Working w/ Out of State Clients

Design Careers
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Hey all - I’m looking for guidance with a potential out-of-state client. They are out of state and are purchasing a small beach condo. My friend (real estate agent for these people) referred my name to this couple as they are looking for decorating services that will likely include: Advise, design, meeting for deliveries, and installation. A discovery call is tomorrow, Monday. Since I am big on keeping my processes simple, I am asking for guidance on a couple of things…

  1. My current focus has been with very hands-on clients, walking them thru retail centers working directly with fabric choices, decor products, tile/paint for construction projects, and, etc. (Almost like a personal shopper). I then let them do order placement accordingly. How do you handle procurement in the sense of finding textiles and involving your client? Since these people are out of state, do you send them sample textiles (for couches or fabric beds) to let them know which textiles you are suggesting? Do you find a particular type of couch from a specific retailer and then send them to the nearest retail center and ask them to look at XYZ couch in XYZ fabric?
  2. I am also set up to give a shopping list to clients and they are responsible for ordering. Leaving me out of the process of delivery setup, etc. Now, I will help people with the final installation as needed, but most of it’s been around styling decor, etc. Where I am concerned is my current process/setup may not be suitable to this client’s expectations. Ordering on behalf of my client and floating $20k on my cc/ isn’t necessarily ideal. So, can you order on behalf of a client (cc/ authorization) and still be the main contact for order delivery? The challenge I foresee is if something goes wrong, I have to have the client manage the returns and contact with the company.
    Any insight and guidance would be appreciated since this potential project process may be slightly out of my wheelhouse.
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Remote is very different, I think explaining when/where they’ll need to be involved at the start is important. Find out what their bandwidth is as well. I always order swatches: a set to myself and one to my clients. If they have a store near them, they can certainly go there to see things in person as well, but we typically narrow it down online first. For things you can’t get swatches of, they just have to understand that they’ll be doing the returns if something is not right in person. I do elevations to show things like gallery wall and decor placement and detailed floor plans to show exactly where things should be placed. More complex projects might require more legwork on their part and I do virtual shopping trips where needed.

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I appreciate your insight. I do have trade accounts with Restoration Hardware and William Sonoma rep. After speaking with my trade account manager at RH today, they have concierge services that will suit this project and will do a lot of the leg work on my behalf, which is amazing. Unfortunately, her whole product list won’t be RH. I have a call out to my WS rep to provide some guidance. If they operate similarly to RH, this may help me a lot.