we can hope that giving bits of extra information to an annoyingly ignorant person will lead them to an understanding of their own limitations!

Use your words wisely!

Enjoy writing about crime? Whether it’s finding iedas or refining your skills for stories or novels or even just to meet like-minded people, go along to the Maroondah Writers’ and Readers’ Festival of 2008 (based in Melbourne’s outer East.)

The festival is held each year with a new theme; this year’s theme is crime. The event includes writers’ workshops and keynote speakers from authors.

This annual event happens from the 3rd to the 5th of October so check online on the Eastern Regional Libraries site and find some events that you like and are near you.

Data compression is the act and process of encoding information using fewer bytes. This can be important if you run a website or send a lot of documents via email (or other electronic means.)

Compression relies on the notion that the data is superfluous or redundant. A compressor reduces the size of a file by deciding which data is more frequently used and assigns it less bytes than to lesser used data. An example of a data compressor is a Zip file format which on top of compressing acts as an archive and stores many course files in a single destination.

Compression is used to help reduce the consumption of resources such as transmission bandwidth - and that can affect the size of hosting you need for your website.

Though they sound very similar the meanings of personal and personnel couldn’t be more different.

personal:

He went looking through my personal belongings

personnel:

The personnel of the company were happy