Dealing with a Difficult Client
One of the things that we all dread on this entrepreneurship journey is dealing with difficult clients. Everyone who offers a service or product faces this problem at some point. So if this is something you’re dealing with right now, know that you are not alone!
Over the years, I’ve learned to remove myself from the difficult situation and separate the emotion to find resolutions.
Here are my best tips for handling difficult situations with clients:
1. Do not react out of emotion
When I receive negative feedback, I give myself at least 3 hours to respond. If I respond right away I naturally get defensive and take it personally. I’ve found that 3 hours is just enough time to think about the situation, remove my emotion, and ask for an outside opinion if needed. Then I am able to respond in a much more productive way when my emotions have died down.
2. Honor and respect your boundaries
It is easy to overextend ourselves to try to make difficult clients happy. But I quickly realized that going above and beyond is unhealthy for my business. And the extra work and stress will not make a difference anyway!
3. Don’t take things personally
It’s not about you, it’s about them. We need to remove ourselves and treat the business as a business. Coming from a place of neutral, ask yourself what your business needs to do.
4. Communicate
So many issues can be solved with a little communication. Clients don’t know what they don’t know. Communication helps people see you as a human and see your perspective.
I also want to add that If you’re dealing with someone who you can never make happy, you have permission to fire them!
If you’ve tried all of these tips and things aren’t getting better it is ok to let them go. You can’t stay in a negative relationship just because you feel like you have to.
Dealing with a difficult client is just part of owning a business. When it happens, remember that there are ways to try to make it better. Then if you’ve exhausted all of those options, it is ok to hold and respect your space, energy, and boundaries and end it.
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