Packaging Your Design Services vs. Customized Client Solutions
When you're working with clients, you might be thinking about packaging your services to keep things consistent vs. offering customized solutions. But, how do you know what's best?
There are a lot of pros and cons to both offering packaged services and more custom solutions for your clients. And sometimes it’s overwhelming to decide which is the best route to take. So, let’s break it down.
Let’s walk through the pros and cons of each of these options, and we’ll tell you our preferred method, too!
Let’s talk about packaging your design services.
✅ When you’re offering pre-packaged services for your clients, these are some of the biggest pros:
It’s much easier for client processes and systems in your business. Everything is set up simply for you without much backend work each time you take on a new project.
You can build steps, processes and deliverables for each phase of the packaged services option and reuse them time and time again - basically having templates for each package created.
Pricing is transparent and doesn't take much thought/energy - with each new project you take on, you know how much time, effort and resources go into each package.
Contracts, proposals and invoices can all be templated saving time (pssst… WillowSpace has templates built right in to start this process).
Time management is easier because you know how long each portion of your process will take per client.
Predictable income - you know how many projects you need to book to meet revenue goals. And you will know what to expect each month from each client.
❎ And, of course, there are some cons too:
Packaged services can be rigid and not suited to individual clients' needs - leaving them to feel like you can’t help them with exactly what they need.
This caps income regardless of the size of the organization or the impact of your work on the company.
May deter clients who can't "fit themselves in" to a pre-determined package.
Ok, so now let’s talk offering your clients more custom solutions.
✅ So what if you want to create more custom offers per client? Here are some pros to that way of working:
Clients may see more value in a custom approach to understanding their needs, both monetarily as well feeling like you’re giving them a more specialized option and treatment.
Pricing can reflect a custom approach, adding more revenue to your bottom line.
You’ll have more control over offering client solutions based on the impact of your work and scale of their organization.
You may need to take on fewer projects to meet revenue goals.
You’re more likely to book ongoing clients as you're more immersed in their brand and business overall.
❎ What are some of the downsides to offering your clients custom solutions?
Time management is a little trickier - you need to set strict timelines, have really strong processes and policies in place, and clearly outlined project scopes so that you can make sure you keep everything on track. These projects tend to veer off course more frequently than packaged services do.
Proposals and contracts may need a little extra customization which, of course, will take some extra time.
You’ll have more unpredictable income/revenue because client projects will vary in cost.
So, what do we recommend?
Though of course you’ll need to decide what works best for your business, we recommend a combination of the two models: a backend packaging structure and a pricing table that you can put together in different combinations for clients depending on their needs, organization size and impact. With this idea, you’re making the best of both worlds.
At Function (our design studio), we offer a hyrbid model of packages and customized solutions. We have our pricing structured internally so that pricing, proposals and contracts can still be templated (still customizing to some extent) and put together the best solutions as custom options for clients.
WillowSpace is here to help, no matter your service structure.
We’re really good at helping you streamline your business - with customizable templates, invoices, proposals, contracts, and more. So as you’re helping your clients and creating incredible work for them, let us help you behind the scenes to save you time and money.
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