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I need some advice on dealing with a tough client

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

ToySoldier

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Hey guys,

I'm a college senior, and have been running a web design business for a few years. An client of mine recently shot me an email asking for changes to be made to her site. It was a pretty simple copy/paste job, and took about 40 minutes.

My hourly rate is $30, and that's stated in both her quote and contract. I billed her $15 for the half four of work. Upon sending her the invoice for my work (and her domain renewal), I receive this email in response to our scheduled phone meeting next week:

You are charging me for the minor changes? I understand the domain fee, but isn't it just a copy and paste thing on your end? Are you charging me for the few minutes I'll be talking to you? Please give me a heads up, going forward. My changes were very minimal.

How the hell do I handle this gracefully?
 
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SquatchMan

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Don't charge her. I always recommend not nickel and diming people.

My preferred method is having an hourly rate for updates and other fixes (so they respect your time) and then just saying, "It's on the house" after fixing the problem if it only takes a few minutes.

Now my client feels like they're getting a really good deal and it ups my customer service score in their mind.

Could I charge them $15 for 5 minutes of work?

Sure.

Would they enthusiastically refer someone that nickle and dimed them?

Probably not. I'd just be the average business with lousy customer service.

Would they enthusiastically refer someone that said "It's on the house" after fixing their problem?

Hell yes. I'm the first firm they refer when someone asks, "Do you know a good web design firm?"
 

Chazmania

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Agreed - don't charge it.

Regardless of which service business you're in, doing small things for free are a chance to create the perception of value and will most likely come back to you in good ways. If you insist on charging for something it's better to bring it up ahead of time to make sure everyone is on the same page.
 
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The-J

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There's always a disconnect between what the client thinks is 'minimal' and what the worker thinks is 'minimal'. If it took you 40 minutes, then it took you 40 minutes and the charges should reflect that. Why did a simple copy and paste job take 40 minutes, unless it was extensive and to dozens of pages? If there's a reason, and the changes were not minimal, you must explain that.

On that note, invoicing for $15 of work is just some silly shit. Save it for the next invoice and maybe you'll consider actually adding that to the charges.

She was passive aggressive, but not wrong. She's wondering if she's going to get an invoice for $4 for a few minutes on the phone. She feels nickel and dimed by some kid.

On the other hand, make sure to express what you will actually invoice for. Make sure to explain how it did take that long. And yes, she might simply be cheap. But I've had instances where freelancers would quote me several hours for a job that I could do in less than a half hour.
 

jon.a

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Hey guys,

I'm a college senior, and have been running a web design business for a few years. An client of mine recently shot me an email asking for changes to be made to her site. It was a pretty simple copy/paste job, and took about 40 minutes.

My hourly rate is $30, and that's stated in both her quote and contract. I billed her $15 for the half four of work. Upon sending her the invoice for my work (and her domain renewal), I receive this email in response to our scheduled phone meeting next week:

You are charging me for the minor changes? I understand the domain fee, but isn't it just a copy and paste thing on your end? Are you charging me for the few minutes I'll be talking to you? Please give me a heads up, going forward. My changes were very minimal.

How the hell do I handle this gracefully?
Did you mark up the renewal fee?
Is there a maintenance fee?
 

Unknown

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Hey guys,

I'm a college senior, and have been running a web design business for a few years. An client of mine recently shot me an email asking for changes to be made to her site. It was a pretty simple copy/paste job, and took about 40 minutes.

My hourly rate is $30, and that's stated in both her quote and contract. I billed her $15 for the half four of work. Upon sending her the invoice for my work (and her domain renewal), I receive this email in response to our scheduled phone meeting next week:

You are charging me for the minor changes? I understand the domain fee, but isn't it just a copy and paste thing on your end? Are you charging me for the few minutes I'll be talking to you? Please give me a heads up, going forward. My changes were very minimal.

How the hell do I handle this gracefully?

Unless she's paying you a monthly fee she should expect to pay for any and all changes. I guess I'm disagreeing with everyone else here, but if a client is upset over a $15 bill I don't particularly want that client.
 
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amp0193

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Hey guys,

I'm a college senior, and have been running a web design business for a few years. An client of mine recently shot me an email asking for changes to be made to her site. It was a pretty simple copy/paste job, and took about 40 minutes.

