The truth is that there are going to be clients that are nothing but a pleasure to work with then those that are nightmares from the beginning. Doing test campaigns or projects before entering any long-term contracts is important. A nightmare client can take attention off of clients that know what they want and when they want it. Vetting clients is necessary and companies of a certain size can be a bit pickier than a small business with the clients they simply tell no when asked to do another project together. The following are tips to deal with the different issues that are staples of behavior by nightmare clients.
Awful Communication
There are some clients that are awful with communication or simply just hear what they want to hear. There is a great remedy here but sending a recap of what was discussed in a meeting immediately after. Ask them to acknowledge they received it as this can be a paper trail if they claim you did not do what you agreed when an order is complete. For those clients that go a week between approving milestones for a project for example, delay the deadline of the project. There is no use for your staff to rush due to the negligence of a company that didn’t respect your company enough to even answer after multiple follow ups. Put responsiveness as a caveat for a deadline as this can be a lifesaver later.
Constantly Changing The Scope Of Projects
Changing the scope of a project is not a problem is a client is willing to pay for the work that has been done. Milestones as mentioned above can be great for projects like that of a website design or a content marketing campaign. Checking in with the client makes sure there is less of a difference between what the client wants and what is delivered. Lack of deadlines can lead to the company producing something the client doesn’t want leaving both parties unhappy with how a project went.
Want To Hit Deadlines, Except When It Comes Time To Pay
Hitting deadlines of any kind is a staple of a quality company so hitting deadlines for even the most difficult clients is imperative. A business lawyer is important to have on retainer in cases that the only issue a client has is when it comes time to pay. Making payment terms as clear as possible is important as ambiguity could lead to a company paying months after work has been completed. This can happen with large businesses that are contracting out work to smaller businesses or freelancers. The client thinks that due to their large legal team that they can take advantage of smaller entities. With the right legal team this can be untrue but the best thing that can happen is to collect payment then part ways with the client. If a client is not willing to pay under the terms that are set, they likely are going to stiff a company on a payment at some point.
Nightmare clients being dropped can allow for staff morale to increase as well as overall productivity. You would be surprised the energy that is taken from staff that work on nightmare client accounts.