Rabbit Valley Road

Christopher Fahey argues that the pre-2000 paradigm of the “dumb client” is no longer applicable:

…I still regularly hear designers and consultants stereotyping their clients as if it were still 1999, as if they were still dealing with people who had never bought a book online and don’t know how search engines work, much less joined a social network or had their own blog. This is just wrong. This kind of attitude doesn’t help you as a consultant, nor does it help designers and consultancies as a whole. If this sounds like you, I suggest you drop it. You’re making your clients mad and probably coming across as more than a little condescending.

I’m not pointing any fingers, here, but idle chatter in Chattanooga occasionally lends itself to that kind of stereotyping. Granted, many area clients are still behind the curve, but their lack of knowing is more naivete than ignorance. How you differentiate between the two is important in the long run. Word gets around in a small city.