Lindsay Casey

Customer Service: When is it time to fire your clients?

I’ve been thinking about customer service a lot lately. As someone who bends over backwards for my clients, I’m realizing that I sometimes feel taken advantage of.

Most of the folks I work with are interesting, creative people who I enjoy spending time with and don’t mind going the extra mile for. I love my clients and I relish making great things happen for them. However, the law of averages must prevail and they can’t all be your favourite. I also value my sanity and have learned that losing one or two demanding clients along the way is not the end of the world.

It’s very difficult to reject business, especially in this economy, but sometimes you need to draw the line between great customer service and abuse of your time and efforts.

5 ways to tell you may need to cut the cord:

  1. They’re always right. If your client is always disagreeing with you  and you can’t seem to say anything right, maybe it’s time to suggest they find someone else who’s opinion they will respect more. The customer is NOT always right.
  2. They’re not profitable. This person’s business is costing you money. Do the math; how much time are you spending on this client vs. the amount they are paying you? When it stops adding up in your favour, it’s either time to approach negotiating a retainer or time to move on.
  3. They’re wasting your time. You are in contact every day, whether you’re working on a current project or not. This person doesn’t value your time. Are you becoming too emotionally invested? Unable to focus on other projects? When your client is draining you this much, it’s time to let them go.
  4. They’re rude. They’re constantly threatening to pull their business and comparing you to your competitors. Dump them. It’s not worth it. If they think someone else provides your services that much better than you, they should take their business to that person.
  5. They’re never satisfied. Even after you’ve lost money, waived deadlines, delivered stellar work and gone above and beyond, they are still not happy. Lose the complainer. It’ll give you the time to find a new client who appreciates the work that you do.

The bottom line is, it’s not easy to break up with a client, but sometimes you have to put your foot down. There is a fine line between providing amazing customer service and being abused. If the latter is happening, your business can’t afford the dead weight. Even if you don’t have another client waiting to take their place, dropping the nightmare client gives you the time to focus on your business plan and find new customers who will value your services.

Have you ever fired a customer? How did you approach it?

Lindsay Casey

Be Honest About Your Abilities

I deal with a lot of different people at my day job. I deal with musicians, audio engineers, small business owners, web designers and music fans. I also deal with a lot of “graphic designers.” I meet a lot of talented folk who can manipulate images beyond my wildest imagination and create amazing eye candy. On the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, the most common end around my office, I deal with a lot of “graphic designers” who aren’t anything of the sort. Let me get my definition straight; knowing how to add text to a picture on a ripped copy of Photoshop does not make you a graphic designer.

Why am I ranting about this? Because I’m frustrated with people saying they can do something they can’t. I don’t mind working with amateurs; let’s face it, I can be pretty naive about some things myself, but I have had it with people who claim to be professionals yet make the most novice mistakes in the book and get offended when you call them out on it.

This morning, I got an email from one of those “graphic designers” whose artwork I had rejected for print due to low quality. He emailed me saying “what is dpi? I haven’t heard that term before.” You’ll likely think I’m making this up, but I’m not! After I explained how print resolution works, he sent me a file about a tenth of the size he wanted. I tried to explain how to rebuild the file. He got mad and said that HOTMAIL must be re-sizing his Photoshop file. I gave up and redid it for him, which is, guess what… NOT MY JOB.

I work with plenty of people who aren’t skilled in design. That’s ok, I’m happy to provide advice and help out where I can. However, that’s why we have a graphic designer (not me) on staff to help those who need it. But you have to pay for her services. Her paycheque costs us money. Lots of it, because she’s a professional designer, not some hack messing about with a cracked version of Photoshop and blaming Hotmail for her own inefficiencies.

The point of this rant is that it’s important to be honest about your abilities. Don’t hide your shortcomings. Nobody knows everything and it’s ok to admit when you’re stumped. It makes you much easier to work with and it makes people more forgiving of your mistakes.