Lets talk about difficult customers.

[jnina]

<p>Hi people!<br>

How do you manage difficult customers?<br>

Share you experience?<br>

Here is my last experience.<br>

I went to cover a event and had previous instructions on what the customer wanted. I made the shots and thought that I did a very good job (photos I made are my evidence). <br>

Two days later I receive the feedback from my boss that the customer was not satisfy with my work. This customer made real bad critiques of what I did, how photos where shot, poses that where suggested and previously order by her (yes, the customer was a women) now are no good, poses suggested by me where not accepted during the event and now she had the "B A L L S" to critique that I did not make them. <br>

To make the story short she even critique my attitude on the event.<br>

Since I make most of the work for this studio on a freelance basis my attitude toward this customer is not to even touch one of this photos (retouch and album desing). To make it clear to all, I'm the one in this studio that makes most (if not all) the work that finally comes out, only looking for someone else when we have to much work at same time and more of 95% of the work that the customer receives pass by my "creative" hands. <br>

I'm not going to risk my reputation to some imposible to please customer!</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>You always catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as me sainted mum used to say.</p>

<p>I suggest calmly explaining to the "Boss" what happened, but no matter how blameless you are, if you bad-mouth the customer, <strong><em>you</em> </strong> will damage yourself with those to whom you tell the story.</p>

<p>There's a wonderful Chekhov story called "The Slander" (<a href="http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/achekhov/bl-achek-slander.htm">link</a> ), that illustrates what happens when you "defend" yourself too vigorously.</p>

[graham_line]

<p>Many consumers are not very good at articulating what they want. I had a boss for a while who could only say what she wanted <em>after </em> we had built and proofed a layout based on her first-round instructions. Wasted huge amounts of time and money.<br>

Your defense as a contractor is to overshoot the event, from all possible angles, following both the customer's instructions and your own intuition. Even staged PR events are very fluid and you have to react to the situation as it develops.<br>

You manage difficult customers by either figuring out what they want, or developing other clients.</p>

 

[walter_degroot]

<p>om march 6 michaelangelos birthday<br>

I was sent as a contractor to replace a floppy drive<br>

the brand that had been installed vertically in the case had not been tested and did not "click in" properly.<br>

other brands did. Likely they never tested the install.<br>

I would not do this. so when I installed a new drive, I wanted to boot the pc from the drive to be sure the drive was working properly ( best test)<br>

i was not involved in the company's software or data so I did not want to even load their programs even for a test.<br>

My boot disk contained McAffee virus scan and yes the virus was there.<br>

I exclaimes " OH Sxxx) really surprised.<br>

I stopped. told the manager and conferred with the higher manager. who said " go ahead check all out pc's". this virus would wipe out everything. very dangerous.<br>

I proceeded to do so and made copies of my disk on a cheaned machine for others to use..<br>

the company I worked for had provided a disk with a batch file that wrote back to the floppy and had a version that would detect but the clean program was older and was unable to remove the virus. Mc Afee was then the leading AV program<br>

and scan and clean would both fit on a bootable floppy.<br>

it was free to download, updated frequently.<br>

my disk would work as I had downloaded the latest.<br>

after getting autorization from both my company and the other company,<br>

I spent several hours doing this<br>

and when I returned to the shop I was critisized for exclaiming " oh sxx" and not paif for the extra time I had spent. the owner was not reachable by phone and the supervisor was not autorized to tell me to " go ahaead"<br>

"with" autorization -- from the contractor and my and maybe making the company look lame because they didn't have the first clue about removing viruses.<br>

everybody was very nice while I was there but sang a different song later.<br>

I really should have just walked away and let them loose all their data.<br>

at that time It was a state of the art procedure I followed.<br>

no cd drives to run a virus scanner.<br>

Sometimes like when yoiu are taking photos " let me be perfectly clear ( wat do you want me to do) is not enough. it should be in writing or at least witnessed.<br>

some customers have an ulterior motive, get the work free .</p>

[jnina]

<p>Not really going to defend myself because the owner of the studio knows how I work and like I said <em>"<strong>Photos are my evidence".</strong></em> I'm really the type of worker that is proud of his work, all I do has to be as good or better than anyone else's jobs. This kind of person that, for a unknown reason, critiques other and even goes up to your boss with this sad story does not deserve I put my hands on the finish album she will receive, even if my photos are there!</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>Some customers cannot be satisfied; no matter if you give all your blood; net worth or months of labor; for one penny. Some folks consider one's time spent using a computer "just pushing buttons"; you are not really doing any work. Others consider your images or art to be bowel movement; you shot a wedding and didn not get the images they never mentioned they wanted. The wanting something for nothing is ingrained in some folks DNA; your fee is always too high; you have never done enough;you didn not please the customer. Your business might be so slow that one is behind in paying taxes; paying bills; one is going without being paid for 6 months and you token fee for a task is too much; you are an evil chap trying to turn a profit to keep afloat. With images many folks ie customers cannot communicate what they want; thus one must reshoot or suffer the comments that you screwed up for not reading their mind. The customer is always right; all that hard work doesnt matter to many; it is that you did not deliver what they wanted. Not all customers are reasonable; a few will never ever ever ever be satisfied; even if your work is free.</p>

