A Client Story

Recently I had a chance to meet with some clients about a web design. When I arrived at the Preston Hollow location I was immediately impressed with the high-end neighborhood and the stylish decor of the house. This particular client had ordered Thai food and said, “Come in, I’ve ordered some food, you can just help yourself.”

It struck me as odd to be in the house of someone I hardly knew and then to be eating with them in a matter of minutes. “Ricky will be back soon the client said, his voice filled with expectation.”

“Who’s Ricky?”

“My Fiance”

I continued to pile some sort of spicy seafood melange covered in a yellow curry sauce onto my plate. I couldn’t help but think, “Is this guy saying he’s gay?”

I sat at the table with my plate of food and my chopsticks making small talk that was intended to unearth more information.

“So have you lived here long?”

“Actually this is Ricky’s place, I went through a divorce a while back and I’ve been living here for a while now.”

The plot was thickening like a nice gravy but my question still remained unanswered. I’ve met some homosexual people in my life but none of them had been over the age of 50. In my guesstimation this guy was knocking on the door to 60 and they were saying, “Come on in, we’ve been waiting for you.”

My Thai food was spicy and room temperature and the wine that he served with it only seemed to enhance the spicy curry and heat my mouth up. We weren’t talking about business and I wasn’t exactly enjoying myself and so I didn’t have much to say.

Finally “Ricky” showed up and she turned out to be a woman and “Ricky” was just a nickname. I was relieved, not because I’m a homophobe but because I often feel more comfortable working with women on projects over men who think they know all about web design.  

“You want your site to look like that?” I couldn’t help but say it like I had just smelled a dirty diaper. The site she showed me looked like a pile of crap with a few words of garamound font slapped on it.

“Yes, this woman does things similar to what I do.” I wanted to reply, “So you bore people with droll websites?”

I held my tongue and suddenly realized that this was going to be an evening of educating the customer. However, after an hour of discussion I left with nothing. No plan. No design ideas. No domain name.

I gave Ricky a list of action items and it’s been almost a week and I haven’t heard anything and I’m not surprised. This is the world of web design and this is why before I start working I require a down payment.