Most of the people I deal with have little to no experience with artists, so they have no expectations about how the experience of commissioning a work will be framed
However the artist wants to approach it will be doubtless be fine with them, so Michele's technique would work well. I have had people ask to visit my studio so that they can see a range of my work, though, and I've also had people comment that photos of my paintings really don't do them justice, so I'm happy to have that option. But normally they view my work on the web or have heard about me from word of mouth so it's not necessary. On the other hand, I always bring the client to the studio at least once during the process to make sure there are no surprises at the end, and I'm not sure how I'd handle that otherwise.