Comments on: Grab Bag: “How Do You Deal With A Horrendous Day At Work? My Client Is So Unfair!”

By: admin

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:28:49 +0000

Hi Charlie – Thnx for your thoughts. Yeah, screaming and going bonkers generally never is a good idea. We’ll regret what we say during the heat of the moment. Best to just walk away, do some breathing exercises and drink a tall glass of water before engaging the client again! FS

By: admin

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:27:30 +0000

Thanks Lovingkind. Sometimes we have to focus on the 80/20 rule, and just focus on the top 20% of clients. If the client isn’t big and isn’t nice either, well… it may be time for a change!

By: Lovingkind

Lovingkind — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:05:14 +0000

FS – You are right, maintaining rationale approach and having candid conversation with both clients and managers is important. Not showing frustration in front of our clients makes us appear to be more competent and helps us see things more clearly. (We need to deal with our frustration later, like reading Dr. Sarno’s “Healing Back Pain” :O), lest we get unwanted pains!)

Of course, we can decide whether we want to keep these “difficult” clients after we exhausted all means.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:05:03 +0000

I’ve had my fair share of difficult conversations with clients. I even had one guy start yelling at my staff over the phone once and when I stepped in to console things he hung up on me! I immediately went to my manager and explained what was going on – when clients are really upset things can spiral out of control quickly. We got together with the head of our office and talked to the screaming clients boss who apologized profusely for the outburst and we were able to work through the situation.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:16:57 +0000

Greg – Great advice on not waiting until the review to raise concerns, but to be proactive. Excellent point! Too bad this customer sounds like he thinks he’s more important than he really is. FS

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:45:13 +0000

Customer First!!!

FS I think you first suggestion was the best of all. However, if it was my client I would take it one step further. I would assure the client of my desire to provide only the most value added services or products. To help facilitate this I would suggest to the client that we change the nature of our communications from reviewing performance after the fact to previewing the expected performance in advance.

As I see it, reviews of any type including personnel are kind of stupid. What happened in the past is past. Waiting till review to raise concerns is a waste. Establishing clear understandings and expectations is proactive. Furthermore once we have a common understanding we have a way to measure throughout the relationship to ensure that both parties are meeting their expectations.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:42:56 +0000

Evan – Thnx for your thoughts. Sometimes clients really are a pain, but at the end of the day, they are your clients so we got to just buckle down and focus on solutions. If we don’t, our competitors will. FS

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Reading this post I went back and forth, and still haven’t made up my mind, mostly because I don’t know the emailer or the business, but

On one hand – if the client isn’t happy it is your fault. If you did more work, whatever that work is, maybe they don’t understand that – and that is your fault and you should explain that like FS said.

On the other hand – Sometimes clients are a pain, but they are sticking with you so don’t worry about it

By: John DeFlumeri Jr

John DeFlumeri Jr — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:29:45 +0000

First, keep remembering that it is the client who causes you to get paid, so you can’t throw them out.