How to Deal with Bad Customers

I used to think that every client was worth fighting for, but after 35 years in business, I realized that this was a very expensive mistake. But in reality, what is worth fighting for is your team. After 35 years, I have identified six common traits in clients that you should be aware of. There is a customer who is insulting your employees. This happens less often, but such people still exist. As soon as a client starts to show disrespect for your team, that's when your relationship with them needs to change. Number two: this is a client who changes the scope of work every day. And these are not some global changes. These are small changes. The conversation usually starts like this: "Well, since you're here, could you just..." And by "just" it means: "Can you do this for free?" It is these small changes that ultimately lead to large losses after the work is completed. The problem is not when the client asks the manager for these changes . The problem arises when the client starts asking your team for these changes . Number three: the client who trusts no one. Every contractor before you was terrible. Nobody knows anything, and everyone tried to deceive them. You will think that you are an exception to the rule, but you are not. Number four: the customer who wants luxury, but at a discount. They expect premium quality, but bargain for every dollar at every turn. These clients often create the most stress while generating the least profit. Number five is the customer who is never satisfied. You finish work early. The quality is excellent. You've completed every item on the checklist, but they still find something wrong. Some people are not looking for a solution, they are looking for an excuse to be dissatisfied. Number six is ​​the client who costs you more than they pay. And this is rarely talked about. It's not because of the pay. It's not because of the materials. This is because they take up your time. They take away your energy. They take your attention. They deplete your team's morale. They call you constantly, asking questions incessantly. You can't focus on other projects because you have to constantly pay attention to them. Number seven: know when to say "no." Know when to leave. If your sixth sense tells you something is wrong during the first meeting with a client, believe me, it will only get worse from there. Trust your intuition, or find someone who does , and let that person help you figure out whether this client is right for you or if it's better to just walk away and say no. Now let's take a closer look at these seven topics . The first is a client who insults your team. This will happen infrequently, but I guarantee you will encounter it anyway. This happened to me early in my career, and I did n't know what to do. I was just stunned by it. One of my employees was diligently laying the lawn for this client. He dug everything up, making sure that all the levels were maintained perfectly. He was on his knees, checking to make sure the new lawn was flush with the existing surface and everything matched up. And this customer opens a beer, even though it's not even noon yet. He comes out, stands over my boyfriend, looks down on him and says, "Yeah, the dumber you are, the harder you work." Then I should have intervened immediately and done something. But as a first-time owner, I had no idea and was simply shocked. The most valuable thing you have in your company is your team. Your employees will come and go, but the atmosphere you create in your business will never change. And it starts with you, as the business owner. Create an environment where the team feels like family, where they know they are a priority and that you will always protect them in front of the client. So when a bad client comes along and tries to demoralize your people, they know you'll support them. Think about what you would do in such a situation and write your solution in the comments below. But this is just one example of a bad client. The second type is the most common one you will encounter. This is the client who always wants you to do small extra services without wanting to pay extra for them . Over time, these "little things" begin to accumulate. And this is probably one of the most common problems you will encounter at many facilities. Here's how to deal with it . You should have a work plan that clearly defines what exactly you need to accomplish. So, before you stick a shovel in the ground for the first time, your scope of work should clearly outline everything. Your client confirms that he has the same scope of work that he has read , identified and seen. And this protects you so that there are no “ifs,” “ buts,” or guesswork about what should be done and what shouldn’t. This is what can happen, especially if you have an incredible team that knows that customer satisfaction is above all else. The client will understand that you as the boss are the final authority and may try to bypass you. They may start contacting your team directly, especially on large projects or landscape work. They may start asking your team to do something extra “just because.” Oh, hey, can you do this, or hey, can you do that? And your team, without knowing numbers and not having the same business mindset as you, can go along with it because they are more focused on service. And never scold your team for focusing on customer service, because that's a big mistake. Your team, in trying to make the customer happy, is definitely doing their job right. If they say "no" or do something like that, that's not what they should be doing. They should just pass this message on to you, the boss. So, if a customer approaches a member of your team and asks for something additional, they simply say, “Well, that’s a question for the boss. We have to discuss this with the boss." Don't force your employee to refer to the scope of work. Don't hold the employee responsible for such things. Remove this burden from the employees, because you are the owner, you are the boss, you are the one who controls the work. In fact, it is you who should make the decisions and do the hard work—personally communicating with the client and making arrangements to do what is planned, without doing anything extra without payment. Next is number three. Number three is a client who trusts no one. It doesn't matter how good your reputation is or how strongly you were recommended to this client. If the conversation starts with the fact that they were once cheated, that contractors don't understand anything—don't think that you will be an exception to this rule. At first, they may make you feel like you are the exception to the rule, but that's when everything changes for you . This is a vicious cycle that repeats itself with such clients. Everyone is trying to deceive them. No matter how sincere your intentions, no matter how honest, open, and transparent you are in your calculations and business principles, you will never make them happy. They need to feel like a victim, otherwise they won't be satisfied. So when you meet such a client, you have to understand whether it is worth taking on work for them at all? Because no matter how hard you work and no matter what you do, you will never live up to their expectations. So before you move forward when a client waves these red flags at you , ask yourself: is it really worth it? Number five is a customer who wants to receive luxury service, but at a reduced price. They will discuss every nuance of the project from the very beginning to the changes that are made in the process, and right up until the moment you finally get paid. And beware , there will be certain people who are more prone to this than others, especially if their background is in the art of negotiation, where the culture teaches them that they have to bargain. This means that for such clients, nothing is