CLIENT: Can you make it less black, like half black?
ME: Do you mean grey?
CLIENT: No. Less black.
ME: Well, there’s black or there’s no black.
CLIENT: We want black, we just want the black to be less black. Like half.
Does this “keeping your cool” dialogue sound familiar to you?
Do you ever hear the same question over and over again from your clients? Or wishes that are sometimes IMPOSSIBLE to grant? Of course, we are not the genies in the bottle, right?
Clients from hell are those people considered to be very annoyingly stupid dealing with their demands which are so unbelievable, unimaginable, unthinkable, impractical, infeasible, and unworkable.
It’s overly frustrating and disappointing, right? It seems like all hell has broken lose- and you can’t hardly wait to grab something and throw it to someone just to control the evil inside you. What the…?!
So how do we cope up with them? Let’s talk about it.
The Relationship
All businesses exist to generate a profit. The concept of competition is a vital component of a free market system. Competition in the marketplace provides the best possible product to the customer at its best price.
The market system determines the winners and losers in each industry, based on the demands of the customer. For aspiring web developers and designers, there is a great need for risk to launch a business, putting up capital, with the hope that the product or service will succeed. Satisfying a demand is very hard to determine from a client’s point of you.
Ambiguous and absurd demands coming from thousands of clients signal you that there is something wrong. It is up to you to find solutions to cater their demands. Before anything else, you must consider that in every industry, there are limitations.
Limitations in Giving Service
Extending your service and time for certain clients should be taken into consideration. It is important to know how to handle these “clients from hell”.
Pleasing someone
Talking about business, it is always the idea of getting many clients as possible, clients that you think want you. Turning them down is the least option that you should think of. Accepting all possible prospects, you might just don’t know, can be harmful to your business. The truth is, a successful business means knowing who you want to serve and who matches best for your services or products. Focus on your target market.
The hard-headed clients
You don’t have to stay connected with difficult people. Stick to clients who are easy to talk with and those who appreciate your efforts. Learn to say “NO” if the scenario is too much to handle.
Entertain only the productive ones
A business should cater to deserving clients. Work with productive clients. They are useful in the progress and operations of your business.
Set limits
In extending your service to a certain client, it is very important have control and limit to where the end of everything is. If not, clients will distract you and trigger you to lose focus on your target market. This results to decrease in profit and low motivation to work.
Protect yourself
Sometimes giving your output and services of a certain project which will likely dissatisfy your client can make them disappointed. They will tell their friends and colleagues negative things about you. Oh my! Character assassination in progress! So be cautious.
5 Effective Steps for Handling Jackass Clients
Customer service, according to Wikipedia, is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.
It is a given fact that any individual engaged in business has to deal with an upset client, especially in web design and web development industry. The challenge is how to handle the situation. If you’re effective with this, clients can support your brand passionately.
Doing business is difficult, so it is very vital to understand these few things in hand. In dealing with your clients from hell, you might consider these. You have to:
- Listen
Active listening is essential to any business negotiation. The ears plays a vital role in the industry. By listening to our clients, you are able to get their demands accurately and render them service effectively.
- Ask
There is no harm in asking. By asking you are able to understand more what your clients actually want and help you find alternative solutions to problems.
- Design/Create
It is really hard to create and design something out of nothing. Demands from clients also need to be satisfied by your creativity and originality.
- Responsibility
In dealing with clients, you must consider that you should be responsible with your words and decisions towards your clients, like delivering accurate and effective ideas as part of your service. This measures your capability to impose what is good and what is not for your client.
- Gratify
All business transactions ends well with proper appreciation and fulfilling gratification. Every web designer and developers have to extend their gratitude to give their clients a feeling of warm satisfaction.
Operation Target : 20 Recommendable Busters for “Clients from Hell”
Clients from hell can really give you a hard time. They are like insects and parasites! They don’t give real benefits to your business. Getting rid of them is very necessary.
Putting up a business is difficult without someone to patronize or buy your merchandize. Clients are the catalysts that make your business moving. There are “difficult” ones and there are “nicer” ones. There is a rainbow of them out there with varying diabolical characteristics.
