The seven types of difficult client - how many have you met? 🤣
OK let’s have a bit of fun just between us….🤣🤣
One of the costs of owning a service based business is having to deal with difficult clients. 🙄
And in this post I share the seven types of difficult clients and give you some tips for how to deal with them.
How to spot a difficult client
Identifying difficult clients is something that you will get better at the more experience you get.
Difficult clients can be a problem as they tend to be the ones that take up most of your time for the least impact or money. They often cause you more stress than they are worth and reduce your enjoyment in your work overall.
It’s common to come across difficult clients, or even just clients who you don't think are a good fit for your business. The important thing is to learn how to identify these sorts of clients early on and make a choice about whether to cease working with them or at least be ready to manage them carefully from the start.
There are seven types of difficult clients and you can find a little about each of these below.
Some clients will have bits of each of these difficult clients in them and you will find that with communication, a good client agreement and clear boundaries that most difficult behaviours can be managed. But this is not always the case and in some cases you will decide to terminate the project or relationship.
And that’s completely fine - because this is your business and you get to run it how you want to!
Let’s learn about each of the difficult clients you’ll likely come across…
Type 1: Lack of Boundaries Lara
About Lara:
Lara calls every night at 9pm about her renovation 'emergencies' and texts on Sunday afternoons from the sofa shop asking for your advice on which sofa to choose (even though you've already chosen one for her!)
Dealing with Lara:
Lara is the most common type of difficult client so you’ll meet her a lot unfortunately!
Most clients will lack boundaries if you don't put these in place early on
Make sure you have clearly spelled out contact arrangements in your client agreement and Client Welcome Pack - e.g. the exact hours you are willing to take calls and texts and how long you will take to respond to emails
Then make sure you stick to these arrangements, if you don't you will find that it will be hard to maintain good boundaries.
If a client pushes up against what is in your Client Welcome Pack - i.e. you find them texting you on Sunday afternoons from the sofa store - then remind them about your communication boundaries and let them know you’ll get back to them during your office hours.
Boundaries are yours to set - but you then have to follow through with these boundaries and not break them yourself!
Type 2: Indecisive Ian
About Ian:
Ian questions every decision you make, seeks more advice on everything you have suggested, asks for numerous different opinions then circles back to you with all this new 'advice' he has gathered up
Dealing with Ian:
To protect yourself from indecisive clients make sure you have a clause in your contract or agreement that states how long clients have to make decisions once they are presented and also how many revisions they have included in your fees. This will protect you from going back and forth hundreds of times on the same kitchen concept.
In addition, try and engage indecisive clients in the decision making process as this can help them to be less overwhelmed. Also remind them they are paying you to cut down their choices and they need to trust you in that process.
Many clients who are indecisive lack the ability to be able to visualise completed projects so visual aids can be very helpful - e.g. SketchUp drawings, physical samples.
Type 3: Overreacting Oliver
About Oliver:
Oliver yells and overreacts at every minor thing that happens in the project - whether or not it was your fault!
Dealing with Oliver:
Oliver can sometimes err on the side of having an anger management problem.
These clients put you in difficult situations - they blame you for things that aren't your fault and they can cause you a lot of angst and stress.
In most cases you will want to avoid clients like this - they tend not to be worth dealing with and people who are irrational and aggressive are not worth your time or sanity.
Before walking away there's a few things you can try:
try and stay as calm as you can if they are screaming at you. People mimic others' behaviour and this may help placate an angry client
try and show empathy and think of the problem from the clients' situation - they are likely under a lot of stress and probably haven't done this before
provide timely responses - if an upset client has to wait to hear from you it tends to make them more upset.
Type 4: Go Around You Grace
About Grace:
Grace goes behind your back with suppliers to see if she can get a better trade discount. She normally ends up being sold different items than what you have suggested for her - which undermines your whole scheme!
