Do you have customers or clients?

I’ve always referred to my clients as clients, and not customers, because it felt more personal and professional. I intuitively knew there was a difference between the meaning of the two words, but never really looked up the definition. I found this today, from Jay Abraham, and I think it sums up nicely how you should approach your clientele and how you should view your place in your business.

This is from “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got”:

Customer….One who purchases a commodity or service

Client………One who is under the protection of another

The difference in the meaning is massive. And there’s a massive difference in the way a person who does business with you could or should be treated.

If in your field these people are referred to as customers, that’s fine. But whatever you call them, always think of them as a client.

What exactly does ‘under your protection’ mean? In this case, it means that you don’t sell people a product or service just so you can make the largest one-time profit possible. You must understand and appreciate exactly what your clients need when they do business with you — even if they are unable to articulate that exact result themselves. Once you know what final outcome they need, you lead them to that outcome — you become a trusted advisor who protects them. And they have reason to remain your client for a lifetime.

For instance, a man who goes to a hardware store to buy a power drill doesn’t really need a drill — he needs holes.

He has a financial, emotional, logical or intellectual need for holes. He might think he wants a drill. But it’s your responsibility to determine the real truth and his real need. Your responsibility and opportunity is not to just sell him a drill. You must figure out how to satisfy his financial, emotional, logical or intellectual need for holes and make sure the drill he buys from you will solve his problem and give him the exact holes he needs.

Or maybe he thinks he wants holes, but when you find out that he needs to insert rods in these holes, you realize that fasteners would work better than holes. So you sell the client some fasteners. You have truly solved his problem.

You have also become a trusted advisor and a friend. And you should think of your clients as dear, valued friends. The concept of viewing clients as valued friends is the essence of the Strategy of Preeminence and the lifeblood of a long-lasting, rewarding and profitable relationship for both you and your clients. And you will learn that the value you provide to your clients and everyone you deal with can be deeper, more meaningful and rewarding than you ever realized.

June 16, 2008 | Filed Under Client Relations | 2 Comments 

Tell that Bad Client “You’re Fired!”

I’m dealing with a client this week that I should have “fired” long ago. This particular situation has gotten extremely messy and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy (not that I have enemies!). But it did help me reflect on firing clients, and how to do so easily.

The first step to firing a client is getting up the courage to do so. You have to realize that as a business owner, you are in charge of who you work with. You don’t have an obligation to work with a particular person, no matter what they try to tell you or promise you in the future. As long as you fulfill your obligation for the current work, you don’t have to continue working with a person if you don’t want to.

Think about how to get out of the relationship. If it’s just a personality conflict, then it’s up to you whether you want to ruffle their feathers with the truth or tell a little white lie like “I’m cutting back on my work hours.” It’s your call based on the situation, and sometimes it is best to just stretch the truth instead of telling them “You’re a psychotic anal retentive jerk.”

If there’s a problem with the project, or they’ve crossed the line in some respect, you may want to let them know specifically why you are terminating the relationship. For example, when I first started out, a client hired me for content writing and once I received his reference materials it became clear that he really needed a copywriter (and someone who didn’t mind writing about “mature” content). I’m no nun…but I definitely refunded his money and let him know he was barking up the wrong tree.

Firing a client takes a leap of faith. I know there’s always that moment when you wonder if you’ll ever have a client to replace the one you are leaving behind. There is. There will be plenty. Get over it and get on with your life. You’ll feel much better when you get the client out of your roster.

After you’ve fired a client, analyze what went wrong. Was it a lack of communication? Was there a problem with your contract (or the fact that you didn’t have one)? Did you do too little research at the start of the project to figure out if it was right for you? Was the project just over your head? Even if your former client was totally to blame for the problems, there’s always something you can learn to make your relationship with your future clients better and more productive.

May 7, 2008 | Filed Under Client Relations | 7 Comments 

Take a Number

I had another post planned for today. But this issue has risen to the surface twice in the last week so I felt the need to address it. If you’ve written for a while, you probably have a queue of sorts. You don’t turn folks away when your plate is full. You schedule projects in advance and develop what’s called a “lead time” for your projects.

When someone wants a quote, I give them a due date based on when I receive a deposit and my current writing schedule. I’ll try not to book more than a few weeks out. But there is always a lead time.

I’ve had two potential clients in the last week try to pressure me into delivering earlier. One even told me he “couldn’t believe” it would take a writer of my caliber (his words, not mine) 10 days to write one report. He’s right. It doesn’t take me 10 days. But with the other work on my plate, it will take me a little time to get to a new project.

