If you are in the service-based industry, then you know that clients can make or break your business success. Clients can be anything from your new business bestie to your own personal referral machine! And sometimes, just sometimes, you get difficult clients that make you want to pull your hair out. Often through no fault of your own!
So I want to help my fellow ladies out and give you the best tips and advice on how to deal with bad clients. It can be a tricky situation to handle and, honestly, we all get these clients every now and then! So it’s best to be prepared, right?
No matter what makes your client bad, difficult, irritating, etc. – you can use the following steps to handle them with professionalism and grace.
Come to the project prepared
The best way to avoid a stressful client situation is to be as prepared as possible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. But it never hurts to be prepared anyway, right?
This means having a strong contract with terms and conditions, office hours and professional boundaries. Difficult or bad clients have little footing when their complaints that fall outside of your contract boundaries.
Since your client signed the contract, they should have a thorough understanding of what they are paying for and what your working style is. Having a solid contract (go into details, ladies!) will save you so much stress and hassle in the long run.
Along with a solid contract, you need to make sure you really understand the project scope. It helps to repeat it back to the client either via email or phone conversation. And make sure you ask all the questions if you need further clarification!
Unfortunately, clients aren’t always easy, no matter how prepared you are. So, now what?
Remain cool, calm, and collected
If a client ever raises their voice at you, you need to keep calm and address them in a collected demeanor. Never ever rise to their bait and yell back.
Always remember, it’s your reputation on the line!
Instead, you should listen to their concerns, without getting defensive. It could be a huge misunderstanding. Or You may have just be their outlet for venting and that’s all there was to it!
Don’t be afraid to remind them of the project scope
If your client oversteps boundaries, whether they are rude to you, message or call outside of office hours, or expect more than your contract dictates, don’t hesitate to let them know! Again, remain calm, collected and let them know in a professional way. Don’t be snarky.
Every time you let them get away with an overstep (even if it’s a simple text), you encourage a habit that you probably don’t want to continue. Be confident in standing up for yourself if their words ever become hurtful, rude, or disrespectful. Client or no client, bad manners are not allowed!
Remember, you have the right to say No – politely, of course. It is completely in your right to restate your terms and conditions in a friendly manner.
Be prompt in your answers
If a client comes to you with a complaint, issue, or concern, you should prioritize replying to them. The longer it takes for you to reply, the worse it looks on you and the more annoyed your client becomes. So let’s avoid that if possible!
Prompt communication will show that you are making your client a priority and lets them know that you acknowledge the issue. Try not to immediately apologize – because it might not even be your fault!
Find out where the problem originated and give a solution
Whether it’s miscommunication or the client expects work that is outside of the work-scope boundary, something went wrong somewhere. It helps to have records of conversations (either by email, or note-taking from phone or virtual meetings).
Regardless of who’s fault this was, find the problem and offer a solution.
If it’s a communication problem, consider upping your client check-ins via email, phone, or face-to-face meetings. Or maybe you should consider integrating project management tools. I use Asana work-flows with my clients and I find it so helpful in keeping expectations and communications updated and understood by both parties throughout the project timeline.
Try and learn from and understand how you can mitigate the problem in the future so it doesn’t happen again.
Note: If it is your fault, admit you were wrong right away and apologize to the client. There is nothing worse than a hired contractor that doesn’t own up to their mistakes. Mistakes are made by all of us, just be real with your client! They will appreciate your honesty.
Ask for Payment
Unfortunately, there will be a client or two in your business journey that loves to pay late, or worse, tries to wrangle out of paying you entirely. You might not even register any of the signals that indicated this client would cause you problems until it was too late.
A good way to try and mitigate this troublesome client is to ask for installment payments for larger invoices. This could be a 50% deposit before the project commences, or monthly installments over the duration of the project.
While this may not prevent this situation from occurring, at least you have half of your hard-earned money in your pocket instead of being ousted the whole paycheck!
If you suspect a client may have a payment problem, try and take on the client as a retainer or just say ‘No’ and don’t sign onto the work! Nobody likes to do work for free if they can help it. Now, because retainers are always paid in advance, you can be at ease knowing you’ve been paid for the work you’ve done, no matter what alternative personality your client ends up having.
Cut your losses or cut the client
Many clients can have difficult moments, but once rules are established or communication is cleared up, they can actually be a delight to have onboard. They might even sing your praises because you went the extra mile for them during a difficult time. When this happens, you likely have a client for life! So any extra work or money lost will eventually pay off tenfold.
But sometimes those bad apples sneak into your client roster, wreaking havoc and causing mayhem that makes you want to cry into your pillow, or at the very least go on vacation…and never come back.
Whether they never pay you, partially pay you, or any other reason that causes more stress on you and your business, you need to consider your options.
How do you deal with a bad client that doesn’t improve?
Even if you’ve tried all of the tips I’ve just given you, you still may not be able to fix the problem or come to terms with an outrageously bad client. Unfortunately, this happens. So now what do you do?
You might need to terminate this client.
Remember, bad clients can be a huge cost to your business. The time you spend dealing with them or the mental stress they induce is NOT worth the money – no matter how high the paycheck is.
Review and learn from this experience
The one great thing that can be learned from bad clients, is that they teach exactly what you don’t want to happen. And hopefully, you can learn how to avoid it.
Whether it’s being aware of ‘bad client signals’, integrating project management tools, or re-wording contracts, you now know what needs to be altered going forward with new and future clients so you never have to experience this problem again.
Hopefully, this never happens to you, but always feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I am happy to help!