Dealing with Grace:
The best way to avoid this type of client is to build strong relationships with your suppliers and supplier reps. If a supplier knows you (and likes you!) they are unlikely to let Grace go around you.
You will normally find out about this sort of client as a supplier will let you know they have been in to see them. If you feel the client is undermining the relationship with suppliers the best thing is to just deal with it head on.
Also make sure you are always being honest with your clients about your trade discounts and policies - e.g. do you pass on discounts or keep them yourself? Make sure whatever you choose is clearly understood by the client before you start working together.
As long as you are acting ethically and honestly then Grace has nothing to gain by going to suppliers herself and only ends up being the one to look silly.
Type 5: Urgent Ursula
About Ursula:
Ursula thinks her project is the only thing you have going on in your life. She wants everything done 'urgently' - i.e. yesterday. She doesn't understand that you can't renovate a bathroom in 2 weeks!
Dealing with Ursula:
Ursula has watched too many reality TV shows and doesn’t understand that some things just take time (like custom furniture, order lead times).
Be careful of setting yourself up for failure with clients like this by promising timeframes that are impossible to deliver on. New designers can get trapped by this as they are desperate to take on the work or haven’t had enough experience to actually understand how long things really take.
Make sure you clearly document all (realistic!) timeframes in writing so this sort of client can see visualise the stages involved in a project and how long it might be expected to take.
Type 6: Tight Ass Trevor
About Trevor:
Trevor wants to pay you in cash "for a discount", questions everything on your invoices, asks about every hour you bill him for, asks why every single item you suggest is so expensive.
Dealing with Trevor:
You can normally spot this client early as one of the first questions is whether he can pay you cash for the project - and get a discount!
If you do go on to work with this client you will normally find he questions every item on the bill, asks about every hour that you've worked and tries to seek discounts and free stuff the whole way through. He struggles to see the value in what you suggest and questions everything.
If you do end up working with a client like this, here are some ideas for managing him:
communicate why things cost what they do - e.g. why design drawings take so long to prepare
compromise by offering lower cost options for items that don't compromise the design of the project - e.g. laundry mixers
provide options for how to structure up your fees so he is less likely to question every invoice - e.g. don’t work by the hour and package up your fees.
Type 7: Bad Taste Betty
About Betty:
Betty shows you items she's already found for her project that are so far from your taste that you can't imagine how they would fit in to any scheme!
Dealing with Betty:
This is the sort of client who has already found (really ugly!) items that she wants to include in her project - things that are so far removed from your taste that you have no idea what you would do with them.
To deal with clients like Bad Taste Betty it's best to be upfront from the start. If it is clear they have a widely different aesthetic to you then you may respectfully suggest they would be better off finding a designer who had a style more aligned with their own.
In the beginning you may be happy to take on a few clients like Bad Taste Betty in order to earn some money and gain some experience, but remember that you will be unlikely to be able to use the project as part of your portfolio or case studies as they won't end up having images that are worth photographing - so you may end up deciding that she is a client worth avoiding!
When to stop working with a difficult client
Some clients just aren't worth getting involved with - like anyone who is aggressive or abusive - and you will decide that you want to end the project. If that's the case here are some tips
always check your contract or agreement and seek advice from your lawyer before ceasing the arrangement
complete any work they have paid you for - or refund them (sometimes easiest as a way to avoid confrontation, even if you’ve done some work already)
use the phases of your fee proposal to naturally phase out a project (if possible)
provide them with a way forward - e.g. a recommendation for a different designer
Learn from difficult clients
If a client relationship does end up breaking down to the point of no repair then make sure you take time to reflect on the situation so you can hopefully avoid it in the future. Ask yourself:
what could you learn for next time?
how could the situation have been avoided in the first place?
how could you have managed things better or differently to create a better/different outcome?
does your agreement or contract need to be improved or updated in some way?
Overall remember - this is YOUR business.
You get to choose who you work with!
(and not all clients are worth the money!!)
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
