Is the Customer Always Right?
July 22, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
by Deborah Ng
You can’t please everyone but you should always try and please your boss.
Every time I talk about putting one’s client’s needs first, I get a few voices of dissent. Whether you agree or not, your client is the one paying you to do the job to his specifications, it’s in your best interest to make him happy – even if he doesn’t always make you happy.
I might not have always agreed on the “customer is always right” philosophy, but I never let him feel otherwise. If someone is paying me good money, I’m not about to turn around and tell him he’s wrong. Instead, I learned a few different ways to handle a few different situations.
What happens when your client is wrong?
There have been many occasions where i didn’t agree with my certain clients in the way they wanted to do things. I take it all case by case. Some things I let roll off my back. I don’t argue for arguments sake, this only labels me as difficult. I make the changes asked of me – unless I’m sure it’s a serious mistake. If that’s the case I find a polite, pleasant way to discuss the situation and explain to my client why I don’t think it’s a good idea. Whatever my client says goes -but if there are too many changes my rate has to reflect the extra work.
What happens when your client is lacking certain knowledge?
I worked for a brief time for someone who started a blogging network but had no clue what blogging entailed. She knew nothing about the format, the lingo, the programs or how any of it worked. She only knew blog networks make money. It was a frustrating time. Every now and then she would say or ask for something that made no sense and I would patiently have to explain how blogs work and why. It’s a delicate situation because I wasn’t in charge and didn’t want to overstep my bounds. If you need to “teach” your clients, it’s best to tread lightly and not lecture or condescend. I treat it as if I’m sharing information. Your client will not like it if you come off as thinking he’s an idiot.
What happens when you don’t agree with your client’s edits or changes?
Most writers hate being edited but it’s nothing personal. It’s an editor’s duty to make sure your work is representative of his standards. When you’re edited, for the most part you have to consider it part of the job. There were a couple of times where the editor rewrote my piece and took out my tone and voice and it’s those times I take issue. I don’t want my name on someone else’s words. Expect to be edited, to be rewritten is a whole other ballgame.
Your customer may not always be right, but he’s the one with the checkbook and you’re working for him. You may not always agree with him, but there are times when it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself. Choose your battles wisely, the last thing you want is to be seen as someone who is difficult or argumentative. If you do need to voice your disagreement, do so in a manner and tone that is pleasant and respectful. Remember, it’s your words but his vision. When it comes down to the bottom line, the person who is paying you should have the last word.
I remember years ago when I worked in travel – my boss always insisted that “the customer is always right.” We were taught never to argue with our customers. So one day, a rather difficult client came in and insisted that our other office had told him that if there was a death in the family, he could get a refund on his cruise. I called the office and the manager was out and wouldn’t be back that day. I was the only one in my office because it was during lunch hours, and really had no idea what to say, so I called the cruise company who said they do make exceptions in cases like that.
It was mandatory at the travel agency that all clients sign a disclosure notice stating they understand the refund policy, and I couldn’t let the client leave until this had been signed. Unfortunately, this was before cell phones were so common, so I wrote the name of the woman at the cruise agency and what she’d said and the client signed it.
The next day, the owner of the travel agent came down on me yelling and screaming that I’d written that extra piece on the disclosure because no matter what the cruise agent had told me, it was wrong. He spit all over me as he raged on about what a useless, incompetent moron I was and how he should fire me.
The lesson I learned is that no one is ever right. Every situation is different and while I felt I’d done the right thing by following their “the customer is always right,” I’d actually blown it. From that day on, I never assumed the customer was right, just as I don’t always assume my employer is always right.
In fact, I had an email today from Universal Class where I teach a class and they are cutting all instructors pay by 50%. They’ve always based their classes on commissions. They took 40% and instructors got 60%. Now they want a 70% cut and instructors get 30%. If we refuse to sign the new contract, they are deleting our classes on Sept. 1st. Otherwise, I can double my class enrollment fee to make up for the difference. They say it is the only way they can remain competitive and that instructors must understand their point of view. Quite honestly, I don’t. When I started teaching, their whole point was to offer low cost classes for those who couldn’t afford college classes. So my class has done extremely well seeing hundreds of students over the past five years. I can’t take a 50% pay cut and plan to walk because in this case my employer most certainly isn’t right.
I agree that you should work to please your clients, but if you are in a position where you can pick and choose your clients, you obviously will be more inclined to “drop” the high maintenance clients and choose to work with people who are more pleasant to work with.
@ Scribette – I’m not so sure I would recommend dropping clients just because they are not “pleasant to work with.” Who will provide you the most benefit/revenue? It may be worth the time and effort spent on one higher maintenance client that will provide you more business than you could imagine versus having a few customers that don’t really bring much profit, but you like having them just because they’re nicer and easier.
My word – the customer is not always right. But you do need to listen to them and bend as much as possible to suit their needs, while still staying on your path to success.
At a local establishment there is a sign that reads something like : “If you are mean, ornery, or grumpy there will be a $10 surcharge to deal with you.”