My hourly rate is $30, and that's stated in both her quote and contract. I billed her $15 for the half four of work. Upon sending her the invoice for my work (and her domain renewal), I receive this email in response to our scheduled phone meeting next week:

You are charging me for the minor changes? I understand the domain fee, but isn't it just a copy and paste thing on your end? Are you charging me for the few minutes I'll be talking to you? Please give me a heads up, going forward. My changes were very minimal.

How the hell do I handle this gracefully?


The dollar amount isn't relevant, the problem is that there was a disconnect between customer expectations and your expectations.

You need to refund her if you want to keep her as a customer, but, more importantly, you need to figure out how to make your billing expectations more clear in the future.

You really have to go overboard when communicating expectations. What you think is clear, might be greek or totally missed by the customer. Even if you reach an absurd level of transparency and clarity, you will still have customers that miss stuff or give you a hard time. These are probably the customers you don't want, and aren't worth your time.
 

Young-Gun

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Here's my perspective after nearly 7 years running my own full-time service business:

- If you want to keep them long term (you probably do), then the "on the house this time" is the way to go.

- BUT - as diplomatically, nicely, (perhaps humorously!) as possible - let her know clearly why you were inclined to charge for your time.
*Help her* to understand what you do for her that she is paying you for. Get her excited about what she's getting for her money, just like when she first signed up with you.
Don't make her feel guilty; just enough so she understands why you were going to charge.

Now, when you put it "on the house" this time, your customer will see that you truly care about giving them a great experience. She'll know that you are a fellow human being, who took time and energy from your busy day to help her out free of charge. That's powerful, as long as she's not a complete moron. And 99% of humans obey the law of reciprocity, which means we basically feel obligated to help those who help us.

And then, yes - everyone in this thread is right: set ultra-clear expectations for ALL customer going forward. Do this both before AND after they pay you. It's a continual process - they probably won't remember "your rules" since they have a busy life, and your business rules are just a tiny part of their busy day.

(Incidentally, obnoxious crap like this is why I'm getting out of my Service Business this year... and building a Product Business instead. A Service Business is predicated on serving, and frankly it can get pretty exhausting).

Expectation-setting is the burden of the Business; as frustrating as it is, you can't hold your Customers responsible for breaking expectations that they weren't aware of.

In my business, I've had to eat some "no-show" charges, simply because the customers freaked out about "not being aware" that they would be charged for a no-show appointment.
To me it's like, what the f*ck? You stood me up while I waited for 90 minutes at the office, and you think that's within your rights to do to me?

But, if I want to keep them as a customer...
And get their friends as customers...
Then usually I have to suck it up.

And over time, I've learned to set the expectation THREE TIMES... if it's a really big deal, three times might not even be enough.
I still have a few customers not realize they'll be charged for no-shows.

And here's the thing - at a *certain* point, you get to ask yourself: Do I really want to keep this customer?
And 90% of the time the answer is yes, because they are paying your rent, and you need that.

Now, if they are TRULY aggravating and exploitive customers - or a repeat offender - then fire them.
Do it nicely ("I think another firm might be able to serve your needs better"), but get rid of them as a customer.
Some money isn't worth the stress or aggravation.

Once you've bent over backwards to provide a great customer service experience - if they are still not showing equal respect - then get the F*ck rid of them, and don't think twice.

But that's probably less than 1% of cases, in my experience.

Hope this helps, sorry for rambling.
 
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Get Right

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I would absolutely charge her...but if she doesn't pay it, I wouldn't chase her for it.

Clients like this tend to ask for more and more and more for free (scope creep) until you get mad, refuse and then the whole deal blows up. This is best avoided by doing exactly what you did with a small invoice. I sometimes send a small invoice just to set this "tone".

As you gain experience you will also find that your idea of 40 minutes is grossly under the actual time you spent. Did you add the time you "thought" about the changes, the time it took to write the invoice, the time it took to post here analyzing the deal?
 
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SquatchMan

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Clients like this tend to ask for more and more and more for free (scope creep) until you get mad, refuse and then the whole deal blows up. This is best avoided by doing exactly what you did with a small invoice. I sometimes send a small invoice just to set this "tone".

