9 Ways to Deal with Challenging Clients

When you work in the world of online business, dealing with difficult clients comes with the territory. While it can be incredibly frustrating interacting with these individuals, there are some simple proactive and reactive tactics you can use to make things easier on all parties involved.

Proactive Tactics

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure right? Try these ideas to help prevent possible situations before they develop.

1. Create guidelines about communication. One source of conflict is differing expectations about communication, like the client who expects you to respond at odd hours, weekends, or holidays. Sure that’s a reasonable request when dealing with
   crisis communication, but not when it’s dealing with subjects that can wait until traditional work hours. In your initial meetings with clients, provide clear “office hours” that they can expect to be able to reach you. This helps ensure all parties involved are on the same page for what’s reasonable to expect when it comes to communication.
2. Make clients articulate what they expect from you. This can create an open dialect in case there are any clarifications that need made. Conflict can arise when clients claim your finalized work isn’t what they wanted, or when clients demand you deliver more than the scope of your original agreement. Get clients to explicitly state in as much detail as possible what they are envisioning for the project to minimize the possibilities of expectations not being met. Some clients struggle with expressing what they want, and asking them to express what they wouldn’t want can be a helpful exercise to help them better communicate their expectations.
3. Provide clear timelines. As much as you can, from the beginning, give clients a timeline of the project with checkpoints along the way. Letting clients know upfront how long they can expect a project to take can help prevent clients expecting unreasonable deadlines to be met, and it provides them with peace of mind that you can gauge how long components of the project will take.
4. Keep careful records. Hopefully you won’t ever need to refer back to them with your client, but easy access to contracts, client emails, and the like will be important in case there is a disagreement on logistical details, such as fees or what you agreed to do for them.
5. Provide reports to your clients. These can be weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on the project or client. The report serves as a detailed summary of what you’ve accomplished and what your plans moving forward in the project are, which again provides peace of mind to your client while continually showing all the value you provide.

Reactive Tactics

Alright so now your client is upset. Here are some tips to diffuse the situation.

1. Make the client feel listened to. Just like in romantic relationships, sometimes it’s less about being right and more about protecting the relationship. Even if your client is overreacting, make sure they walk away from the conversation feeling
   heard. You can use phrases like, “I’m sorry you feel that way, that must be frustrating,” or “I can see why that would upset you” to show you empathize with them. After they explain their viewpoint, articulate back to them what you think their viewpoint is to showcase you understand their perspective.
2. Steer clients toward specifics. When clients get upset, they often start using sweeping statements such as, “it’s always causing me problems” or “it’s never ready when I need it.” Gently encourage clients to articulate the specific problem to help move the focus away from the “always” and “nevers” and to the problem at hand. Then articulate a specific solution and ask them if it addresses his or her concerns.
3. Distinguish between a situational conflict and personality clash. Sometimes the problem is not an external scenario you can solve. Some people just butt heads. If it’s possible to switch the client to another staff member, consider giving the client to them. You can ask the client who they would rather work with to let them feel like they have control of the situation. This can be hard, but sometimes it is best. Don’t take it personally. Really, not everyone can get along.
4. Remember cutting ties is an option. Hopefully it will never need to come to this, but in some cases, it is warranted. You have to weigh the benefits of the client against
   the stress, emotional exhaustion, time, and so that it takes to deal with a difficult client. If you’ve tried a variety of approaches and nothing works, you can rest easy knowing you did everything you could to make it work but it wasn’t meant to be. Let the relationship go and focus your energy where it should go: the clients who are willing to work with you!

Dealing with difficult clients can be a challenge. If you need help with client communication, or any aspect of online business building, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Just give us a call or send us an email.