5 Lessons I learned from my worst client

We’ve all experienced difficult jobs and personalities as service providers. If you’ve been in business for several years and haven’t yet had a challenging client, your luck will eventually run out. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s a chance to learn valuable lessons. Here’s what I learned from my worst client:

• I didn’t trust my gut from the beginning: We all have that gut feeling when we are first presented with an opportunity. Sometimes, we ignore those feelings for money or because we know the person or something else. I get a strong feeling about each inquiry. In the case of the worst client, I ignored my gut feeling to say no.
• I was afraid to say no: Yep, I have that affliction of not wanting to let others down. I didn’t want to let this person down, even though I knew my gut was telling me to run away. “I can make this work,” I told myself.
• I didn’t communicate enough about the process from the start: I saw holes in my strategies that allowed this bad client wiggle room to push for more than I had to give. That was totally on me. And I’ve revamped all my processes and made sure I’m communicating them along the way.
• I didn’t charge enough/gave too many freebies:  I wasn’t confident to price the project correctly. Had I billed time for all the back and forth emails and calls, it would have encouraged less back and forth.
• I can’t help everyone: Not everyone is kind, and people that aren’t don’t deserve my services. Not everyone is worth my time and energy. I like nice people. As a small business owner, sticking to the items above can help me avoid this situation again.

The most important lesson I learned was that the customer is always right. It’s painful, especially when you are dealing with a challenging person, but you have to own the things you missed that you could have done better.

Even though I walked away from the client, I did so without making the client wrong. I took responsibility for the lessons I learned above and gracefully said they had outgrown me, which was true. They needed full service whenever they wanted it. And as a one-person business, I couldn’t and still can’t be a help desk 24/7.

So now I set expectations better out of the gate. I reinforce that by not responding immediately to emails and keeping my weekends free from business hours (publicly). I trust my gut and look for red flags instead of hoping for the best.

That “worst client” made a positive difference in my life and business. And believe it or not, those lessons were well worth the temporary discomfort of working with them.

RESOURCES:  Clients From Hell