How to Create Boundaries With Difficult Clients

If done well, setting boundaries may transform a difficult client into a favorite customer.

Few things zap a freelancer's entrepreneurial spirit faster than a client whose personality, communication style or demands make working on the project miserable. However, prickly clients may soften over time if a freelancer sets and communicates conditions, asks the right questions and brings a healthy dose of patience to the job. If the client relationship is handled well, the person who once frazzled the freelancer may transform into a favorite, valued and loyal customer.

Instructions

1. Outline business standards, such as pricing structures, project requirements and hours available. Post these standards to the company's website or include them in promotional materials. When a company's standards are fair and applied consistently, it reduces wiggle room for difficult clients to make outrageous demands.

2. Create a contract for each project that spells out both your responsibilities and the client's responsibilities, such as making on-time payments. Document any changes to the project in writing and clarify what those changes mean to the client in terms of payment or time. Both documents should be signed by both you and the client.

3. Investigate the cause of any client frustration by asking nonthreatening questions such as "I sense you're unhappy with the status report. Can we figure out a way to move forward?" The answer determines whether the relationship is worth maintaining or letting go after the project is completed.

4. Set realistic expectations with the client at the beginning of the contract. Projecting confidence with a client is essential, but avoid overpromising.

5. Avoid apologizing, especially when saying "sorry" is simply a gut reaction to a client's verbal abuse or extreme demands. Remain calm, cool and professional, even if the client doesn't. Projecting strength stops the client from capitalizing on perceived weakness.

Tips & Warnings

• Although difficult clients may be the source of headaches and sleepless nights, these clients are usually frustrated about something other than the individual performing the work. Try not to take barbs and excessive demands personally.

• Determining the motivation of the difficult client may provide clues about how best to manage the relationship. For example, some clients may not know what they want, while others can't resist micromanagement. In the first category, if you listen well, bring patience to the job and build in time for last-minute changes, you'll likely get through the project fairly unscathed.

• If the controlling client is unlikely to change, you may emotionally detach from the project but perform the "grunt work," according to the website 1stwebdesigner. Or, in severe cases, you may decide not to take on any more work from the client,

• As tempting as it might be to seek revenge on difficult clients, letting a client go should be handled with dignity and respect, and you must respect a client's confidentiality. Keep your emotions out of the conversation by focusing on the failed business elements of the contract, such as the client not making the agreed-upon payments or asking for projects outside of the hours for which she paid.

References

• Freelance Folder; Tricks for Dealing With Difficult Clients; Amrit Hallan; November 2007
• TechRepublic; How to Respond When Clients Make Things Difficult; Patrick Andrews; January 2003
• American Bar Association; Dealing With Difficult Clients; Carole Curtis; April 2005
• CSM; 5 Action Ideas to Deal With Difficult Customers; Alan Fairweather
• 1stwebdesigner; Sorting Out and Dealing With Difficult Clients; Sheena Dosdos
• KBK Communications; Advice on Managing Difficult Clients; Katie Fassl; June 2004

Resources

• Focus; Top 10 Ways to Fire the Client From Hell; Inside CRM Editors