Dealing With Difficult Customers
If you’re a writer or freelancer of any sort, you’re probably going to have to deal with difficult customers. I’ve had to, and everyone who I know who is also a freelancer (not all of them writers) have also had to deal with the problem of difficult customers.
This article is about some of the things you have to think about in ensuring success even when you’re working with people who range from “misguided” to “complete pain in the arse.”
Most Difficult Customers Are Not Evil Aliens Hell Bent On Stealing Your Soul
For the first point, you need to realise that difficult customers and clients, even ones which seem impossible to deal with, are probably not trying to actively sabotage your life.
To someone who isn’t a freelancer, that sentence will be a “duh” statement to make.
Freelancers know exactly what I’m talking about though.
When you put hours into a piece of work that you know is awesome and then someone with barely legible English says, “that dosent make any the sense,” it really does feel like that client is trying to ruin your life and waste your time.
That’s not their intention though. (In most cases.)
In most cases, difficult customers will have a vision and your work will be something different. They obviously want their vision to come true, and a lot of the time, they get tunnel-vision over it.
Essentially, you’ll have to negotiate with them if they’re being difficult. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Some Difficult Clients Probably ARE Hell-Spawn Who Are Trying To Steal Your Money AND Ruin Your Life
This is an addendum to the first point. It’s a warning in the style of fairy tales. It’s a sad fact of life.
There are difficult clients, and there are scammers, liars and thieves. Occasionally, you’re going to run into them. You’ll learn to see them coming eventually, but it’s likely you’ll get scammed at some point. Here are some things to look out for:
- If you’re selling your writing on Freelance sites, do not write anything until you’ve got an agreement. No ifs, ands or buts. Don’t start working on something if someone messages you that they’re “going to put an order in.” Don’t offer an example piece of writing on their subject, don’t offer a discount because “They’re going to order ten articles tomorrow” if you do. Nope.
- If you’re not writing on freelance sites, state upfront that you expect payment to be given at various stages. You don’t have to charge upfront. You don’t have to get paid in increments. You can do whatever you want. But you need to tell someone upfront what the cost will be and when you expect to get paid.
- State what counts as “aftercare” and what counts as “extras.” Early in my various outings, I didn’t do this. It cost me hugely.
- If something looks shady, it could be. Don’t play risky games. It’s simply not worth it.
- Stereotypes exist for a reason. I’m not saying that the “obviously non-native speaker” contacting you about a “joint venture” through a Vanuatu-proxy is illegitimate, but you’re gambling with your time and money if you don’t at least raise an eyebrow.
- If you get a copy-pasted message that you’ve had before, ignore both.
- When you get scammed, chalk it down to experience and don’t let it drag you down. I have a friend who almost quit writing because he didn’t get paid. I have thought about taking extended breaks from freelance work. Ultimately, every business has bad debts, and writing is no exception.
- Finally, if you suspect someone is using your work without your permission, then come down hard on them. If they haven’t paid and they’re publishing your work, then understand that they have no right to do so. They should be treated accordingly. If it’s an e-book, tell Amazon or whoever. Get them to pull it until you’ve sorted out the issue. If it’s online, contact the site it’s on to say you’re the copyright holder. If it’s the offender’s website, then contact their host to get it pulled. You can’t stop everything, but you can dissuade people, and you have the legal right to do that.
But bear in mind, most people don’t want to scam you. Most people just want to get the best deal they can – and some of them might want to push their luck a little.
Negotiating With A Difficult Customer
I said somewhere above that dealing with difficult customers is a negotiation. It is in a sense. I’d say there are a few key things to think about when it comes to negotiating with a difficult customer:
- They are hiring you for a reason.
The biggest cost for any business is labour. Simply put, if a company could get away with never hiring another person again, they wouldn’t. People cost money, they’re inefficient and they’re less reliable than machines. Also, if you’re the boss of a company, you’re more invested than any outsourced contractor or employee.
So nobody would hire you if they didn’t have to. That means they do need you. There’s a reason for that. If you’re a writer, it’s probably because you can write in a way that your customer can’t. If you’re a web designer or programmer, it’s because you know how to program and they don’t.
Sometimes, you need to gently remind a difficult customer that. For instance, when they want you to write a sales letter in text speak when their target market is in their forties. You’re being hired because of your expertise and technical ability, and it doesn’t do any harm to make suggestions.
- The customer isn’t always right… but it’s their dream.
You have to be careful when you’re negotiating with clients. Sure, their grand idea to create a social network that’s “like facebook but better” is probably stupid in a hundred ways, but you’re dealing with a person’s ambitions and dreams.
If you shatter them, you’re not going to get the job. You’re not going to get the referral and you’re going to get negative press eventually. Be constructive, but not negative.
- Your future business is yours, their future business is theirs.
Nothing you do should impact on your future business. Ultimately, what I said above about a client caring more about their business than you will is true in reverse as well.
Your client doesn’t care about your business. They care about theirs. You should feel the same.
Do I want my customers to succeed? Of course I do. I want every word I write for someone else to make them loads of money, otherwise I wouldn’t help them. But I’m not going to do anything shady, anything that takes attention away from my business, or anything that impacts my ability to generate money in the future.
When I get a client who wants to write a micro-niche website about the next fitness fad, I’ll write the articles for them. I won’t lose sleep over the fact that their website is very likely to come and go. They wouldn’t lose sleep over my business failing.
I won’t include images I don’t have the rights to. I won’t write negative reviews or smear campaigns. That’s ludicrous. If other people want to do that sort of thing fine, but I won’t.
What I’m trying to say is that as a freelancer you cannot accept responsibility for the direction of your customer’s businesses, and any client (you’ll get some) who tries to make you accept responsibility is in the wrong.
(An example: If someone asks you to write a review of a fitness e-book and then gets mad because they’re not an affiliate millionaire and demands you do something else for them, say “no.” It’s not your fault.)
One Secret Key To Negotiating With Difficult Customers
If there’s one thing you absolutely should do that will erase nearly all of your doubts about this, it’s to understand the real world value of your work.
Difficult customers tend to under value your work. Most writers over value their work, though some chronically undervalue it at the same time.
My first ever client (not writing) asked me to do some work for them. It took me one month to complete the project. They offered me £20 for it.
There’s no way that was ever acceptable, and I should have followed all the advice above (and would have if I didn’t have to learn it.)
Your work is worth more than $0.0001 a word.
Your work is more than a “free internship for the experience.”
Your time is the most valuable thing you have.
Don’t sell yourself short.
When dealing with difficult customers, be conscious of this fact. And the key thing is you mustn’t be afraid to walk away.
You’ll probably have to revise some work. There’s a difference between re-writing and revising.
If someone repeatedly tells you to start from scratch, then there’s no shame in saying, “You’re doubling the time this project is going to take. This will alter the price.”
The key to negotiating with difficult customers is to understand how much their demands affect your profitability. Remember the point above: Your Business = Your Future. Their business, not so much.
If you consistently work for nothing because you’re scared to upset clients (most of us have been at that point, so don’t worry) you’re treading water or moving backwards. At some point, you need to move to a place where you get the right value for your work.
Don’t wait too long. Value your work, value yourself, and you’ll be happier and better off for it.