Running a business can be really hard, regardless of what kind of business it is. Especially if you're someone like me - empathetic, understanding, personable. I have this uncanny ability to put myself in someone else's shoes, without even trying. To be honest, it can be really annoying. There are some days that I would like to be able to be cold and robotic when I'm dealing with my clients. When a client calls me and tells me they just don't have time to help me help them, I want to be able to tell them that they either help me do what they are paying me to do or go elsewhere. But I can't do that. I know what it's like to feel like you barely have time to breath, let alone answer an email with 15 questions. So it's easy for me to understand when a client is feeling too busy, or is having a hard time paying their invoice. And when you become invested in helping someone build their business (which is another thing I try not to do, but it's very difficult for me not to), it's hard when your client suddenly stops being proactive or contributing to their business.
When you talk to most business owners, people who have been doing this for a long time, they often tell you that it's not about the people. It's about the service you're delivering and ensuring your client is paying. Whether or not your client is asking for work, if they've signed that monthly contract, as long as they're paying, it shouldn't matter to me, and that you should never put in more than what you're getting paid for. Don't assume your client knows that you're doing what you're doing out of the kindness of your own heart because no matter what you say or do, if you're doing more than you're contractually obligated to, then they will take advantage of you.
Yes, maybe this is correct. Maybe in a few years, when I am stressed and jaded and bitter, I will feel this way, too. But, in my heart of hearts, I don't feel like this is 100% correct. I believe in "old fashioned service" (a term I saw on another web designer's website). I believe in developing personal relationships with your clients, in having open communication with them, in allowing them to believe that they can trust you. As a consumer, I despise it when a company or business makes me feel like just another customer - a means to an end. I like it when business owners take an interest in my life, or in what I am doing. I like it when I feel like my business matters to them, like if I go, it will have a negative impact on their business. And, for the most part, I know this isn't true. But, to me, that's what customer service is all about; making the client feel like they matter, like their business matters.
One of my biggest themes for my business is that I will never send a client a surprise invoice. Unless the client is adding things on as we go (for which I would tell them, in the moment they ask, that it will cost X amount more to do that), the number I give them during our initial conversation is the number they will receive at the end of the project. Without revealing too much to my client, I want them to understand my business and why I do what I do. For the most part, I want to be transparent. I don't want my clients thinking I'm working in some high-rise building surrounded by glass walls in the middle of downtown. I want them to know that I work in my kitchen in between dropping my son off at school, loads of laundry, picking up my son and cooking supper. I want my clients to be able to relate to me. Most of my clients are mothers themselves. They're start up or small businesses in smaller communities. I want them to know that I understand their plights; that I can relate with their businesses and their lives.
Sometimes, however, raising the price after the fact is inevitable. Sometimes, things happen that you didn't anticipate and you may have to raise your initial quote. So this is when you, as a business owner, need to decide how honest you're going to be. Are you going to lean back in your chair with your arms crossed and shrug while you talk to your client, telling them business is business. Or do you email them a long-winded email and tell them you're so sorry, that you had no idea this would happen, that you hadn't done your due diligence and that you feel absolutely horrible and wish there was another way out of the situation?
Well, the answer is somewhere in the middle. You should always be honest, in my humble opinion. Don't pretend to be more experienced than you are. Don't pretend that you always know what you're doing. Don't pretend that you're some tough business person when really, inside, you feel like a shi*t. But also don't tell them so much that they become bogged down in information. Don't tell them that you were about to look it all up but then your son fell in a hole in the backyard and when you finally got him out, you came into the house to find that your dog had eaten what you had been preparing for supper and then by the time you got back to it, you'd completely forgotten. By the time you remembered to look it up, you were two weeks in.
Instead, do a little bit of column A and little bit of column B. Tell you client that, in my case, I hadn't yet done a website that consisted of two different services, and had simply assumed that if we paid for one, we got both. Apologize for not having done your due diligence, and that you feel bad that you now have to come to them and tell them that the price you'd quote them for the things they'd asked for hadn't quite been correct. Ask them how important that part of the website is to them (if it isn't already an integral part) and give them a choice: either for-go that part or pay the difference. If it is an integral part, tell them you're very sorry and offer them something a little extra (however, ensure it isn't something that will cost you a lot of time - although you made a small mistake, it doesn't make sense to punish yourself by creating more work for free - you may as well have simply paid for the additional costs yourself).
You'll be surprised how understanding people can be - especially if you've already built a rapport with them that involves trust and confidence in your skills.
No one is perfect. No matter how many times you write down your procedures, no matter how many times you tweak the way you do things, no matter how many time's you re-do your model for quotes, you will eventually come in to something you've never done and that's OK. Yes, it would be nice for your clients to think you're the be all end all of whatever your service is, but clients also like to know that you're human. To me, that's what honesty is - human. If you're as honest as you can be without making yourself look weak or insecure as a business person, then your client will always appreciate and respect the information you've given them. In my case, when this happened to me, I already had trust and confidence from my client and so she knew that I wouldn't have done this is I'd had any other way and she'd been more than understanding, and I found that afterwards, her appreciation towards what I do was even greater.
Be honest. It's one of the most important aspects of a business platform and will ultimately help you gain more clients in the future.
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