Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” And knowing how many times I’ve wanted to throw my PC out a window, I suspect Bill’s done a lot of learning over the years.
Difficult clients are part of the cost of doing business. Most often, they’re difficult because they’re unhappy with the service you’ve provided. Sometimes, they could simply have a personality that clashes with your company values, or they have expectations that are way out of whack with reality. Sometimes, they are simply a bit too odd.
When you’re faced with a difficult client in your service business, it can be hard to know what to do.
Difficult clients take many different forms. They may be running around with their hair on fire declaring everything an emergency, or calling you on weekends and late at night to discuss pointless details. They may make your staff cry from their constant tirades, or they may simply be a poor fit for your company.
According an article for CPA Advisor, difficult clients have a huge cost to business. Not only are the clients more likely to dispute their invoices, pay late, or not pay at all, but they’re also a drain on workflow and resources. Problem clients contribute to staff turnover, stress-related health problems, enjoyment of your work, and a poor reputation.
One or two difficult clients are common in business, but it’s important to try and turn things around before it’s too late.
Here are some common types of difficult clients you may encounter:
No matter how your client is being difficult, the steps to managing them are still the same. Here’s how we recommend calming the waters or a turbid client relationship.
Even if a client is screaming at you down the phone or making a scene in the office, you’ve got to remain cool and collected. If you stoop to their level of hostility, you put your reputation on the line. You get your point across much clearer with a calm voice and stern demeanor.
According to the psychology of human interaction, people will often mirror the emotional signals you emit. When you’re angry, you’ll often get an angry rise out of someone else. But if you’re calm, you can often encourage them to be calm, as well
Often, a difficult client feels as though the process has run away with them, and they want to be heard. Simply taking the time to listen to their problems without getting defensive could be all that’s needed to solve the issue.
Make sure your client understands that you’re focused on their problem (even if it’s an imagined problem). Ask follow-up questions, repeat their statements back to them, and acknowledge that you’ve heard and understood.
Anita Ferguson from the Balancing Books website recommends asking for specifics. When a client feels their questions or concerns aren’t being dealt with, they often fall into language like “everything’s wrong” or “nothing’s working!” Ask them to clarify so you can get to the root of the issue.Do you know what doesn’t help sate a difficult client? The passage of time.
As soon as a client raises an issue, make it a priority to get it sorted out. When you do this, you validate the client. You’re not accepting blame (and you should try to avoid saying you’re sorry at this stage), but you are establishing a good communication from the start.
Try this email template to help you establish and acknowledge that you want to fix the issues:
Dear Client Name,
Thank you for your email listing your concerns about this project. I think there may have been some misunderstanding around the original brief and the project’s outcomes.
I’d like to call you this week to discuss before we proceed any further. Would 3PM tomorrow suit you?
Sincerely,
Your name
Often, client problems arise when they have expectations that are out of alignment with the service you deliver, or when a communications issues has made them believe one thing, when actually the opposite is true.
Talk to the relevant parties in your office, and check your records. Find out where things went wrong (if they did in fact go wrong), and how you might be able to improve processes or communication in the future.
Again, this isn’t about admitting you’re wrong (in many cases, you won’t be), but in finding a way to solve the problem for the client without losing your head in the process.
If you’re in the wrong, admit it upfront, and show the client how you’ll make amends and get their project back on track.
If the client is in the wrong, then point to the relevant clauses in their contract or letter of agreement, and explain that you’re happy to wipe the slate clean, but with a careful outline of what they can expect from here.
If a communication breakdown is to blame, then offer alternative ways to communicate so the client feels included. Give them options – a monthly phone call, email update, face-to-face meeting, or regular check-ins via your client management dashboard – so they can choose what works best for them.
According to Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, finding a solution to a difficult client will often cut into your bottom line. At the end of a difficult client’s job, you may come away without any profit for all your efforts.
Your reputation and integrity are more important than your bottom line. Fixing the problem – even if that solution comes at a loss – will have benefits for you in the future. Your previously-difficult client may turn into a dream client, fiercely loyal and excited to tell all their associates how you went the extra mile.
Sometimes, you won’t be able to fix an issue, and you’ll have to terminate a difficult client. This can be heartbreaking (especially if it’s the first client relationship that’s gone sour), but if you keep your dealings professional, you’ll come out stronger and smarter.
Take a step back and evaluate what happened. Ask yourself:
There may be simple solutions – clarifying communications, changing workflow processes, re-wording contracts – that could prevent a repeat situation.
Having a sense of humour about the experience will help you pull through. Check out the site Clients from Hell for horror stories from agencies and designers.Sometimes, even if you follow the steps above, things between you and your client don’t get any better. Prioritize your client list to focus on the clients who bring in the majority of your revenue, while also being the easiest to work with. By getting rid of your “D-and-E-list clients,” you free up space to bring on more A-list clients and improve your bottom line.
In order to get rid of these clients, you may not have to fire them individually. You may be able to
Check your contract / engagement letter. You should have included terms about terminating the agreement in your contracts, but it’s best to check before proceeding.
Wind up important work. Leaving a client in the middle of a vital project will give you a bad taste in your mouth, and may harm your reputation. Where possible, try to complete important contracted work before proceeding with the termination.
Keep calm. We’ve already talked about the importance of maintaining a professional demeanour. Use diplomatic language when explaining to the client why you’re terminating the relationship. Don’t be drawn into shouting matches or arguments over social media.
Refer them elsewhere. Just because a client isn’t the right fit for your business, doesn’t mean they won’t find the help they need somewhere else. Find some potential firms the client may wish to engage. Once they’ve engaged a new service, help them to move their data across.Though Co. have created a list of warning signs to help identify difficult clients before they even sign a contract. Some of these signs include:
There are other things you can do to avoid picking up more difficult clients:
If we go back to psychology for a moment, think about this: it’s much easier to impress a client if you first give yourself the room to provide exceptional service.
Saying yes to every deadline, extra feature and demand creates the expectation that you’ll meet those demands, even if for you, they’re actually quite a stretch. The client assumes their demands are the norm.
However, if you tell the client, “actually that’s not a reasonable time-frame. You’re more likely to be looking at this,” you set their expectations from the onset. And then, you can blow their expectations out of the water.
As designer Addison Duvall suggests, try not to let your clients see your superpowers. Instead, impress by under-promising and over-delivering every time. If you manage to meet their deadline after all, you get to be the hero, and the whole dynamic between you and the client shifts.According to the IRS Oversight Survey in the US, 11% of taxpayers believe it is acceptable to cheat on their taxes.
If a client asks you to do something that’s against your professional ethics, or you feel yourself morally challenged, then go with your gut and move the client on. Your integrity is worth more than what any client could pay you to try to cheat the system.
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, the difficult clients also tend to be those clients who pay late, dispute invoices, or try to wheedle more work out of your for free.
Raising your fees will help you to move these clients along and new clients to avoid you, while the resulting increase to your bottom line from your remaining clients will help your cash flow while you fill the gaps in your client schedule.Check all your contracts and engagement letters with a legal professional. Make sure you are protected against litigation if you fire a client, and that all the terms and conditions are in line with your processes and company values.
You want to make sure that should you end if with another difficult client, you’re able to get out of the contract with your integrity and company intact.
Difficult clients drain resources, energy, and money from your business, but the way you deal with them also provides a valuable learning experience for anyone in business. Clients are just people, after all – people with a very specific set of needs you’re trying to fulfill – and learning how to deal with all types of people makes you a stronger, better business owner.
What’s the most difficult client you’ve had to deal with, and what did you learn from the experience? Share your horror stories.
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