[jnina]

<p><strong><em>a few will never ever ever ever be satisfied; even if your work is free.</em></strong><br>

<strong><em></em></strong><br>

You can say that again:)</p>

[jnina]

<p><strong><em>a few will never ever ever ever be satisfied; even if your work is free.</em></strong><br>

<strong><em></em></strong><br>

You can say that again:)</p>

[doug_axford1]

<p>Generally, I think people are getting much harder to work for and work with. It doesn't matter what business you are in there are a number of people who seem to make bit*hing a way of life.<br>

Move on and put it all behind you. I have to admit that hearing others complain does seem to make the pain go away though.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>With a poor economy folks frustration with other things in their life often equates into the mix; part of the lightning rod you are as a vendor might be static from others.<br>

One can also just have a bad day too; burnout dealing with stuff.<br>

Your client may want exact answers to totally open ended wishy washy issue that is totally grey.<br>

We get this all the time in printing; folks want to know what it costs to print out a CD; when one doesnt have the cd. The client doesnt know how many files; what size; whether B&W or color; line work or pictoral; whether TIFF or pdf or dwg or wordperfect.<br>

They want an EXACT answer; ones doesnt even know if the CD has one image; or the 10,000 pages of specs; or a billboard; or the plans for the Orion; or 2 pages for a doghouse.<br>

One person wanted to "talk to my boss"; since I could not quote them an exact figure onr printing a CD that I HAD NEVER SEEN; NOR HER.<br>

Part of dealing with that general public is stupid folks. They want to box in how long a string needs to be; without seeing the box; fence or letter or kite. You will be considered stupid by some folks for wanting more info; and NOT giving straight answers to what their brains sees as a clear issue; and your brains sees as a big open ended mess.</p>

 

[alex_lofquist]

<p>What did the customer expect you to do after she received your work? A discount or an apology? I never back down on my charges, unless I accept that I made mistakes in the services rendered. In the case of "unacceptable" photographs, I would let it be known that the images would be destroyed, without compromise on my part. <br>

Now "the ball is in her court"!</p>

[William Kahn]

<p>This is fun to watch......from a distance. You guys have reinforced my oft-stated preference for shooting things that don't move or talk back......</p>

[doug_axford1]

<p>To add to my previous post. I did have one customer who complained prior to, during and after a portrait session. For the first time out of thousands, I simply gave her the money back and suggested she try Walmart.<br>

Sometimes we all make mistakes and a portrait is not as good as it should be. We always offer a free reshoot and go overboard to do a special job. At other times, perfection would not satisfy some people.</p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>I may have put this story into another thread, but it might still be helpful here. Many years ago, director and cinematographer Haskell Wexler was shooting a short piece for a client who kept following him around, demanding to know about every single thing Wexler was about to do. Finally, Wexler needed to shoot inside a cab. The client panicked. "That's impossible! How are you going to get light inside that cab?"</p>

<p>Wexler turned and said, "I'll just use light reflected from one of my Oscars for cinematography."</p>

<p>The client stopped bothering him after that.</p>

[cooltpmd]

<p>I think meeting <strong>"artistic" goals</strong> is naturally difficult.</p>

<p>If I am asked to fix a computer, the working computer is proof of my success. Your photos aren't proof until they aesthetically resonate with the client ... and artistic interpretation varies.</p>

<ul>

<li>In art, the client is always "right", even when they are wrong ... and in the end, it is all a matter of opinion.</li>

<li>Tough job</li>

</ul>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>The trick is to I.D. these people during the quoting process and run the other way. It's usually clear by that point.</p>

[michaelyoung]

<p>Ian's absolutely right in his distillation of things.<br>

As a suggestion you should always, always have "potential scheduling conflicts" until the first appointment is over and done with and you've had the chance to size them up.<br>

Additionally, there are times I'd suggest a nationwide credit bureau search as well. They're relatively cheap, available, and can save you a world of hurt and let the customers you're dealing with know you're a professional that takes yourself seriously.<br>

The good ones won't mind; the bad ones will "get back to you."</p>

[peter_ferling]

<p>Be happy.  Don't work for her again.  Attitudes sink even big ships, and you'll avoid the undertow.</p>

 

<p>Put it another way, something I learned from a internal sales training program.  When confronted with a sell that simply won't work, turn away and say "Next!"<br>

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 </p>