This doesn’t happen a lot, but with it happening twice in the last week it made me think about reasonable lead times, and how often service providers are expected to bend over backwards to meet insane demands. I don’t think that anything less than a 2 week turn around time for a small project is that much of a hassle to a client if they were really honest with themselves. I think that sometimes clients get into the mindset of “the faster, the better.” Unfortunately, just like with the mindset of “the cheaper, the better” a fast turn around time can sometimes mean that the writing isn’t great.

In my experience, if a writer doesn’t have a queue, they are either brand new or not that good. Or they promise a few days and then end up delaying and then dropping the ball.

So it’s your choice clients: either take a number and get in line for an experienced writer or go with the fastest turn around time and possibly end up disappointed.

December 17, 2007 | Filed Under Client Relations, Web Writing Basics | 8 Comments 

Brand Spanking New Article Directory!

My good buddy Hope Wilbanks just started a brand new article directory.

Let’s go fill it with our awesome content

- Check out Article Aces

November 14, 2007 | Filed Under Link Love, Client Relations, Marketing | 3 Comments 

Keeping your clients happy

The lifeline of your business is your clients. When they are happy, and they tell others about you, your writing busines will mushroom. In my experience, here are the top 3 ways to keep clients happy:

1. Do what you promise. Deliver your work on time, every time, and make sure it meets the standards you agreed upon.

2. Offer them additional services to make their life easier. If you offer article writing, suggest a report that they can give away to visitors to their website and build their list.

3. Respond promptly to all e-mails and other forms of contact, like private messages on forums. You can’t be connected all of the time, but its a good measure of courtesy to get back to clients within 24 hours.

(This post is part of my mini-blogathon to raise awareness for congenital heart defects. For more on this special event, visit http://www.ezinemarketingcenter.com/blog/)

September 15, 2007 | Filed Under Making Money, Motivation, Client Relations | Leave a Comment 

Do you have a backup plan?

I got the unpleasant experience of having my cable, telephone and internet all shut off. Fun times. It turns out the automatic payment that I had set up online to make my life easier takes two months to go through. So what was meant to make my life easier turned out to be a pain in the butt. Is it obvious that I don’t read the fine print?

Also, having all of your vital services (cable tv barely qualifying as vital) linked to one company in order to save money can be a bit of a problem when you skip a bill. I couldn’t call them to pay my bill, since the phone was down and I couldn’t pay online because the Internet was gone.

Luckily, I live close enough to my parents that I could jet over there to get everything taken care of. If they had been out as well for some reason, I could have always hit the library for Internet access, I suppose.

Which brings me to the point of today’s post: Always have a backup plan. Sure, you may not have a silly cable company like I do that hides important information in tiny print. But you never know when something will go wrong while you’re working on a project.

I’m not a stickler for back up disks, but I always upload the project I’m working on to my web hosting account, just in case. I also have a couple of tried and true writers that I can outsource to, if need be.

I once took part in a long discussion on Warrior forum about writers, and how reliable they can or can’t be. A lot of marketers had experience with “all those writers” who had endless computer problems, or had internet connection problems, etc.

While these may have just been excuses for getting work in late, these things do happen. Last summer, my power cord died and thanks to having a random model of computer I had to wait a week and half (and pay $200) for a new one to arrive. Make sure your clients don’t find out about those happenstances unless absolutely necessary.

By setting up a back up plan in advance, you won’t have to scramble to find a solution. Network with a few other writers, make sure to back up your work and you’ll never have to be “one of those writers.”

September 12, 2007 | Filed Under Techniques and Tips, Client Relations | 1 Comment 

Avoid being scammed….

I found an interesting post at Article Scammers about some techniques to use to avoid being ripped off for article samples.

Online content theft is a problem, and may be causing a lot of writers to walk away from writing for the Internet Marketing crowd. But as I posted here, the problem is far from one sided.

In addition to the tips Pam posted, I have my own:

1. Always get a deposit up front. The 50/50 plan (50% up front, 50% upon delivery) normally works well and is agreeable to clients (at least the professional ones that is!)

2. Don’t put up with clients who talk down to you. A red flag for me is when a job description includes the words “This will be an easy job for someone who knows what they are doing.”

3. Use the same samples for every job. Start out with three articles in different categories. If they ask if you’ve done any work in a certain field, send them a portion of an article that you’ve written for someone else. Never, ever, ever write a “sample” article without being paid for your time and effort.

August 30, 2007 | Filed Under Making Money, Client Relations, Web Writing Basics | Leave a Comment 

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