Working with clients 

As a matter of fact there’s a strong correlation between the experience level of a client organization and the quality we can deliver for that client.

A big part of what we do depends on the input, the project brief and the raw material we get from our client. Then there’s the interactions we have with their team. This correlation has proven to be true, time and time again. Consequently, we need to attract the right kind of clients, and then connect well with them.

But we need to start with ourselves. Does our service feel compellingly good? Are we truly helping our clients to achieve a great impact? Do we present our project show cases and our strategic approach in an effective way?

Representing Infound with everything we do 

Almost everybody working at Infound is involved in direct customer interactions; some of us daily, others only once in a while. Whenever you do, please remember that taking good care of what they need and how they experience our products and services is our purest form of marketing. Most of our customers find us by word of mouth. And the truth is, our resources for other forms of marketing are limited. For this reason, and because it’s the right thing to do anyways, we ask you to be considerate and take the time to craft your written or spoken messages carefully, and to ensure that your commucation is clear, respectful, and constructive.

Managing expectations 

Especially when working with a new group of people, managing expectations is key. What’s the core purpose of our project? What’s the scope? How far can we go? When are we going to follow up next?

As a general rule: Underpromise when making plans. Overdeliver within the confines of the available budget.

One key expectation all our clients share is to be kept in the loop, to receive timely updates without having to follow up themselves, because nobody on our team cared to send them an update for several weeks, or multiple days shortly before a critical deadline. So please proactively keep them informed. Send at least a brief sign of life, and ideally a more in depth update about our progress so far.

Before and between agreements 

As an established agency, we’re fortunate to be approached with new ideas and projects on a regular basis. When we move from the initial discussion phase into the concrete planning phase, we usually open up a space to keep things organized and a budget to track time against. Those pending budget titles have the phrase “– no contract yet” added to the end. Whenever you’re involved in a project at this stage, please be aware that our efforts are an optimistic investment but not yet covered by any written agreement. This is true for new clients, but also for follow-up projects with existing clients.

For every approved project there’s a written agreement. All relevant parts of that agreement (project scope, deliverables, budget, etc.) are shared with the project team. Why do we need to talk about agreements here? Because as a B2B service business, at the end of the day, it’s having clear and fair agreements what keeps our lights on.

Digital work usually has no clear edges. So if we neglect to define some reasonable boundaries, we get lost in overly long projects, which do not yield a sustainable return. Whenever you find yourself without appropriate knowledge about the current agreement for a project you’re part of, please proactively request to be informed.

We’re not a tool. We’re offering our expertise as a service. 

Sometimes, a client request doesn’t make sense. Sometimes, there’s better ways to solve a problem than what our client provided as the proposed solution. Sometimes, a new request sounds like a prompt for a machine. Prompt submitted. Immediate and exact delivery based on that prompt expected.

If we find ourselves in such a situation, we tell them that this is not how we work. Openly and clearly but in a polite way.

We’re a team of opinionated and experienced experts. Working with Infound almost always includes some form of discovery or concept work, because high quality results are built on top of a strong foundation, not without. This process often includes intense but constructive debates.

Don’t forget, in the end it’s the client who has to live with the results. And usually it’s the client who knows their domain and their customer best.

The kind of clients we love 

In order to feel positively propelled and challenged for the creative work we do, we need trust and connection. Both of these factors are critical to the success of our client projects. Before we can get started on a project, we need to join forces with the client and establish a solid working relationship. We need to understand our client’s mission and fundamentally agree with it. If we can’t do that, we’ll stop right there and decline to work with them. The same goes the other way: If a client doesn’t agree with our values and mission, our working relationship won’t last.

“The quality of the client will determine the quality of the design. If you get money from the wrong people you will be negatively constrained, so choose well.”
— Paul Rand

At its core creative work is about creating something new. That’s why we love to collaborate with leaders and founders who do not look for something very similar to someone else’s work, but have ambitious dreams and a strong intention to change something in this world for the better. Their pursuit requires unique thinking. The same is true for the contribution we want to make to support them realizing their vision.

We need to work with the decision-makers. No unnecessary layers in-between. Building a strong connection with those who make the decisions is essential for getting things right and completing projects efficiently.

As we value their time and their domain expertise, they also value our time and our expertise. They don’t try to squeeze every last drop out of us. Instead, we work with clear and simple terms on what’s expected and how we get paid.

They share our belief to work for-profit and for-good.