×

8 Strategies For Dealing With Difficult Clients

Category: Customer Experience

8 Strategies For Dealing With Difficult Clients

8 Strategies For Dealing With Difficult Clients

It doesn’t matter what you do, who you work with, or how picky you are with your customers—at some point, every small business owner, independent contractor, freelancer, and self-employed person has to deal with difficult clients..

But just because challenging clients are a part of running a successful business doesn’t make them any easier to deal with! Managing difficult clients is frustrating, time-consuming, and—depending on what they’re being difficult about—can have a significant impact on your business.

That’s why, as business owners, it’s imperative to know how to deal with difficult clients. When you know how to deal with challenging clients, you can better manage your customers and maintain your client relationships—even when your clients insist on being a thorn in your side.

But how, exactly, do you do that? Let’s take a look at eight must-know strategies for dealing with difficult customers:

 

1. Set Clear Expectations

Here’s the truth: some clients are going to be difficult no matter what you do. But many difficult client relationships can be avoided by getting on the same page from the get-go—and that means setting clear expectations from day one.

Setting clear expectations at the very beginning of your client relationships (and making sure your client understands those expectations) can help you avoid misunderstandings in the future—and can help you avoid difficult interactions with your client as a result.

When you start working with a new client, schedule a meeting to discuss and cement all the details of your working relationship. Walk through everything that could be relevant (or could be potentially misunderstood) in the future. This includes:

  • Your business background. You never want a client to say you misrepresented yourself or your business—so before you start working together, you’ll want to outline your business background, including years of experience in your industry, the type of projects you specialize in, and your experience with the type of project or work they’re looking to hire for.
  • Professional services. You and your client need to be on the same page on what, exactly, you’re being hired to do. What services are you going to perform for the client? 
  • Timeline. Many clients get upset when projects aren’t completed in a timeframe they deem appropriate—so make sure you outline realistic timeframes and project deadlines. And, in order to avoid any confusion, be as specific as possible. So, for example, if you’re a general contractor hired to renovate a kitchen, don’t just give a date when the project will be complete; walk through approximate timeframes for each part of the project, like demo, cabinet installation, and painting. 
  • Pricing. If you want to avoid client challenges, one of the most important areas to set clear expectations? Your pricing structure. Review your entire pricing structure with a client before taking on a project, including the total amount due upfront, payment terms, the payment schedule, when the final payment is due, and what happens in the case of a late payment or unpaid invoice, including late fees and interest charges.

Once you’ve reviewed all this information with your customer (this is the important part!), put everything into a written contract—and have the client read and sign that contract. Having a signed contract adds a layer of protection for future disputes; for example, if, after completing a project, the client doesn’t want to pay the full amount because they say it’s different from your original pricing, you can point to the contract—the contract that they signed—and easily resolve the dispute. (Written contracts are also much easier to enforce than oral agreements.)

 

2. Have Firm Boundaries

Setting boundaries is an important part of running a successful business—but it’s especially important when it comes to managing hard-to-deal-with clients.

Without boundaries, clients with a natural inclination towards being difficult can (and will!) walk all over you—and the relationship can quickly become unmanageable.

There are a few different areas where you’ll want to set clear boundaries with your clients, including:

  • Communication. Setting boundaries around your communication is a must, especially if a client can be difficult. Let your client know how and when they can get in touch with you with project-related questions or concerns. For example, you might tell them you’ll respond to emails or phone calls between 9am and 6pm, Monday through Friday, but text messaging is off limits—and you won’t respond to any communication requests on nights or weekends. Then, make sure to stick to those boundaries; once you respond to a late-night text message from the client—even after telling them that texting and after-hours communication is a no-no—you’ll likely find yourself inundated with texts for the remainder of the project.
  • Project scope. If you don’t have clear boundaries on what your project entails—and what it doesn’t—it can be easy for the project scope to expand. But often, difficult clients will request changes to the project and not want to pay for those changes—so set clear boundaries around the project scope from the get-go and make sure to draw up a new contract any time the client makes a request for a change.
  • Treatment of staff members and contractors. If you have employees or subcontractors working with a client, you want to make sure your team is being treated with respect. Refuse to tolerate any disrespect, inflammatory language, or other type of mistreatment from your client to yourself and your team—and if they step out of line, let them know the behavior is unacceptable.

