Handling Unprofessional Clients
I recently had a request that got me thinking about professionalism from clients. As business people, web designers make the best effort to treat our clients with respect but as we know very well we don’t always get that professional treatment in return. Here are a few stories from the trenches of web design.
Requests from potential clients
These types of requests are my top deal breakers.
I’ll tell all my friends. You’ll get lots of work.
This is probably the first thing any beginning web designer will hear and its usually a friend that says it. Beginners tend to get picked on a lot. Funny thing is that this particular thought process never seems to go away. Even after 10 years in the industry I still get this offer. I guess they think because I don’t have loads of sites in my portfolio that I’m starving. Imagine their shock when I tell them that I teach web development, design and windows programming.
While this request might sound enticing, it usually doesn’t work. What kind of friends does someone who can’t or won’t pay have? Probably other friends who can’t or won’t pay. How many plumbers out there would fix your plumbing just because you might refer them so new clients? Micah had a post on how to give a client a break without looking like the “cheap guy” in web design. Go back and read it.
It shouldn’t take long for an experienced web designer
This one really fries me. I really don’t understand how someone who doesn’t know a thing apparently knows how long it will take a web designer/developer to build anything. My favorites are always when they ask for a clone of MySpace, Facebook, Ebay or something of that nature. Usually these requests come with impossible schedules. These requestss are usually accompanied by ridiculously low budgets. Educating some of these clients will sometimes work but not always.
Add my site to your portfolio to make you look good.
We all know that a strong portfolio of previous work helps you get new clients. They all want to see what you’ve done. However, (And this one really steams me off) this statement normally comes from the bottom feeders. They really can’t afford your services. I normally counter requests like this with “Well why don’t you give me your service/product for free. I’ll wear a tshirt that shows I used your product/service or drive the car or …” It’s essentially the same. I’ve even had a request that “allowed” me to have a link on their website. Well sorry, it’s normally in my contracts that all my work comes with a link back to my website. This can be negotiated out of the contract.
If you really need to build up your portfolio I recommend that you build a fake town with fake web businesses. I’ve seen this done before and had done it myself. Domains are inexpensive, pick one and do the work for yourself. Potential clients will see your examples and use them to judge if you’re a good fit for them.
I have this great idea for a website
I’ve been through this request and even once looked at base code for the idea. I really love as a programmer when they want you to build all the functionality then only take 10-20% of the profit when they start “selling it”. This type of request is really more of a venture capitalist request. You need to ask the person to send you a business plan since they are asking you to invest whatever you would charge to build this website into their business. If they believe in the project so much, they’d be willing to pay for it out of their own pocket or find a real venture capitalist or angel investor to pay for the site to be built.
What really irks me about these types of potential clients is that they try to get you caught up in their dream. This is really only an attempt on their part to entice you to build their website in the hopes that one day you’ll actually get paid if they are effective in marketing the website. So before you sign onto a project like this go through the same due diligence as a venture capitalist.
Current Unprofessional Clients
And despite being able to pay there are still clients who will almost always be a tad over the top.
The Crier
While I didn’t personally have a client like this, I did so some subwork for another developer who had a client that actually cried on the phone because we couldn’t drop everything and respond to their requests at their whim. While I’m sure crying over emotional trauma is appropriate in some professions, this situation was just unreal. I was never so glad as to know that I never had to talk to this client on the phone or via email. It was all handled by the other developer.
I did get certified as a Help Desk Analyst and Help Desk Manager to teach these classes and I can see where some of the techniques would help in this situation. The best technique is to use their first name. You have to get their attention. The next step would be to establish that you understand their emotions but NOT that you agree with them. You should say something like “I understand that you’re upset about….. ” You want to acknowledge that they’re upset but not agree with why. At that point you can adjust your conversation to help them with their problem.
The Screamer
I’ve never personally had a person scream at me on the phone for anything related to web design. Unfortunately I’ve heard others having this issue. These types of clients aren’t really great clients. They are trying to bully you. Of course you would never hear a client screaming at you on the phone or in person if you were a lawyer. That wouldn’t be productive to maintaining a good relationship with your lawyer. Guess what, it’s not productive in any business.
The key again is to use their name. Talk calmly and don’t get caught up in the anger. It’s not conducive to reaching an agreement. In the end it may be best to “fire” this kind of client. It all depends on how much abuse you’re willing to take.
The Sad State of Affairs
Unfortunately as web designers and developers we’re all going to face these at some point in our careers. It’s a given. They key to success is how you handle it.
Beginners will always get the bottom end of the barrel. That’s a given but what isn’t is how you should handle it. As a beginner, look for ways to hone your craft without giving it away too hastily. My best advice is to stay away from businesses that aren’t willing to pay you for your services. Build websites for yourself to build a portfolio or build them for worthy causes like the local dog shelter or the homeless shelter. You’ll probably get better attention from doing a site for a worthy cause than for a fly by night operation without any real plan for success.
As for unprofessional clients that use their emotions to batter you into the ground, this is where you as a business person can really shine. Handling them smoothly without losing your cool can really turn you into a hero or give you the incentive to drop the client in favor of a better prospect.
If you’ve got another unprofessional client story, please post it.
Web Out
Des
Nicolas:
Great story. With my company, we also had to deal with this kind of problems not in webdesign, but in Web3D/VirtualWorld projects. Customers often try the “power of their brand” argument to increase our popularity and our potential of contracts instead of simply accept the bill!
This made me wrote a set of two posts on that subject titled “Having good manners while doing some business”, in French.
http://nicolasmas.typepad.com/nm/2008/01/des-bonnes-mani.html
Cheers,
Micah Choquette:
Des - That was a great article, with plenty of insightful wisdom. This kind of scenario is the one that every client hates but is undoubtedly going to have. Thanks for educating us in how to handle it!
And thanks for the reference back to my previous article. Very kind of you.
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