How to deal with such customers?

I develop websites already for 3 years, but recently I began to deal directly with customers.
With all of them I have the same problem: firstly they look at design and layout and approve it.
But then, in 3-5 days, they contact me and say: "we have found a site of our competitors, and we think, we’d like to have the same as by their site, could You redesign all the project?" - even if the competitor’s site is a terrible, not user-friendly shit.
If I do that, the story repeats again: they find another one site and want to resesign it again.
Who else faced this problem? What’s the reason? And what to do?

It’s possibly the oldest complaint in the design business - the client approved the spec, and then changed their mind.

There are usually three issues here:

(1) The client doesn’t understand what ’approval’ means. Make it clear for them that changes after the approval milestone will result in delays and extra cost.
(2) The designer doesn’t understand what ’approval’ means. Do not change the design unless they agree to pay for it, or shift the deadline so you can do some more productive work first while they change their minds again. Give the client a consequence of their changing their minds. There are lots of ways to try and limit re-work - I usually do three design phases, with more and more specific choices each time.
(3) Sell your design . Next time, when proposing some layouts, show that you have visited some competitor websites, thought about doing things their way, but actually your way is better. The biggest challenge a client has is remembering to be a customer too.

You have to sell your ideas, value them (literally) and make the client understand that what they are paying for is those ideas, not some mouse-pushing or button pressing robot.

Quote from: odeclas at Dec 20, 2010, 06:31 AM

It’s possibly the oldest complaint in the design business - the client approved the spec, and then changed their mind.

There are usually three issues here:

(1) The client doesn’t understand what ’approval’ means. Make it clear for them that changes after the approval milestone will result in delays and extra cost.
(2) The designer doesn’t understand what ’approval’ means. Do not change the design unless they agree to pay for it, or shift the deadline so you can do some more productive work first while they change their minds again. Give the client a consequence of their changing their minds. There are lots of ways to try and limit re-work - I usually do three design phases, with more and more specific choices each time.
(3) Sell your design . Next time, when proposing some layouts, show that you have visited some competitor websites, thought about doing things their way, but actually your way is better. The biggest challenge a client has is remembering to be a customer too.

You have to sell your ideas, value them (literally) and make the client understand that what they are paying for is those ideas, not some mouse-pushing or button pressing robot.

as said.
also, i think it’s better to formulate a workflow with briefing and note everything & explain to the client all the stages through.
and the most important is that everything need to be noted in a signed contract that’s clarify the amount of sketches and nodes on the project.
and extra fees on additional work/changes/tweaks.

there’s a funny point of view about this issue i posted few topics below:
http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,56167.0.html

odeclas, gOmp, many thanks for sharing experience! After reading and thinking over your opinions I feel more confident.