Managing Difficult Clients

by Mary Ellen Bates, Bates Information Service

One of the issues that come up frequently in conversations with fellow infopreneurs is how to deal with difficult clients. They come in all sizes and styles—the never-satisfied micromanager, the client who goes incommunicado, the penny-pincher who wants you to do more for less, or the one who keeps changing the scope of the project. They make us question our expertise and our value, and we wonder how we can extricate ourselves from a bad situation.

Of course, viewed from the proper perspective, there are no bad clients—just clients that aren’t a good fit for you. And while I can count the number of troublesome clients I’ve had on one hand, I treat each of these experiences as a chance to learn something. Rather than beat myself up for failing to anticipate the mismatch, I ask myself these questions:

• What came up during my engagement call with the client, as we were discussing the parameters and purpose of the project? Were there questions she asked that, in retrospect, indicated a lack of confidence in my abilities? Was my client clear on what she wanted as an outcome?

• Did my client comment that I was more expensive than other contractors, or otherwise show he was particularly price-sensitive? Was this project addressing a problem that was worth my fee to resolve? To be honest, sometimes our client’s need just isn’t important enough to the client to pay our professional rate. Was the client essentially coming to a five-star restaurant and trying to order a cheeseburger and fries to go?

• Did my proposal include a clear scope of the deliverable? Did I fully grasp the scope of the project and what problem it was addressing? Did I really understand what my client was going to do with the results of my work?

• Did I build in enough mid-project checkpoints to ensure that my client and I were on the same page throughout the engagement? Did I ever feel afraid that I was missing the mark or didn’t really understand all aspects of the job?

• When it became apparent that my client was not going to be delighted with the results of my work, how did I handle the situation? Often, the most effective question I can ask an unhappy client is, “What can I do now to make this better?” This moves the conversation away from blame and focuses us both on resolving the client’s concern and moving forward. In my experience, the client has always responded to this question by suggesting something modest – a small amount of additional time or a slight refocus.

According to the results of the 2013 National Customer Rage study, reported in the Spring 2014 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review (“What Unhappy Customers Want”), dissatisfied clients don’t necessarily want financial compensation. Rather, they want to be treated with dignity, to receive assurance that the mistake will not happen again, a thank you, and an opportunity to vent. When we treat an unhappy client with respect, they are much more likely to be satisfied with a resolution of the problem.

Mary Ellen Bates has been an infopreneur since 1991. She provides business analysis for strategic decision-makers and consulting services to the information industry. Her passion projects are beekeeping and coaching new and long-time infopreneurs. See more at BatesInfo.com.