Comments on: Tricks For Dealing With Difficult Clients http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/ The Blog For Freelancers And Web-Workers Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:54:32 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dawn http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-36574 Dawn Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:26:42 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-36574 How do you deal with a client who wants a full refund? In 3 years of business as a resume write and maintaining a 100% client satisfaction record, I have one of those clients who I think will just never be happy. My refund policy is re-writes but no refunds (to keep it simple, it's more complicated than that alone). Am I obligated to refund even if I know with certainty I did a great job? How do you deal with a client who wants a full refund? In 3 years of business as a resume write and maintaining a 100% client satisfaction record, I have one of those clients who I think will just never be happy. My refund policy is re-writes but no refunds (to keep it simple, it’s more complicated than that alone). Am I obligated to refund even if I know with certainty I did a great job?

]]> By: Alison Wileman http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-8384 Alison Wileman Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:59:49 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-8384 Thank you for this post - it has really helped me. I have been freelancing for over a year and can really relate to information like this. Sometimes it is very hard to remain professional when working with a difficult client, but tips like the above - documentation etc and recognising those characteristics in the first instance makes me feel much better equipped to deal with situations like this. I think the thing is, no freelancer wants unhappy clients - we all want to do our very best job each time with great results, but in certain circumstances and with difficult people, it's sometimes hard to see the wood from the trees - all a learning experience though hey!. Thank you for this post – it has really helped me. I have been freelancing for over a year and can really relate to information like this. Sometimes it is very hard to remain professional when working with a difficult client, but tips like the above – documentation etc and recognising those characteristics in the first instance makes me feel much better equipped to deal with situations like this. I think the thing is, no freelancer wants unhappy clients – we all want to do our very best job each time with great results, but in certain circumstances and with difficult people, it’s sometimes hard to see the wood from the trees – all a learning experience though hey!.

]]> By: Grace Smith http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1988 Grace Smith Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:08:37 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1988 Interesting post, one thing i would like to add is that while i think it is essential to develop a service protocol, it is also important to be flexible when working with the different client types. As there are such a variety client types out there and chances are at some point your going to work with all of them, the trick to successful client communication is knowing how to deal with these types to get the best out of them and ultimately the best for the project. Great advice on developing yourself as an authority figure! I think alot of freelancers don't truly believe their worth or have confidence in their abilities, clients can smell this a mile off, so if you dont think your know what your doing, chances are they are thinking the same thing! Interesting post, one thing i would like to add is that while i think it is essential to develop a service protocol, it is also important to be flexible when working with the different client types. As there are such a variety client types out there and chances are at some point your going to work with all of them, the trick to successful client communication is knowing how to deal with these types to get the best out of them and ultimately the best for the project.

Great advice on developing yourself as an authority figure! I think alot of freelancers don’t truly believe their worth or have confidence in their abilities, clients can smell this a mile off, so if you dont think your know what your doing, chances are they are thinking the same thing!

]]> By: Susan http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1947 Susan Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:22:38 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1947 Great suggestions, Amrit. I ended a project after a week because I was getting phone calls on my home phone around 9:30 at night that would last for an hour. Sometimes you just can't teach people manners and boundaries. :) Great suggestions, Amrit. I ended a project after a week because I was getting phone calls on my home phone around 9:30 at night that would last for an hour.

Sometimes you just can’t teach people manners and boundaries. :)

]]> By: Ted Slampyak http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1948 Ted Slampyak Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:21:02 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1948 I would disagree strongly with the suggestion that you publicly air the reason you fired a client right away. I've had to fire a few clients in my day -- very few, I'm happy to report. But unless the client starts going public about this first, my suggestion is to let discretion rule, and not say anything. I would be hesitant on going into partnership with a person or agency that felt it had the right to air its negative opinions of the merits of others, and it is all too easy for such comments, even if they're written fairly and objectively, to come across like sour grapes or bitterness. And it sends a message to your future clients -- even right-thinking ones -- that if you two end up not working well together, they might have to deal with your airing of the dirty laundry. You might know your comments are fair and deserved, but how does everyone else know that? If you feel you must blog about the experience, do it with the objective of teaching others what traps to avoid. And leave out the client's name. Better to hold your lip, whenever possible, and show your future clients -- and current ones -- that their behavior won't be your blog fodder. I would disagree strongly with the suggestion that you publicly air the reason you fired a client right away.

