Language barrier?

[bandeau]

Recently nearly all of my orders have been coming in from buyers that have English as a second language and it’s been causing a lot of extra work for me. For the most part we communicate effectively, but the last few orders I’ve had to completely redo because they were asking for things but using the wrong vocabulary (example - one buyer asked for a cartoon with two wedding dresses when they meant a cartoon of a bride and groom).



I use images and translators to make sure we are on the same page, but sometimes things like the above example slip through and I don’t want to ask them to pay for an extra gig because of a language barrier, but I’m also left to work from scratch for $4.



So do any of you have extra tips for dealing with others that use English as a second language? So far everyone’s been happy with their end result, but it’s been a real headache getting to that point!

[zeus777]

Hello,



So far I haven’t had a big problem, but there were some misunderstandings in the past. I’d say one thing I will suggest is that when you get the order, send them a really rough sketch, something that will take less than 5 minutes, but clear enough for the buyer

to know what is going on in the image. Send the rough sketch to the buyer, ask them if you are on the right track, if they say yes, go ahead and work on the final version.



Another thing I did recently was I added “MINOR revisions are for free (such as changing color/sizes of something) if I misinterpret your brief OR made a mistake on the illustration. Redrawing a whole body part/pose/section will require another gig.” to my gig description."



That way it will be easier for you to ask your buyer to place another order.

In the case of your bridal image, it’s not your mistake, it was the buyer’s.

You have every right to ask them to pay for another gig.

A “wedding dress” is a wedding dress, and that’s what you drew, so you made no mistake.



This is just my own opinion, but I hope this helps!