Dear Dakota Series | How to Handle Scope Creep as an Hourly Designer?

Sep 27

DESIGNER SUBMITTED QUESTION

“How do I handle hourly clients who keep adding to their projects? The additional requests are hard to keep track of and I feel like I’m never able to complete a project because there are so many little things that are always open. HELP!”

If you’re an hourly designer and you start a project with a client for one room, then as the design process goes on, the client adds a paint selection here, a light selection there, some furniture pieces over here…and before you know it, you feel like an hourly employee of your designer, on-call and jumping into action with every request they send your way.

So what do you do?

In this post, I’m sharing:

How to handle additional selection requests from hourly clients
When to add on additional scope (and when not to)
How to prepare an addendum for a new scope
The trap I see many hourly designers fall into

In my opinion, you do the same thing you would do if you were a flat fee or PPSF designer:

In your initial design agreement, detail the scope of work that is included. Yes, even if you’re hourly. Let the client know what rooms are included and what you’ll be doing for those rooms so you can accurately provide an estimate of hours, project budget, and overall timeline for them.
When your client wants to add on more, look back to your scope: is this new request necessary to complete the rooms in the scope? If so, then include it. If not, then add it to the next scope.
If it’s truly one simple selection (like a paint color, or a lamp for the living room) and you want to do it, look at your schedule. Have you presented their original in-scope design yet? If not, can you include the selection and present it with the initial scheduled presentation? OR, will this throw the whole timeline off? If it’s so many selections that it will require an additional presentation, or delay the original presentation, then add it to the next scope.
Create an addendum to the original scope of work (or an entirely new scope), and provide an estimate of the hours and a start date for the new scope, unless you can accommodate it immediately (and want to do that).

But isn’t it easier to just say yes and do it?

NO!!!

This is the biggest challenge I see with our hourly designers. They say yes to all the little add ons and then next thing you know, they are acting like a household manager or an employee of the client, working outside of their tried and true process, trying to remember 100 random to-dos, and falling behind on every other contracted project.

Part of managing your pipeline, honoring your contracts with each client, and providing an excellent client experience is knowing how long a project is going to take at each phase and then setting those expectations with clients by booking start dates, key meetings, and installs based on your overall project schedule and availability.

If clients keep adding to their scope, and your pipeline is already full, how can you possibly have the time to manage MORE details and selections while still giving all of your other contracted clients a good experience without working around the clock?

You can’t.

You simply cannot anticipate what a client will need if you put them in the driver’s seat and let them request additional selections and work from you as they see fit. Only you know how to best get them to their end result (which is why they hired you — the expert — in the first place).

It’s great when a client trusts you and wants to increase the scope. I get it: once they’re in design mode and they see how amazing you are, they will want you to transform more of their home. I call this “the domino effect of good design”. Once one room starts to take shape, the other rooms start to look flat so it’s natural to want your designer to do more.

It all comes back to that original scope of work and the result they hired you for in the first place. And YOU, as the expert, know that 74 other selections throughout the house will not give them that feeling of completion or cohesiveness that they initially told you they wanted for their [insert room here].

Adding and adding to the scope will likely overwhelm them, feel very disjointed, and will have them always pulling out their checkbook to pay for one more thing — all things not associated with a luxury experience!

How to Determine if You Should Add Scope for Hourly Projects

Look at your project schedule.
Can you add more design time to your calendar right now?
Can your team take on more?
Can you present these additional requests with the client’s upcoming presentation?
Are these selections critical to the completion of the rooms that ARE in the scope?
Will this fit with your upcoming schedule of presentations, photoshoots, and kickoff meetings?

Then:

Consider your client and their budget.
Will adding these new selections push them outside of their original budget?
Can they afford to purchase all the new things you select for them, as well as the room(s) you are contracted to design? OR,
Have they moved forward with ordering the original rooms in the scope? (If not, no new selections!)
Will this overwhelm them to have so many rooms going at once?
Is adding to the scope something you even want to do?

*I would not add scope until a client has paid for the items sourced in their first design, just saying.

I also want you to know, I’m not saying these things in a bubble. We are asked to do things allllll the time when we’re working with clients. I’m honored, of course-they trust me and my team and know we can get it done for them. BUT, that doesn’t mean I say yes. I always ask myself:

Is this where we excel?
Will doing this for the client make an impact on the result we are working toward?
Is this where we should be spending our time?
Will doing this actually decrease our perceived value?

Asking these questions always gives me clarity on how to proceed and the confidence to say “Nope.”.

How to Create a New Scope

Let the client know you are happy to add that to the scope of work and you’ll send over an addendum to the contract so they can see what you estimate the hours to be to add that on. Let them know if you can start right away and present the new items with their original design presentation, or if you’ll need to start the new scope at a later date.

Collect a fee to hold their “spot” on your calendar for the new scope. If you’re starting the scope in 3 months when you have an opening, and you’re putting their new room on the calendar (thus not taking another project at that time), then you should take a design fee installment to hold that spot for them. Pro Tip: most flat fee designers take the full amount due for an addendum.

Don’t forget to let them know when you’ll start the new scope and when you’ll present it.

Why I Recommend Starting a New Scope

The benefits of starting a new scope for your client rather than just adding and adding and adding to the original scope:

The design process is more enjoyable because your client can focus on one room at a time.
It sets clear parameters around what you’ll do for the client and allows you to fit their additional requests in with YOUR project schedule.
It lets clients see when project A ends and project B begins, no blurred lines
Your client can allocate their budget properly when they focus on one room at a time, versus one room plus miscellaneous selections being sent to them every week.
They’ll have a better experience with you because they’ll have fewer “transactions”. You present the room in their scope, they request revisions, you make revisions, then they pay. VS. You present the room in their scope. They request revisions. You make revisions. They pay for some items. They request more scope. You design more scope. They request revisions. You make revisions. They pay for some items. Then they add more scope. And on and on.
YOU control the process and the outcome, not the client (remember: YOU are the expert. YOU know what’s best.)

A key thing to remember here: you have contracts with each client. You are running a business. You are delegating to a team. You have a responsibility to manage your workload so you can a) provide your clients with excellent service and b) keep your team from being overworked and overwhelmed. You are not the hired hand; you are the brain behind the whole design (if your clients are treating you like the hired hand, you have a marketing problem!)

Everyone suffers when the owner overcommits.

Don’t Fall into the “Hourly Employee Mindset” Trap

Don’t forget that when your clients are hiring you, they are hiring you for your expertise, your creativity, your ability to create something for them that they couldn’t do on their own. They are not designers and they should not be running the process.

You are not their household manager. You are not their assistant. You don’t need to say yes to everything just because they want it.

You are the pro. Guiding them to a beautiful finished result. Walking them through your carefully designed process to get them there seamlessly. Read all about how to show up like the expert here.

Would love to hear: how do you handle new scope requests as an hourly designer? Are you feeling like an employee of your clients, slinging designs left and right and not able to follow a process or manage your workload appropriately? If you’re feeling overwhelmed and burned out–START with creating a clear scope of work at the beginning of each project!

And if client management and setting expectations are hard for you, be sure to check out our Client Experience Email templates for interior designers. Professionally written emails to let clients know what they can expect every step of the way, PLUS client management emails so you can handle those tough client situations like a pro.

Enjoyed this post? Be sure to sign up for my Friday email to learn all the things they don’t teach in design school, and then some.