As writers, we don’t always know beforehand what our client is going to be like, however, that does not give the client to treat us poorly or disrespect simple boundaries (like not calling at 3 am).
When you are struggling, sometimes you have to put up with more just to have money coming in. However, with some clients, it is just not worth it. No one should have to put up with verbal abuse in the workplace – and in fact, there are laws against certain behaviors in brick-and-mortar establishments – why should freelancers be an exception?
Everyone needs to decide for themselves where their own tolerance line is. A business relationship is a two-way street. Just as clients have the right to not work with us if they feel we are too hard to work with, we have the same right.
It doesn’t have to be about ‘mean vs nice’ – it can absolutely be about being effective and what is truly best for both parties. If a client is continually unhappy with what you produce, then maybe you both would be better off breaking off that business relationship and finding someone else to work with that you have better communication and compatibility with, if nothing you do seems to help improve the situation.
What Deb wrote is right – we do have an obligation to work hard and well for those who hire us – and sometimes that does mean learning to be more tolerant and understanding of personality quirks. However, once a job is completed to the client’s satisfaction, if they have been too stressful to work with despite all of your best efforts, it can be best to cut them loose/not accept more work from them, and to move on to a better client/freelancer relationship elsewhere.
Again, it doesn’t have to be mean. You can have a positive attitude and be kind and polite even when dealing with difficult people. Sometimes, the difficult people recognize you aren’t compatible but respect your honesty and courtesy. My difficult boss actually gave me a lead/recommended me for a different job with someone else because of those very reasons.
He recognized that we did not work well together (he wanted someone available at all hours of the day and night – that is not me), but because I worked for him for so long, produced quality work, and was always courteous to him, he thought of me when another opportunity came up with a friend of his. I got that job and worked it until it ended almost a year later. That situation was a much better one for me.
My difficult boss and I remained on friendly speaking terms. Just because we didn’t click in a work situation didn’t mean either of us was a jerk or a horrible person. By the way, he freely admits he is ‘difficult’, and recognizes that is why he has a hard time keeping help long-term. I had stayed with him longer than most of his freelancers did. He even offered me more work later, but I declined – and he understood why. There was no malice about it on either side.
Recently, I found myself in a particularly difficult situation with a pharma client who wanted me to write certain things about one of its drugs that just weren’t true. Yes, its regulatory review committee might flag the requested content, as might its legal committee, but what if they didn’t? While I tried to gently ask questions about the data to get the client to rethink its positions–these were not words it wanted to hear. It was a tough situation and I felt that even asking the questions was being perceived as being “difficult.” Since I felt I might actually be doing harm by not asking the questions, it was a case where I couldn’t just let it slide. Sometimes all the politeness in the world won’t make the client happy.
Nicki – I was referring to when you are in a position to choose clients. In another words, you would not need the revenue from the “unpleasant client” as you are replacing that revenue with money from another “more pleasant” client.
PS – please excuse the typos … in a rush today!
I think if the customer HAS to be right, at the expense of your knowledge and expertise, then you should lose the customer. In the writing/consulting business, one is hired as an expert. If a client refuses your advice, then there is nothing you can do to help the client. We are not talking about word choice or small disagreements as to process. We are talking about a client who does not want your opinion at all. Of course, you can grin and bear it, but ultimately, the work you do for that client will not be work that will be indicative of what you can do.
Lots of interesting responses.
I do feel if it comes down to you and the person who is paying you, you have to defer to the one who signs the check. I’m not talking about someone who is so obnoxious and makes you miserable. I’m talking about the average, every day client and decision maker. We don’t always agree with our clients, but they are hiring us to convey their message or represent their company. We pretty much have to do as they ask.
Whether the customer is right is always an interesting topic, and I’m kind of on the fence. In my experience, whenever a client has been wrong, they aren’t “a little wrong,” they’re way off. Like some, I grin and bear, all the while waiting for the project to end. But in one case, I did “politely” get the last word..and it felt good. I had held my tongue for weeks, and it was either speak up or walk off the project. I didn’t lose the project, and I continued to work with him for six months. I think it’s important to feel out the situation and see whether it’s beneficial to speak up.
Very timely post for me. I recently did some Web writing for a client who wanted me to use Google Images to pull images to go with each of the short blurbs I had written. I explained that I couldn’t just take images from any site due to copyright issues and the client responded that I was way too serious and that “people do it all the time” and “the worst that can happen is they’ll ask me to remove it.”
I explained that I am serious about copyright issues because I am a writer and I am affected by them daily. I wrote an article for a client once – it was $100 for 1,000 words. I submitted the article and never heard from the client again – never got paid either. I later came to find out the client submitted the article to a very prominent Web channel, where it is now the number one search result for the particular keyword I built the article around. It just irks me that I was never paid and someone else is receiving a ton of traffic and ad income from my work.
Interestingly enough, I filed a copyright complaint with the company posting the article. They sent me back a form letter with their DMCA complaint attached. I filled it out and sent it back the same day, and their legal department never responded to me again despite repeated e-mails to follow up on the status of my complaint.