clear-cut, everything has different shades of gray, to the point that if you do something extra—here's a great example. If you do extra work for them that can be measured and clearly proven, they will still find a way to twist it during negotiations. Here is a great example. I worked for one couple . I won't tell you what part of the world they were from, but it's definitely not from here. This is a place where elephants are worshipped . Of course? And it was characteristic of their culture to bargain. And that's completely normal. At the beginning of the work, they seemed like quite nice people. I was building a retaining wall along the back of the lot. And I followed my rule regarding the scope of work. It clearly stated how many square feet of wall I had to install. And there was a price listed per square foot of wall that I was to install. So when I was asked to add a little more, it turned out to be a simple calculation. You take a tape measure, measure the length, measure the height. That's how much extra work I did. It was time to get paid, and that's when the problems started, because he even told me that it was in his culture to haggle. And it was from this that I learned the lesson that I am sharing with you. When it came time to measure the area of ​​the front of the retaining wall, he didn't want to take into account what was buried in the ground. He wanted to take into account only what he saw above ground. So, despite the fact that we buried part of the structure in the ground to strengthen the wall, he only wanted to pay me for the area of ​​the wall he saw on the surface. So he had to calculate this in advance. And this detail was simply not mentioned in the job description until I completed this object and started including it in every subsequent project, because I didn't want to argue again. So since then, in the description of the works, we have always taken into account the surface area both above and below the ground. And this does not mean at all that it is somehow connected with culture . I had contractors who tried to do the exact same thing to me . Cunning contractors who know how to negotiate try to take advantage of subcontractors, because contractors often do just that. And the reason why contractors do it so often is because when building a house or other structure, they are on a budget. If it's a house, say, worth half a million dollars. And if they need to spend $50,000 on retaining walls, that's 10% of the cost of the entire house. They can't just add $50,000 to the price of the house and hope it will be bought and remain competitive . Therefore, it comes out of their profits and out of their own pockets. That's why they have to bargain. Therefore, it is important for you, as a subcontractor, to understand how necessary it is to prescribe everything clearly and in detail in order to protect yourself. The next incident simply shocked and surprised me. This is a customer who is never satisfied, no matter what you do. You can finish work earlier. You can do much more than you promised and achieve incredible results. And this moment became obvious to me when I was dismantling a pool and told the client that it usually takes us 3 and a half days to complete the job from scratch . Well, in this particular case, we found land nearby. We had an additional piece of equipment that we could also use in this project. And instead of three and a half days, we managed in one and a half. And the client was just furious. He expected to see the equipment in operation for three and a half days. And seeing only a day and a half of work, he felt that he had been cheated. And I had to put everything on the shelves and show him that we had passed all the levels as we promised and planned to do. But instead of one piece of equipment, we had several working. Instead of delivering cargo as usual, we were able to double the number because we had an additional crew and equipment, even though nothing else in the project had changed. But it did n't change anything. This customer was still dissatisfied. And then I realized, guys, sometimes you're going to have a client who just wants to be miserable. They just want to be dissatisfied. And there's nothing you can do about it. This is their problem. This is how they live their lives. Don't take this to heart. Don't let this bother you. Don't go to bed with this thought and don't let it ruin your mood. Let dissatisfied customers remain dissatisfied. And you should be happy by staying as far away from them as possible . Number six is ​​a client who is worth more to you than they are paying you. And that doesn't necessarily mean spending money from your own pocket. This is disappointing. This is attention. These are clients who require increased attention even before you start their project. They may call or text you over and over again with the same questions. Questions that should be obvious since the scope of work is defined, but they still need more attention to feel confident. This is emotional stress. This can lead to wasted time preparing estimates, talking on the phone, and answering questions that are clearly stated in the scope of work. This is a huge waste of time even before the first shovel touches the ground. Identify such clients and understand: if this work is worth it, you can pay more attention to them than to a project with a much larger scope of work, where the customer trusts you more as a contractor. Often, when a client has a bunch of questions, it's not because you're a bad contractor. This is because the client doesn't understand something and needs comfort and reassurance about the project because they are nervous. The question you have to answer for yourself is: do you have that much time to pay attention to such a client? Know when to give up. All of these different scenarios boil down to the fact that you need to protect yourself as a contractor. You are here for the long haul. This is not a sprint. This means you don't need to cater to every need or whim of every customer. You must treat them with respect. Maya Angelou said it best. The person will forget what you said. A person will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel . So as long as you make the customer understand that they are important and make them feel significant, you will leave a very good impression of yourself. The easiest way to help an upset customer is to take a gentle approach. A little information goes a long way before the project begins . Simply set some guidelines so that the client understands what will happen and when , even before the work starts. Hey, we'll start getting permission around this time. We will begin shipping materials around this time. The equipment will arrive then. Here's what you can expect during your project. When you lay this out, it allows the client to share the vision of the project with you. And then—a gentle approach after the work is done . If you're proud of the work you've done, one of the easiest ways to stay in the client's memory and get a ton of referrals is to take some "before" and "after" photos, put them on a card, and send them around the holidays, perhaps on a Christmas card or something similar. Um, and what happens is: that "before" and " after" photo on the Christmas card ends up on their fridge . So when their friends, neighbors, or relatives come over, they can all see it. This is a proud moment that you share. And it's an easy way to constantly remind your best clients of yourself and continue to get referrals, instead of being "out of sight, out of mind." So I hope these tips helped you. Now it's your turn. If you had a problem customer, write about it in the comments below . I would love to hear your stories about failed clients, because some of what you share is just phenomenal. This video ends. Good luck, take action, and share your stories. Let's listen to them.