3. Commit To Professionalism

When you’re dealing with a truly difficult customer, it can be easy for your emotions to get the best of you. But as a business owner, it’s important to stay calm, separate business from personal, and commit to a sense of professionalism in all your interactions with the client.

During, keep things professional. If you find yourself face-to-face with an upset or angry client, give them the space to share their frustration—but don’t mirror their anger. When you have to navigate difficult conversations or challenging project check-ins, be aware of your facial expressions and body language. Conduct yourself in a professional manner in all your interactions with your clients—even (and especially) when they’re acting anything but professional.

Side note: there’s a difference between keeping things professional and opening yourself or your team up for abuse. If you’re dealing with an exceptionally angry customer—and the customer is screaming, yelling, or being abusive—the most professional thing you can do is walk away from the conversation until they calm down.

 

4. Document Everything

As mentioned, one of the go-to’s for hard-to-deal-with clients is the “he said, she said” game; they’ll claim you said, did, or promised one thing—while you know that you said, did, or promised nothing of the sort.

Having a written contract at the start of the project will help to avoid a lot of these “he said, she said” misunderstandings. But there are plenty of opportunities for misunderstandings after the contract has already been drawn up—which is why it’s important to document all your interactions with the client.

Keep a record of all the phone calls with your client; after the phone call, write down the time, date, and what was discussed. If you have a video call, do the same thing. Keep all your emails and other written communication in a folder. Not only will having documentation of all your client interactions help you to address any misunderstandings with the client in the future, but it will also be helpful if you end up having to take legal action against the client (or they decide to take legal action against you).

 

5. Own Up To Your Mistakes

There’s a difference between difficult clients and unhappy clients. If the reason your client relationship is difficult is that you dropped the ball or under-delivered on your project, it’s important to own up to that.

If a customer is upset because of what they perceive to be a problem on your end, listen to how the client feels—and if their concerns are warranted, it’s important to take every step necessary to address the client’s concerns and right the situation

For example, if a client is being difficult—and, after a conversation, you find out the reason is that your crew has been arriving at the job site an hour late every day? Own up to the mistake, apologize to the customer, and take any steps necessary to ensure, moving forward, your crew arrives on time and ready to work—and follow up with the client to make sure that happens.

Bottom line? Unhappy customers are different from difficult customers; they’re unhappy for a reason—and as a business owner, it’s important to address that reason and fix it.

 

6. Don’t Take The Blame When It’s Not Warranted

It’s important to own up to any mistakes you make with your clients. But some clients will want you to take the blame even when things aren’t your fault—and in those cases, it’s important to hold your ground.

For example, if your crew shows up late to a home improvement job site, that’s on you. But if your client isn’t home to let them in when they arrive (and the job starts late as a result), that’s on them—or if there’s a natural disaster that shuts down roads and your crew can’t safely get to the job site, that’s on no one.

The point is, you always want to listen and acknowledge your clients—but you don’t need to accept the blame from a difficult client for situations that are out of your control.

 

7. Escalate The Situation When Necessary

Sometimes, you can do everything right when dealing with difficult clients—but you still don’t get the outcome you want or need.

And in those situations, sometimes the best thing to do? Escalate the situation. There are a variety of situations where you might need to take things to the next level when dealing with a difficult client, including:

  • The client refuses to pay for outstanding invoices. A non-paying client that refuses to settle an outstanding invoice (despite your best efforts) can negatively impact your business’ cash flow—and you may need to escalate the situation and send a demand letter or take them to small claims court in order to collect and settle the non-payment. You could also send the unpaid bill to a debt collection agency—and allow the collection agency to handle the debt collection/nonpayment issue for you.
  • Fee disputes. If you and your client disagree on the amount of money owed for a job or project—and you can’t come to an agreement on your own—you may need to have the dispute mediated by a law firm.
  • Breach of contract. If your client is in direct breach of a contract (whether that’s by ignoring unpaid bills for a certain amount of time or refusing to settle unpaid fees that are past due), it’s within your legal rights to take them to court for violating the contract.