I’ve had to fire a few clients in my day — very few, I’m happy to report. But unless the client starts going public about this first, my suggestion is to let discretion rule, and not say anything. I would be hesitant on going into partnership with a person or agency that felt it had the right to air its negative opinions of the merits of others, and it is all too easy for such comments, even if they’re written fairly and objectively, to come across like sour grapes or bitterness. And it sends a message to your future clients — even right-thinking ones — that if you two end up not working well together, they might have to deal with your airing of the dirty laundry. You might know your comments are fair and deserved, but how does everyone else know that?

If you feel you must blog about the experience, do it with the objective of teaching others what traps to avoid. And leave out the client’s name.

Better to hold your lip, whenever possible, and show your future clients — and current ones — that their behavior won’t be your blog fodder.

]]> By: KOM http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1929 KOM Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:08:38 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1929 I think the problems you are facing are bound to creep up in all projects in one form or another, internal or external. The significance lies in taking advantage of the basic project management templates to soften the blow of them when they DO come up; create a change request form (CRM), a project charter, and conduct a risk assessment and review them with the team. The CRM will create a process to follow (yeah and some work for the requester, which might make it less frequent and more thought out ) when there is a change in the project. First, you need a project purpose to agree upon what the goal is. The charter should have basic 'deliverables' as well as defining what is out of scope. Have the work broken down by task to get a realistic idea of how long its going to take. Documenting all this is a fantastic way of capturing what the agreed upon 'thing' is. It allows you to have an out in Amrit's instances of flaky project sponsors. The risk assessment I've found to best work in a brainstorming environment where everyone writes their ideas down on post-its anonymously and collectively everyone discusses the merits of each one. What it ends up doing is allowing you to have plans and triggers for enacting them should a risk become a showstopper and derail a project. Explain to clients that every report you're compiling as a project update is money they're spending, and you'd be surprised how little of your time they spend on it in the future. You might even find they'll stop being so annoying when they realize the lack of productivity stemming from their requests. I think the problems you are facing are bound to creep up in all projects in one form or another, internal or external. The significance lies in taking advantage of the basic project management templates to soften the blow of them when they DO come up; create a change request form (CRM), a project charter, and conduct a risk assessment and review them with the team.

The CRM will create a process to follow (yeah and some work for the requester, which might make it less frequent and more thought out ) when there is a change in the project. First, you need a project purpose to agree upon what the goal is. The charter should have basic ‘deliverables’ as well as defining what is out of scope. Have the work broken down by task to get a realistic idea of how long its going to take.

Documenting all this is a fantastic way of capturing what the agreed upon ‘thing’ is. It allows you to have an out in Amrit’s instances of flaky project sponsors.

The risk assessment I’ve found to best work in a brainstorming environment where everyone writes their ideas down on post-its anonymously and collectively everyone discusses the merits of each one. What it ends up doing is allowing you to have plans and triggers for enacting them should a risk become a showstopper and derail a project.

Explain to clients that every report you’re compiling as a project update is money they’re spending, and you’d be surprised how little of your time they spend on it in the future. You might even find they’ll stop being so annoying when they realize the lack of productivity stemming from their requests.

]]> By: Christine O'Kelly http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1922 Christine O'Kelly Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:25:05 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1922 This may sound harsh... but I fire those clients as soon as the project ends! When working for someone else, you have to take crap. But one of the joys of freelancing is that you can choose who you surround yourself with. Making the choice to work only with positive, big-picture, forward thinking people has improved my life tremendously. :) Christine This may sound harsh… but I fire those clients as soon as the project ends! When working for someone else, you have to take crap. But one of the joys of freelancing is that you can choose who you surround yourself with. Making the choice to work only with positive, big-picture, forward thinking people has improved my life tremendously.

:) Christine

]]> By: jeremy http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-1907 jeremy Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:32:15 +0000 http://freelancefolder.com/tricks-for-dealing-with-difficult-clients/#comment-1907 That last one is definitely one of the most important, though hardest to implement. We're all in need nowadays, but the time you spend working on a terrible project is time you could have spent looking for the perfect project. Provided such a thing exists That last one is definitely one of the most important, though hardest to implement. We’re all in need nowadays, but the time you spend working on a terrible project is time you could have spent looking for the perfect project. Provided such a thing exists

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