As this post goes live I’ll be presenting on this very topic at the Search Engine Strategies in Chicago. Since not all of our readers are going to be there, I thought I’d post my presentation here, along with a brief descriptive (well, since my presentation is mostly pictures, it needs some explaining). So without further ado, here’s the topic which we at RBDRodeo haven’t had to deal with too much, because we have great clients – “How to Deal with Difficult Clients”.

The first step that I took for this 5 minute presentation was to identify 6 different types of ‘difficult’ clients.

1. The Denyer



The Denyer is the client that takes your input, but doesn’t actually follow through and implement it. This could be for one of a few reasons. The first being lack of resources. If they’ve hired you it’s because they don’t have the knowledge in-house to do the work, but if they don’t have the staff to implement your recommendations, then it’s not going to get done. The second reason for denial is quite simply that they don’t want to do it. Maybe outsourcing was forced on them, and they don’t want the project to succeed, or maybe they believe that they know more than you do, so they’re second-guessing you.

2. The Spy



The Spy is that type of client that examines everything that you do, trying to get as much knowledge out of you as possible, so that they can move the project in-house as soon as possible. This isn’t an issue when the client is up front about it, and you can work together to actually set up and schedule a training plan, but when they tell you that it’s not their intention, while blatantly doing so it’s an issue.

3. The Invisible Man / Sneak Attacker



This type of client goes into ’silent running’ mode for a while, then suddenly appears out of the shadows asking a flurry of questions, or throwing out unscheduled work.

4. The ‘I Want it Yesterday’ Guy



This type of client feels that you work for them and only them. Your contract binds you to them day and night, you must drop everything else and respond to them immediately, if not sooner.

5. The Scope Creeper



This insidious beast is one of the most feared. The Scope Creeper starts off with a simple enough, well defined project, then piece by piece expands the scope until the project is unrecognizable from the original. What started off as an ordinary site audit suddenly, and without warning (ok, with lots of warning) becomes an audit on 3 sites, a social media plan for 2 industries, an analytics installation and a whitepaper on expected conversion rates in the online Bolivian dental industry… for the same price…

6. The ‘Lack of Internal Process’ Client



Everything goes smoothly with this client, your recommendations were accepted and implemented, and the site is starting to take off. Then, a month later, you notice some strange numbers in the analytics. Three of the main landing pages drop to 0 conversions, while a fourth has a major increase in conversions. Yep, one of their IT people decided to ’standardize’ the code between pages, copying the unique tracking code from one page to all. So you get it fixed, and then you notice that another page has reverted to a past version, and so on, and so forth.

So what should you do? How can you deal with these ‘difficult’ clients?

• Be Proactive:
  • Do your Due diligence on the client, identify how they work, see what resources they have, and how they are deployed
  • Set both sets of expectations up front – if you both know what you’re supposed to do and supposed to receive, and when, then there shouldn’t be any surprises.
• Use your contract:
  • The contract should have the scope of the work clearly laid out. If there’s a deviation, then both parties need to agree to it, as well as any change in the fee structure that results.
• Communicate:
  • Ensure that both parties have the opportunity to give regular updates to each other on a mutually agreed schedule
• Identify and Resolve:
  • When an issue is raised, identify how best to resolve it to the satisfaction of both parties.

By working through these issues together, and setting expectations up front, the agency and the client can have a great mutually beneficial relationship.

Filed under: Agency, Education and Training on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 by Simon Heseltine | 1 Comment
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