Making the choice to take legal action against a client isn’t easy; not only can it make an already challenging client situation more difficult, but there are also significant costs involved (including the time investment and the legal fees to cover an attorney or law firm’s legal services). Before you decide to escalate a client situation, talk to a lawyer for legal advice—and make sure it’s the best course of action for you.

 

8. If A Client Becomes Too Difficult To Deal With? Just Walk Away

All of these strategies can help you more effectively navigate challenging client relationships. But if you’ve tried everything on this list and a client is just too difficult to deal with, the good news? You can always just walk away.

As a business owner, the decision-making power lies with you; you get to decide who you work with and who you don’t. And if a client becomes too much of a hassle, you can always walk away—and make room in your schedule for clients who are going to be easier to work with.

This article first appeared on hourly.io.

Deanna deBara - 8 Strategies For Dealing With Difficult Clients
-Deanna deBara is a freelance writer living in Portland, OR. When she’s not busy building her business or typing away at her keyboard, she enjoys spending time hiking in the Pacific Northwest.

how-to-increase-sales-by-improving-your-customers-buying-journey

A customer’s buying journey is a path of interactions with the business. It covers all the points from the discovery to the final phase of purchase. In order to make your ecommerce business more effective, it is important to make this journey as smooth as possible. The idea is to stop the customer from leaving midway through the buying process. While every customer has their own unique buying journey, there are certain guidelines which an online business can follow to make the process more convenient and approachable.

Personalize:

As each customer is unique, it is imperative for an online business to ensure that the individual needs of a customer are properly met. This important strategy to attract online customers can take several different forms. You may have to personalize your website linguistically if you are catering to customers from different countries. You may also need to bring about customization for accepting different currencies. Ideally, online businesses should use progressive web apps methodology to give their clients a seamless experience. Personalization ensures that your clients are able to carry out their business in the most efficient manner possible. However, it should also be ensured that your website is still quick to load even after customization.

Attention to Analytics:

Data has become an important tool for online businesses everywhere. Organizations use data to devise new strategies, with an aim to make the buying journey of a customer smoother and increase sales online. It will also help in decreasing payment friction, which is one of the most prominent reasons behind cart abandonment. Another important step to take in this regard is to revamp your checkout page. Your website may also offer the choice to save some of the vital information, so that the customer does not have to add details every time they carry out a transaction. This will save time and energy of the customer.

Make it Interactive and Immersive:

Studies have shown that the customers react positively to online businesses that offer interactive and immersive experience. Since online transactions lack the personal rapport, the ecommerce businesses need to make an effort to replicate the real-life experience to increase sales online. This will also allow the clients to make informed decisions, further reducing the likelihood of incomplete buying journey. This step will also help in optimizing the product return ratio, where the clients had to send back the products which did not meet their requirements. As experience becomes more interactive and immersive, the buying journey will also become more productive.

Also Read: Boost sales conversion with the right payment integration strategy

Offer Assistance:

As online buying journey lack the personal touch, it is important that your website offers maximum possible assistance to the clients. There are several automated tools available in the market for implementing this strategy to attract online customers. Whether you choose to employ a chatbot or install a live chat function, it is highly likely that your clients will appreciate this additional help. These steps will also enhance customer engagement, leading to a loyal client base. Even if your business is not in position to offer 24/7 helpline, communicating official hours to your customers will increase the engagement level.

Identify Pain Points:

Since buying journey is a continuous process, it is important to recognize various pain points which hinder the smooth experience for clients. For some customers, the problem may lie with product discovery while others may face issues while checking out. To resolve these issues, it is important to look at the data generated through these transactions and undertake remedial measures. It is also vital that you update your online business with latest technological tools to boost safety and security.

Also Read: Grow Your Business by Offering Alternative Payment Options

how-to-give-your-customers-a-compelling-digital-experience

With more and more people opting for online shopping, it has become vital for businesses to provide a compelling digital experience. Currently, physical stores are quickly shifting online and competing with existing e-commerce stores to grab shopper attention and achieve better sales. So, to survive this extremely competitive landscape, it is important to come up with strategies to enhance your customers’ online experience. Here are some tips that can help you.

