A Great Communicator She Isn’t

I was working for a really volatile client on a job. She had to submit a company profile to the board, and I had sent it to her two weeks prior to her meeting. The day before the meeting, I got a call.

Client: “I’m not sure about the profile you’ve sent me, you haven’t followed the brief.”

Me: “Oh? What have I missed?”

Client: “I specified a quote to go on the front cover, and you’ve put it on the back cover. Why would you do that? I expressly specified in the brief that it was to go on the front.”

I checked the brief and it wasn’t specified.

Me: “Actually, I thought that communication and design-wise, it worked better on the back cover.”

Client: “Look, if we are going to work together, I need you to learn to read a brief properly.  I need to know why you would choose to ignore my instructions?!”

Me: “Actually, I have a question for you: why didn’t you phone me two weeks ago when I gave this to you and ask me then if I could change it?”

Client: “…I don’t know.”