Here are some suggestions and recommendations for you. I hope some will work for you.
1. Embrace Mr. Politeness
Learn to be polite but be someone with dignity and firmness in making up with your decision. Try to negotiate with them with short-term projects. You don’t want to waste your energy and resources with them, but be polite in doing so. Be nice.
2. Identify their real game
Try to know what they really want from you. Actually, some clients don’t know what they want, so it makes your blood boil every time you have the transaction. This is not an easy thing to do.
3. Sour them
Try to make an impression that would make them feel that your company is not competitive and highly efficient when it comes to your web design service. Let them understand from their point of view. Or refer some other companies .
4. Accept your responsibility
They always say that customers are always right- even in the hardest time of your business life. Learning to understand clients is a great responsibility. Business won’t work if there are no customers. If some people complain because they are dissatisfied, make sure to listen and take responsibility. By doing so, you can solve the problem.
5. Dissatisfy them unintentionally
Repeat offenses have no place in retaining customers. Having the feeling of disappointment towards something can be a very good strategy. They can manifest a feeling of unhappiness and anger, which trigger them never to go back and have that hell experience with you again.
6. Peel like onions
Let them understand little by little. Consider the process of peeling an onion layer by layer. As you expose each layer, you discover little by little what they really are looking for and you are getting closer to resolving their problems and demands.
7. Shut up and listen
Clients are like difficult spouses. They always brag and demand. They generally want the impossible. In cases like this, it is better to shut up and listen until they stop. After everything cools down, try to tell them everything they have said. A sense of realization is needed. Most people just want to be heard and respected.
8. Affirm!
Clients from hell are usually confused. To hasten the situation, understanding what you are doing and knowing your position- it creates a good effective communication towards your clients. After affirming your clients, think of a solution! Affirming towards your difficult customers doesn’t mean you agree with them; it means that you respect their concern and create a solution for a win-win situation.
9. Suck their money out
If you want to work with a good client, raise your rates to accommodate the extra time it will take you to get this client’s project done. Disturbing clients from hell can eat up your resources. It is very detrimental to your assets and valuable resources. It is a good idea to charge more to compensate other damaged resources.
10. Yes, Sir! Yes, Madam!
Hard headed clients are very hard to reconcile with. There is no other way but to agree with them. Praise them, give them compliment and make them feel they are gods of profound intelligence! This will hasten their disappointment and leaving them with no choice but to go away.
11. The power of empathy
Clients from hell are hungry and thirsty for self-nourishing empathy! You should provide your customers with understanding and they will surely be like tamed dogs to work with. Change the mood of the their problem and turn them into positive mood. Empathy saves the day!
12. Word Flavor!
Use kind words even how harsh your client talks to you. In this case, you can control the situation by using selected words to get their attention. A tremendous level of self control and patience is needed in this scenario, which can save you and your business.
13. Mouthwash their mouth
In every uncontrollable situation dealing with your clients that are so way out of hand, it is better to give them a sense of homily. By giving them some dose of their own medicine can help stop them from being too cranky. Tell them that there is nothing to argue with you since you heard what they have been saying. This needs energy for an explosive conversation to end everything.
14. Write it on
Some clients’ mind change gradually. They don’t have a fix decision, which results to unlikely arguments. The solution? Do everything in writing! Difficult people can be less difficult when agreements are “written”. It records all transactions. With this, everything can be proved. Document all conversations and take down notes.
15. Befriend them
You might always hear from someone the saying that goes: “If you can’t beat them, join them!” It might be hard sometimes but any difficult client is an opportunity. Turn this out into positivity. Treating these “pain-in -the-ass morons” as your best friend would make you and your company be better by gaining their trust.
Case Closed
Even if your website is the most profound and precise masterpiece, you will still get violent reactions and from clients that makes you want to pull their heads out.
Satisfying your clients and making them happy will surely reward you with limitless beauty of money. One thing for sure, getting rid of clients from hell is worth the move! So, how do you get rid of them?
It’s Getting Hot in Here! Keeping Your Cool in Front of “Clients from Hell”
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