Get to Know Your Market:

While knowing your market well is the key to success in any business, be it online or offline, it is more important for online businesses, as there is so little direct interaction. It is important to tailor your business practices to provide customers with the best possible online shopping experience. Knowing your market well will let you design your business and website in a more appropriate manner. You will be in a better position if you are thoroughly acquainted with your market. Further, you can also fix the right prices to optimize your revenue and profits. These things are not possible unless you carry out a proper analysis of your target market.

                        Also Read:4 Easy Steps to Improve Your Payment Experience

Revamp Your Online Storefront:

In order to enhance your clients’ digital experience, it is important to provide them customized services. The customization will start with the layout of your website. Make sure your online storefront meets the requirements of your target market. The online store should also be designed in such a manner that your clients do not have any problem navigating through different pages of your website. The processes and procedures used in your online business should be simple enough so that they do not require any excessive explanation.

Focus on Your Social Media Engagements:

Online marketing is one of the biggest determinants of your digital success. And social media is an important part of the online marketing strategy. The best way to go about social media is to integrate it with your online business. Such integration will allow your clients to share their purchases and experiences with your entire target market, providing you with “word of mouth”promotion.There are several actions you can undertake to motivate your customers to share their experiences online. You can set up a reward system where such promotions may result in discounts and other such incentives. You may also want to integrate your offline and online promotion services, to make them more effective.

Make it a Team Effort:

Enhancing the digital experience of your clients will require team work. Online experiences are not the sole responsibility of your digital media team. Coordination within departments is required for your clients to enjoy a seamless experience. For example, the finance department may be required to coordinate to ensure that your clients are able to make their online payments in the most efficient and economic manner. For this, adopting a reliable, fast and secure payment gateway is essential too. Go for a gateway that accepts multiple currencies and offers various payment modes. This will make checkout easier for all kinds of customers.

Seamless Multi Channel Experience:

If you are looking to provide a holistic experience to your clients, it is important that you undertake a multi channel strategy. However, these different channels should be integrated in a seamless manner. The customer care service should be prompt and responsive to the needs of your shoppers. If you are in hybrid mode, where you have both online and offline outlets, then it is important that your clients are able to spread their transactions across these channels. For example, your clients may want to browse your items online and then pick them up from on offline store. Similarly, they may want an offline shopping experience but the ability to make online payments.                  

All in all, the current crisis has made it vital for businesses to adopt the latest technology. To make their shoppers’ digital experience exemplary.Hence, keeping the above tips in mind will help you stay ahead of competition.

Also Read:5 Online Mobile Shopping Best Practices to Improve Customer Experience

Top-Ways-to-Boost-Referral-Traffic-and-Attract-Customers

Referral traffic is the number of people who visit your website through your links posted on other websites. However, not all referral traffic is the same. While you try to increase your referral traffic, it is also important to pay attention to the quality of your referral traffic. Remember that good quality traffic leads to higher sales and consequently better revenue. Here are some of the tips which will help you gain more and better quality referral traffic.

Collaborate: One of the most tested methods of generating referral traffic is to collaborate with other media players. You can start by referring other businesses on your website, which may in turn refer your business on their websites. Such swapping is essential for building initial momentum. This method of referral generation leads to an exponential increase in traffic. There are also several online platforms which specialize in such referral networks. You can become a part of such networks where different patrons help each other by providing mutual referrals. On an individual basis, you can start by referring your family, friends or other acquaintances’ businesses and build on it.

Offer Incentives: While you may start by referring your personal network’s businesses, after a while, you will need to ramp up your game. You can increase you referral potential by offering incentives to people who are willing to endorse your business. You can start providing freebies or other incentives to your regular customers. This step will not only help you build your referral network, but will also help in gaining repeat purchases. You can offer special discounts or free items every time any of your existing customers refers your business. It is helpful to keep such a system tier-based, which means, you can provide higher or more lucrative incentives when such referrals get converted into sales. With this one step, you can make sure your existing customers become more loyal to your business, while generating new clients at the same time.

Start Blogging: Blogging is an excellent way to create and maintain an online presence. Apart from creating your own blog, where you can offer helpful information, you can also generate referral traffic by posting guest blogs. Writing guest blog posts also helps in enhancing the visibility of your business. However, in order to maximize the potential of guest blog posts, it is important that you provide value to the blogs you are writing on. You can do this by identifying customer pain points and then offering solutions for them. It is also imperative that you pick the right platform. For this purpose, you should identify your target market and then engage with the bloggers who are active in that segment.