It's best avoided by making it clear that you will invoice them at the first sign of scope creep. Waiting until you get mad and then saying no to them is a passive aggressive move.

As you gain experience you will also find that your idea of 40 minutes is grossly under the actual time you spent. Did you add the time you "thought" about the changes, the time it took to write the invoice, the time it took to post here analyzing the deal?

As you gain experience you should spend less time on each client.

My CPA with 30 years of experience can do my tax return in 4 minutes and save me a ton of money (seriously).
A CPA with 2 years of experience can do my tax return in 20 minutes.
 

Walter Hay

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(Incidentally, obnoxious crap like this is why I'm getting out of my Service Business this year... and building a Product Business instead. A Service Business is predicated on serving, and frankly it can get pretty exhausting).
I've only quoted the part I want to comment on. Supplying products doesn't help you escape from unpleasant and unreasonable customers. My two major businesses were both supplying products, although the first one had a big element of problem solving in it also.

I'll give two examples, one from each business:
1. An ex customer (multi millionaire) asked for my expert help to solve a production problem. I solved it and sold him a small amount of my product that was in fact the solution. I spent over a day working in his factory, and the sale was for less than $100. He offered to pay a consultancy fee, but I declined his offer. The upshot was that we became firm friends and he was like an unpaid salesman for me. That day's free work was a great investment for me.

2. A customer complained of faulty products. I called in to collect the faulty items for replacement. Only one was actually my product; the others were all from a competitor. I replaced the lot free of charge and told her what I had done. She became one of my best customers, and the word of mouth advertising was worth a fortune.

Walter
 

Young-Gun

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I've only quoted the part I want to comment on. Supplying products doesn't help you escape from unpleasant and unreasonable customers. My two major businesses were both supplying products, although the first one had a big element of problem solving in it also.

I'll give two examples, one from each business:
1. An ex customer (multi millionaire) asked for my expert help to solve a production problem. I solved it and sold him a small amount of my product that was in fact the solution. I spent over a day working in his factory, and the sale was for less than $100. He offered to pay a consultancy fee, but I declined his offer. The upshot was that we became firm friends and he was like an unpaid salesman for me. That day's free work was a great investment for me.

2. A customer complained of faulty products. I called in to collect the faulty items for replacement. Only one was actually my product; the others were all from a competitor. I replaced the lot free of charge and told her what I had done. She became one of my best customers, and the word of mouth advertising was worth a fortune.

Walter
Hehe, I know I know... was expecting someone to call me out on this exact part, even as I wrote it.

I agree 100%, no argument from me.
Ultimately, it's all about "service", even the product businesses.

That said, I still believe there's an order of magnitude of "service" difference between selling a customized personal service at an hourly rate, vs. selling a pre-packaged product to an audience that needs it.

Hopefully I didn't sound too much like a dick in my original post, I truly am down to provide great service to my customers on any day of the week - just having a rough day and didn't choose my words very carefully amongst other entrepreneurs.

Thanks for pointing it out and I completely agree with what you're saying :)

EDIT: Also, great business stories. I took a few moments to reread them; my "defensiveness" had me explaining myself before I fully let your lessons sink in. Great stories, thanks for sharing!
 
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BlakeIC

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@ToySoldier there is a lot of good recommendations here, do you mind updating us on what you decided and how it turned out?
 

Red

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sorry about this post, I just hit a glitch in the matrix & made a post here that was meant for an entirely different thread...

keep on movin'.... nothin' to see here folks... sorry OP!
 

Roli

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Hopefully I didn't sound too much like a dick in my original post, I truly am down to provide great service to my customers on any day of the week - just having a rough day and didn't choose my words very carefully amongst other entrepreneurs.

Not at all; I was going to write a similar reply, read yours and thought; no need, he's nailed it.
 
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ToySoldier

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@ToySoldier there is a lot of good recommendations here, do you mind updating us on what you decided and how it turned out?

My meeting with her is scheduled for friday morning. I'm gonna let her know that my time isn't free, and stick to my guns. I know it's only $15, but if I let her off the hook now, she'll expect that forever.
 

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