When something goes wrong on a project, do you tell the client — or just fix it?
Every designer and every ops lead hits this moment: a price jumps, a piece gets discontinued, a wall opens up and reveals a mess nobody saw coming. Do you loop the client in immediately, or handle it quietly and move on?
In this episode, Melissa and Laura pull back the curtain on the calls they make behind the scenes every single day, from six-figure furniture reorders to a door ripped clean off its track during a photo shoot. They get into what actually decides whether a client hears about a problem: the dollar amount, who’s at fault, whether it affects the move-in date, or just gut instinct built from years of getting it wrong first.
They also share the COVID-era mistake that changed how Laura handles every substitution since, the “guided design experience” philosophy that shapes how their studio frames bad news, and why the best client conversations aren’t about hiding problems, they’re about never showing up without a solution already in hand.
If you’ve ever sat with that pit-in-your-stomach feeling before a hard conversation with a client, this one’s for you.