Use Local Partner Sites: Your business may be online, but it does not mean that all the promotional activities also have to be carried out online. One of the most efficient ways of promoting your business offline is to work with local partner sites. You can start by sponsoring some local events. However, such events should be closely related to your core business. You can also carry out speaking assignment at such events. Such programs let you connect with people organically, ultimately helping you in boosting your business. While you may start with local events, later on, you can expand your horizons to attend distant events as well.

Work on Your Landing Page: You can also recalibrate your website to generate high referral traffic. You should ensure that your landing page is not only attractive but is functional as well. You can further boost the traffic to your website by adding calls to action on your main page. Apart from putting in relevant information there, you can also add testimonials on your landing page to induce new visitors to make a purchase. The page should be divided into appropriate categories to make navigation easier. As a finishing touch, all your buttons and calls to action should stand out to persuade your clients to take an action.

All in all, every business has its unique features, and your strategy to boost your referral traffic should be in line with your goals. However, the above tips are likely to work for all types of businesses. With these easy to implement steps, you can ensure that your business is in full swing.

How-to-Win-More-Loyal-Customers-with-Email-and-Mailbot

Email marketing is widely used by the businesses to increase their market reach. This method is considered to be highly efficient and effective as per prospect cost is amongst the lowest of all the methods available. However, the impact of email marketing campaign is dependent on the way it is carried out. Many businesses may lack the technical knowledge or the resources required for running an effectual email marketing blitz, but here are some of the tips which may help you in overcoming these shortcomings.

Engage Customers: email campaigns may be used for engaging customers in a meaningful manner. For this purpose, you should design upbeat introductory emails so as to create positive impression of your business. The tone of this email should be inviting in nature in order to induce the receiver to visit your website and browse its content. Before you start paying attention to the email body, you should ensure that even subject line is personalized. Such personalization should then be carried out through the entire email. You can also add a list of recommended products in your email. This step will make customers feel more invited to engage with you. However, you should note that such emails do not become too narrowly focused. While it is important to personalize the content, still an effort should be made so that the customer gets to know the entire range of your offerings.

Address Cart Abandonment: while you may be successful at bringing clients to your website, you still may face other issues such as idle browsers and cart abandonment. Idle browsing occurs when a visitor comes to your website but leaves without purchasing any goods. Cart abandonment is the next stage of this issue, where person visiting the website browse the goods, adds a few to their cart but eventually do not purchase them. You can use emails for addressing this issue. For bringing them back and to make them actually complete the purchase process, your email should contain the images and description of the goods they searched for on your website. This step will remind them of the goods they might be interested in but may have forgotten. This way you can not only increase your website traffic but also conversion rate.

Respect Privacy: an effective email campaign is designed to engage customers and for this purpose it may use the data related to such clients. One of the most prominent example in this regard is the incorporation of shopping history in emails. While such incorporation helps in reigniting the customer’s interest in your products, it may also seem like invasion of privacy, if it is not done in the right manner. You should ensure that your email campaign uses only that type of data which is largely non-sensitive in nature. You should avoid using personal details of the client in your emails.

Use MailBots: email campaigns are not one off in nature and need to be carried out in a planned and consistent manner. However, the task may become tedious if you have to implement the entire process manually. In these cases, you can take help of automation processes such as employing mailbots. Such programs generally come with built in email structures, which may then be customized to meet your business’s requirements. You can use such bots for sending all kind of emails, ranging from re-engagement campaigns to introduction mails. These bots are also useful for analytics as you can program them to collect data regarding consumer behavior, inventory level and ordering pattern. You can also create rules for mailbots so that they send out specific emails at specific times, without requiring any further intervention from your side.

Above pointers can help you design an email campaign which yields optimal results. The use of bots for this purpose is highly recommended as it can help you save time, money and other resources. These bots can also help you segregate your entire market using different criterions, helping you create more personalized campaigns for each of these segments. These email campaigns should be able to pique the curiosity and interest of the recipients, ultimately adding to your top line and bottom line.