Ask the CHO Diplomacy with customers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Ask the CHO Diplomacy with customers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog An anonymous reader sent me this question: Im struggling with my work/happiness situation. I want to be return to graphic design as a career, but I realize that in order to be successful at it, I will have to find a way to become a better diplomat when I come across very difficult clients: clients who think they know better, belittle the importance of the work (its so easy I could do it), are experts at everything and generally make the creative process hell. Most people are not like this, but I would like some pointers on the difficult side of pleasing people, while still trying to maintain happiness at work. Excellent question. There is one realization that I think every independent worker and startup company needs to arrive at: Some customers aint worth it. I know that as a fledgling company you may worry about making ends meet and consequently think that every customer is a good customer. But the fact of the matter is, that some customers are more trouble than theyre worth. They make you fight to convince them of the value of your work, they make every meeting a battle of wills and they demand subservience before they will grant you their business Their money may be good their company, however, is toxic. I previously wrote two blog posts that touch on this. One is about why The Customer is Always Right is wrong, and shows that some customers are not only wrong, theyre wrong for your business. In another blog post I wrote about how I learned to say No! to customers. How some of the toughest most demanding customers may actually come around and respect your work, providing you tell them No! when they make unreasonable demands. So my advice to any contract worker, startup company, independent consultant or is this: Dare to say No to bad customers! Yes, you will lose out on some business here and now, but consider the cost of accepting a bad customers business. The constant struggle will make you tired, annoyed, depressed, demotivated and much less able to go out and find nice, fun customers. Working with happy customers, on the other hand, will make you happy. This will increase your energy and motivation. You will do better work. You will get more referrals and more repeat business. You will have more confidence in your own abilities and therefore do better in your sales meetings, getting you even more happy customers. Whats your take? Have you tried saying No! to a difficult customer? What happened? How do you treat difficult customers? Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related