how do you forget about clients from hell and continue?

Panther28 said:

I always found that the best way is to apologise for your mistake(even if its not), and give them a full refund, and a freebee. Make sure that you leave them feeling guilty that you done such a good job customer service. I have even managed to upsell customers after this with this approach. Then just get back to your winning customers.

Click to expand...

That's the first thing I would do. It doesn't matter if you were right or wrong, just to get this guy off of your back (because like you said this is upsetting you), I would apologize, say it was my fault (or just a break down in communication), refund him, move on and keep a mental note to never work with this guy again.

I don't know how long you've been in business, but if you're just starting out, this will happen from time to time. This will not be your last customer from hell. You're going to have to learn how to simply shrug it off and continue to move on and run your business. You're not going to have customers that are satisfied 100% all the time. And it doesn't have to be your fault or your mistake, some people are just buttheads.

But like redrubies said, don't let this one person keep you from pursuing your business. This is your business, your dream, your livelihood, don't let one pissed off customer ruin it. Remember: Your business is to make money, not friends. It won't be easy, but you gotta learn to shrug it off.

Dumper said:

You can't please everyone, let him go...

Click to expand...

+1
After I've given this guy a refund and apologized, that's exactly what I would do.

Human nature. We all focus on the one bad thing and don't even notice all the good things. Just let it go and concentrate on the good. Its the old 80/20 rule. 20 percent of your customers make you 80% of your money. Concentrate on that 20. the rest is just icing on the cake. There are some tossers who you will never satisfy and they get their jollies on complaining. Just put it out of your mind.

you tried to talk with him several times. i am sure you stayed calm while that and gave honest patiently answers. if you now edperience that this repeats, stop the communication and wait what comes. there is no other choice and it is a waste of energy to answer and replay back. i had exact same situation with the distributor of our most important brand. he hates me and called me a stupid as he does not want get my point. he simply wants to hate me. i stopped replying and it was end of story ( till now ).

i just tried to keep everything legit

Frustrating ignorant clients are a part of any business, be it retail, consulting, labor, etc. Makes no difference. In SEO, where so much of what we do is a grey science this is especially true. What do you do. Like a few others have said, you explain as best you can what the situation is. You're sorry this is not to their satisfaction, offer refund, and move on and forget about them. Never do business with them again. The price of the refund is better than having some asshole writing negative reviews all over the place, or if you're local based, then bad mouthing you to potential clients. It's a loss you eat, but it's part of doing business.... nothing to lose sleep over. You'll run into many more of these sorts of clients in your career. They're just sad ignorant little individuals, who like to throw their weight around when someone is working for them.... trust me, they do the exact same thing to their waiters, to the receptionists, and anyone else they can, to validate their existance. It's really quite pathetic, not worth even troubling yourself over

kvmcable said:

Using your shoe analogy, you didn't ask near enough questions or the client would have gotten what he wanted and both parties would be happy. He hired you to be the expert and KNOW the questions that need answers before you start the job. To say well the client didn't specify this or that shows a failure from the seller, not the buyer. The seller is the expert..

Click to expand...

Exactly. But you and I come from a different generation. My friend and I were just talking about this a week or so ago. When we were young, we could not get away with incompetence in the work place. There was a supervisor on our backs all the time. We learned from them though. What you said in your post was what was expected of us at all times. "Determine the goal before offering the tool." We learned to pay attention to detail and leave no stone unturned. I don't know what it is about the younger generation, but they are a little too carefree when it comes to the work place. Not all, but enough.

theseodude said:

Hi
This question is not about "how do I deal with a client from hell?"
it's more of a psychology question.

Right now, I am having this client from hell. He is a past client and he has accused me of all kinds of things that I am not guilty of, and threatened to report me to the Better business bureau, plus some other threats.

I was on the phone with this guy for an hour today and he is a lost cause. There is no reasoning with him. He won't listen.

It is very emotionally and mentally exhausting for me. After i got off the phone, I had to go outside for fresh air. I was seriously considering closing my business. All kinds of bad thoughts came to my mind, like "what if he comes to my virtual office and makes a mess and I lose my virtual office over this?" "what if he files a lawsuit?"

How do you "shake off" these thoughts and continue your business? do you just say "fuck him" and forget about him, or what do you do? I am so mentally exhausted because of this guy, I fee like I cant continue.

Click to expand...

