Top 5 ways of dealing with difficult clients

We’ve all had to deal with difficult clients at one time or another. Sometimes we inherit difficult clients, sometimes we create them, and other times they just get that way all on their own. Here are my five top ways to defuse the situation and bring the business relationship to a more pleasant and profitable place.

1. Listen – one of the most critical things to do and probably one of the first things that goes wrong in a business relationship. Any client can become difficult if their concerns go unanswered or issues go unsolved with no recognition on your part that there is an issue. When difficulties arise, the first thing to do is to set up a time to talk, preferably face to face, where the client can air their grievances. Just listen. No defending what happened, no excuses. Just take it all in and repeat back to your client to confirm your understanding. Once all the issues are out in the open and you’ve checked for understanding, you can start looking for solutions that addresses your client’s needs. The tension in the room has just gone down a few notches and now you can get back to work.    

2. Don’t take it personally – this I know is a hard one. We put so much of ourselves into our work and when a client dismisses our hard work, we want to hide under a rock or worse, tell them what we really think of them. I have found that clients rarely understand the amount of effort it takes to create something out of thin air. I try to educate clients about the process but still things get lost in translation. Remember, they are the ones that are paying for our services and ultimately the ones who must take our efforts, put their own reputations on the line, and run with it.

3. Say Yes – even when you want to scream NO! When your client asks for some deliverable by a ridiculous time – redirect and negotiate. Say, “I can get you some (not all) of the designs by Tuesday.” or “I understand what you’re saying by (fill in absurd idea here) but what if we did something like (insert brilliant idea here)? Always offer alternatives to unreasonable demands; try to figure out a way to say yes.

4. Find personal commonalities – if you can find some interest that you both can relate to, be it sports, family, cooking, etc. you can make your relationship a little friendlier. Share a bit about yourself and encourage your client to do the same. Your client will think of you more as a complete person rather than just a consultant or worse yet an adversary. When clients know more about you as a person, it’s harder for them to get upset with you when something does goes wrong. They will be more forgiving, as you’ll be more accepting of them.

 

5.   Empathy - put yourself in their shoes. Clients have many competing needs while attending to our projects, chief among them is the money spent on our services and the time it’s taking to get the work done. Your client not only needs to deal with time and money but other factors as well, answering to their boss and other stakeholders, keeping the project on track and juggling other job responsibilities. Sure, we have these issues too, but those are not our clients concerns. Once you feel your client’s issues, you can put their needs in perspective.

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