[thelist] losing irritated / arrogant customers off my books

Randal Rust randalrust at gmail.com
Mon Aug 6 14:29:21 CDT 2007


On 8/6/07, Alex Beston <alex.beston at gmail.com> wrote:

Alex, take a step back for just a moment, and think about it from your
client's point of view.

> 1) he doesnt seem to understand the technology he's using - its a
> means to an end

And all should care about is that the means allows his to achieve his
desired end.

> 2) its starting to get "pissed off" - his own words

He's upset because his means to the end isn't working, or doesn't work
like he thinks it should.

> he doesnt
> understand that the attachments cant be more than about 4 megs. hes a
> graphic designer and still sends his clients graphic work via @

In his mind, he's paying for something that doesn't achieve one of the
key features that he needs.

> 3) hes late in paying, knows when the due date is and waits for me to
> invoice him.

Of course he's late in paying. He's not happy.

As a rule of thumb, invoice your clients before they pay you. They get
busy too, and not everyone is diligent about paying the bills.

> 4) most if not all the problems that occured are to do with something
> outside of my control

But he is your client, and you are in charge of making sure his stuff
works. So therefore it really is your problem.

> 5) for the level of service he wants i'd rather be wanting to see
> about £250 out of him not £75.

Maybe what you need to do is sit down with him and find out exactly
what he has a problem with, and then provide him solutions for how to
solve those problems. If he wants better service, then yes, he should
understand he has to pay more.

-- 
Randal Rust
R.Squared Communications
www.r2communications.com



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