There is nothing worse than nearing the completion of a project and then having the client say it’s all wrong. This recently happened to me and had me bummed for a couple days. I thought my concept was spot on, they were approving elements along the way and seemed to like where it was headed. Then just as I was getting close to wrapping the whole project up I started to get some odd feedback and it all came down to them not liking what I had done.

There are a couple ways to handle something like this; you can either say this is what you approved and this is what I did, now pay me. Or you can suck it up and try to make the client happy, figure out what went wrong and re-do the work.

Most people will tell you that the client was wrong and that they need to pay to have this video re-done. They were the ones who approved the video at every stage and it’s their fault for not communicating any issues they had, they should of said something sooner. It’s easy to be on that side when it’s not your project and not your client. 

Instead I’ve gone with option two here. Setting my pride aside and realizing that maybe this was my fault; I was pushing for a concept and style that wasn’t right for them from the beginning. There is a chance that I was ignoring thoughts and concerns from the client all along because I felt that I knew best. I’ve been doing explainer videos for years, of course I know what’s right and there is no way the client has any idea of what will work. I’ve put countless hours into this creative approach and there is no way this isn’t working. What’s funny is this has happened before and I told myself to make sure I try to stay positive when getting this sort of negative feedback. 

So here I go now re-doing a video, doing twice the amount of work. There is no sense in burning the bridge here. The client isn’t unreasonable and isn’t a hell client by any means, we just weren’t on the same page. So I can eat the extra cost and time involved on this one. I’d rather have the client walk away with a video they love and want to show off instead of one that they never use and would rather work with Satan than me and my team again. I’m putting aside the pride on this one and I know that what we put together now is only going to be that much better.