Hump day! Hope you all had a fairly decent week so far. Did you all take a look at the Communications Course #1 posted on Monday? If you find yourself having to use one of the substitutions mentioned, then I think this list may be of use to you all. It's written by Scott Thigpen, an illustrator (so we'll forgive him for his grammar mistakes, not like I'm not guilty of them from time to time). Top Ten Ways to handle Bad Clients, read more after the jump.
As a bonus, check out Own-It, it's only for the people living in London, hence, undeserving of its own post… or does it? Any London readers? They offer free intellectual property advice for London's creative people.
1. Nice list. I find the micromanagement comment quite true. Another response to micromanagement is to tell the client in plain terms that continual modification will add time and cost to the project, be specific about how much of each.
As for #10, my wife is a Veterinarian and regularly gets harassed by human doctors and nurses that come to her as clients. Her best defense is to calmly tell them they are being unreasonable / rude and tell them if their attitude does not change that she would be happy to recommend another clinic that they can take their animal to. Essentially, she threatens to fire them as clients. This works like a charm, many of her worst clients are now her most strident supporters after receiving this veiled warning. Some people just need a good smack in the mouth. She has never lost a client with this tactic, but it helps that she it one hell of a vet. If you are wondering, she is 5'2" and 105 pounds, so she is in no way threatening, well not physically.
Posted at 6:11AM on Dec 19th 2005 by falling whale number 42