Interior Design Welcome Packet: Do You Really Need It? This Will Help You Decide!
Your interior design welcome packet is the same thing as you welcoming someone into your home.
You wouldn't open your door and let them roam freely in your house. They would invariably go around opening up doors and drawers looking for clues of what they should be doing. They would constantly yell out your name asking questions all the time making you rue the day you opened your business.
Instead, if you greeted them, thanked them and let them know what is in store (which for them could be scary as shit!) you're setting this project up for success. And usually a lot fewer headaches from your clients.
Interior Design Welcome Packet: Get the VIP details you need to do your job
You need to have your clients go through and fill out your interior design questionnaire unless you're a psychic designer and already know all the answers. Imagine designing an entire room for your client only to find out that they hate, hate, hate the color gray. You waste time and money and now have to go back and redo the entire project.
Have them fill out your very detailed interior design questionnaire. If you have a Wordpress website you could purchase a plug-in like Gravity Forms (affiliate link). Or if you have a Squarespace website, that functionality is already built in. That's why I created the course on creating your website with Squarespace and show you how to create your questionnaire.
You'll also want to see what pictures they are drawn to for the type of project you're working with them on. Have them create a board on Pinterest and let them pin like a fiend. Then you'll go back in there and find the common thread. You'll also get a great idea of what shade of a color they are really looking for when they tell you "something tealy blue with a hint of eggplant".
Interior Design Welcome Packet: Get their measurements
If you're doing local design and are going to head on over to their place you may already have their crucial measurements. If not, you're going to want to have your client schedule a time with you so you can do this. You can use an app like Acuity to help you do this.
If you're doing virtual design work, you're going to have to show them how they can measure their space correctly for you. You'll need to provide them with an example drawing of what you will be expecting from them and sample elevations to show them how to measure windows, doorways, etc.
Interior Design Welcome Packet: What the next steps are
Whatever your process entails, outlining the entire process inside your interior design welcome packet in an easy to follow step-by-step way will help your clients feel at ease. Tell them what they need to do next. And also tell them what you're going to do next.
Clients do not want to be left in the dark. They crave the security they get by knowing exactly what the next steps are. You can start by letting them know that as soon as they get all of their work done, you will get started. That you will send them an update by a certain date. That if they have any questions to contact you (via your preferred method of communication). Last, when they can expect to see the first round of work from you, what it will include and how they will see it.
Interior Design Welcome Packet Save You TIME
Time is money and that's why creating a process for your projects is so important.
Beyond getting all of the important deets on the front end to make this project a success, you should also have:
Create pre-written email templates to make your life easier and your process the same for every client. Save yourself time and create your interior design welcome packet email to send to each and every client.
Create a project folder for each client, then create separate folders inside for their information, their before pics, their measurements, your working files, and the completed project.
Create a "How To Measure & Photograph Your Space" guide for virtual clients. Show them how to send you the measurements you really need.
Reinventing the wheel at every step is costing you money, time and sanity. The majority of your projects should run the same way and you need a signature design process to call your very own. It's going to allow you to get faster with your work (and more profitable) and your clients will be so happy they know what is happening every step of the way.
If you would like me to save you a shit ton of time, you can get an Interior Design Welcome Packet of your very own, done-for-you that you can change up to fit your business and send out to your adoring clients. It's inside the Interior Design Business Toolbox.
Hola! I'm Alycia Wicker and I help online interior designers grow their business.
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