If I am in your "shoes", I would go over the matter with my lawyer and stick to what he decides. If you're a seller, don't you have any "Terms and Conditions" on your bills? Something like, Goods once sold will not be taken back... warranty: conditions apply... something like this? If you have then you can stick to those ToS clauses and stay quiet. Keep those mails of threats handy. It will make your case strong.

If you feel like refunding, do so, but do inspect the product first for any damages. If you have any restocking charges, apply it. Then forget everything about this sale.

This goes into your learned-a-new-lesson expenditure account! Be happy about it. I too feel that you hurried the closing of sale. You should have asked more questions about what kind of 'product' the customer wanted... anyway, stick to your lawyer's words and next time be more careful. Don't turn your good business into someone else's wh0re. Don't allow it to be abused by others... if you are careful you will have 'intuitions' about those potential customers and their 'hidden' motives... most of the times that happens to the 'lucky' and successful merchants. They have intuitions and that comes with practice and time... So they are "lucky" and successful!

In your case, the potential customer asked for pair of shoes and you simply gave him something off the shelve. Bad business practice! Don't repeat it in future.

Create that double-entry accounting system and create an invisible (to others) "learned-a-new-lesson-today" account in it and balance this failed trade... It will help your nerves.

P.S.:

The "shoe" didn't fit the lady? hmm... your lawyer doesn't have a place here! Tell the customer that you're willing to replace if he tells you the exact size, color, make, type....

Kill the anger, but remember who made the mistake in the first place and take the chill-pill!

You can always sell these shoes to someone else who deserves the heavy discount on it! Great shoes those... they taught you an important lesson, and also made (will make) someone very happy on the rebound!

Consider issuing the annoying client a full refund and letting him keep the work you made, as in "we're not working well together, take the work already done for free, and we'll part ways".

In my experience often times those annoying clients really calm down when they feel that they got some work done for them for free. They walk away feeling that they weren't screwed over, and this is what you want, since this calms them down and they're likely not to bother you anymore.

Duffers5000 said:

Are you the guy that had a hot chick on the phone last week getting all suggestive ? If that was his wife I would consider closing the business and quitting town...guys probably on route with a shovel and a 45.

Click to expand...

yep, that's him. http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/blackhat-lounge/515616-horny-client.html#post5030543

There are always some guys with big "EGO" just F.U.C.K them.

The Scarlet Pimp said:

yep, that's him. http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/blackhat-lounge/515616-horny-client.html#post5030543

Click to expand...

haha awesome find!

phpbuilt said:

By default -- a seo professional should be fully 100% capable of supporting themselves through their own IM endeavors. In other words, instead of ranking other people to grow their business, you find a niche and rank your own business.

Assuming your a good SEO, that's the path you need to take. Then there's no worrying about having bad clients.

Click to expand...

+1 trillion

theseodude said:

Hi
This question is not about "how do I deal with a client from hell?"
it's more of a psychology question.

Right now, I am having this client from hell. He is a past client and he has accused me of all kinds of things that I am not guilty of, and threatened to report me to the Better business bureau, plus some other threats.

I was on the phone with this guy for an hour today and he is a lost cause. There is no reasoning with him. He won't listen.

It is very emotionally and mentally exhausting for me. After i got off the phone, I had to go outside for fresh air. I was seriously considering closing my business. All kinds of bad thoughts came to my mind, like "what if he comes to my virtual office and makes a mess and I lose my virtual office over this?" "what if he files a lawsuit?"

How do you "shake off" these thoughts and continue your business? do you just say "fuck him" and forget about him, or what do you do? I am so mentally exhausted because of this guy, I fee like I cant continue.

Click to expand...

You just have to make sure that you are not at fault, then go the Upwork support and submit a doc explaining all the things and conversations that you have faced....

Then leave it to the BHW support, if needed refund them and focus on getting more work... It's not at all a good idea to disturb your mood and life just because of a single client....

Rekhaa said:

You just have to make sure that you are not at fault, then go the Upwork support and submit a doc explaining all the things and conversations that you have faced....

Then leave it to the BHW support, if needed refund them and focus on getting more work... It's not at all a good idea to disturb your mood and life just because of a single client....

Click to expand...

I am positive about writing in 11 year old topics (because if the answer fits, why not) but you are addressing a BHW member who hasn't logged in the last 10 years. Maybe you should re-think your spam strategy to increase post count.