Communique October 1996
Reviewed June 2009, Feb 2017It would be unreasonable to infer that all clients within any group share personality traits, but problem clients will test the Architect's personal management skills and/or increase the potential for a claim. When Architects negotiate their architectural service and fee agreements they should reflect on these issues, and the potential for additional time and resources to be required.The list is in no particular order, but audience response identified with the grouping.Lawyers/Accountants: Lawyers can dispassionately argue any hypothetical case against an Architect. They know the logic of an argument, they know the law, and know how to stall and offset fees against their perceived loss. For them fee hassles are a game – but then good lawyers also appreciate the value of skilled services.Accountants: Likewise they know how to offset fees and will query all variation costs.Doctors/Dentists: Both have high intellect. Dentists spend their entire working lives examining microscopic defects in teeth. They often impart the same objectivity into critical examination of building workmanship and of drawn details.Wealthy Clients: Are astute. That's how they become wealthy, and they have high expectations of architectural performance. They can afford advice, often also advice obtained informally through friends.Developers: Entice Architect into discounting the balance of fees owing with the prospect of another project.Professional Litigants: Avoid them - then go fishing instead.Friends: They lack formality in contract agreement/understanding. Can personalise a problem and require early understanding of payment expected for services provided.Project Managers: Some distance the Architect from the client thereby reducing the quality of the communication in the translation.Cultural Difference: Ethics are different. Comprehension is different. Oral/Written ability is uncertain.Stressed Clients: For architects, it may be “business as usual”, but for some clients the stresses of a building project compound with personal stresses to create overload, with consequential subjective/emotional or counterproductive communication responses. Watch out for the new baby on the way, marital tiffs, recent physical handicap or current health crisis, business failure, recent sudden change in financial circumstances, clients who appear to have a “persecution complex” and/or distrust of professionals, or for whom the last building project was an unfortunate one.