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troublesome customer - how would you handle it?

toucan_graphics

toucan_graphics

New Member
I have a customer in the same building as my shop who has become my friend over the past year of dealing with him. He's generally a good guy but has a short attention span. Lately he has become more and more difficult to work with due to constantly changing priorities and the mass barrage of various projects he wants to start working on.
I do a fair amount of design work for him for various advertising materials and in-store displays. The problem is that today he will tell me that "project A" is a priority and needs to be done ASAP. Tomorrow he will tell me to put "project A" on hold and work on "project B". The next day he will tell me to stop working on everything of his and focus on "project C". By the end of any given week he has a minimum of 4 jobs in progress (none of them finished) and then he wants to raise hell because "project A" isn't finished yet and he gave me the details almost a week ago.
One day the big push is for a specific product menu, the next day it is his logo redesign. The day after that it is product literature flyers. The day after that it is a different product menu, and the day after that it is a product packaging design. Add in a few hundred decals here and there along with acting as technical support for his employees when they have computer trouble and I am left with one customer who sucks up all of my time.

The final straw for me was Friday night when he texts me at 11pm with a profanity laced rant about his projects not being finished and his business cards not being delivered. I can understand his frustration about the business cards and I would be upset too but at what point do I tell him enough is enough?

Do I tell him to go find another shop to get what he needs or do I try to salvage the business relationship? I'm at the point now where I don't really care where he gets his stuff done. He isn't a $1,000 a week customer.... he MIGHT be a $600 per month customer but he is a loyal repeat customer. I wouldn't be losing out on much revenue if I told him to take a hike. What would you guys do?
 
P

player

New Member
Give him some time to defuse.

You need to show him calmly the chain of events, and how you need to
work within a rational order system. I assume you are also doing a bunch
of work you don't get paid for as well?

If you have kept accurate dockets with change orders and times etc. you will
have no trouble getting him to see things as they are. Unless of course you
are not working effectively and he is legitimately frustrated with stuff not getting done...
 
Z SIGNS

Z SIGNS

New Member
You gotta ask yourself

Who is the real jerk here.

The unreasonable customer ?

or

The person who puts up with it.

Send him on his way so you can move on to making some money.
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
My first move after allowing him to cool down and either apologize or make amends is to start a time journal with very specific entries chronicling his actions. Nobody, including ex-wives, ex-girlfriends or best friends get a free pass on the late night profanity laced rants without an apology or amends. Is your self-respect worth more than $600 per month?

Write everything down, but not to show him because his ego couldn't handle it. Do it so you can get a handle on how much lost productivity he's causing and to gauge if he's even worth retaining as a customer. Do it for a week or a month and after breaking down the numbers, decide if he's worth the effort.

Even at a shop rate of $75 per hour, if you're only doing $600 worth of work per month for him and he's disrupting your flow this much with just 8-10 hours a month worth of work, I'd demand the kind of mutually respectful working relationship you need, or raise your rates until he either goes elsewhere or makes it worth your aggravation.

You might be better served without him mucking up your workflow.
 
P

player

New Member
If you make a big deal out of this he will go elsewhere.

So like any friends, you cut them some slack because you
are friends. Or you don't, you prove your point in an Alpha male
sort of way, and he moves on. Maybe not today, but he will definitely
be looking.
 
Sidney

Sidney

New Member
Set the expectations...

The best advice I can give is to take control. In other words approach him and apologize for any confusion (even if it's not your doing). Let him know that you value him and his business but from this moment we must complete one project at a time so that their isn't any confusion or disappointment. Let him know you want to take care of him but you and him must go one project at a time and if another project is presented, it will follow next after this is completed.
Scheduling customers like that helps them through there chaos and lack of scheduling.
 
Last edited:
TheDude

TheDude

New Member
player said:
Give him some time to defuse.

You need to show him calmly the chain of events, and how you need to
work within a rational order system. I assume you are also doing a bunch
of work you don't get paid for as well?

If you have kept accurate dockets with change orders and times etc. you will
have no trouble getting him to see things as they are. Unless of course you
are not working effectively and he is legitimately frustrated with stuff not getting done...
Click to expand...


If you decide to keep this customer I think this is the right path. I would suggest taking it a step further by adjusting time to completion changes with each change of 'priority', print it all out so its easy to read and make him read and sign this agreement before changing course. If he signs it then you are never late completing work (unless you really are late) and he cant hassle you over anything. Being very upfront and concise helps greatly with keeping difficult people in line.

Im new to the sign industry, but my sales background includes managing an insurance agency, and managing difficult customers was an art form I had to learn to keep premiums rolling in!


Good luck either way!
 
toucan_graphics

toucan_graphics

New Member
You guys are all quite right. Good solid advice. I think from now moving forward everything will be well documented and he will have to sign confirming any new jobs with specific deadlines as well as sign some sort of memorandum of agreement for any priority changes - that way there is no confusion. I am working on "project A" which is due for delivery on June 8th. If he changes his focus to "Project B" then he must sign the to ensure he knows everything this entails.
 
C

Chasez

New Member
After these projects wrap up and he comes to you with more, ask him for a deadline date (what day do you need this by) and work your own pace on it with everything else you've got going on. This way you can mix it in with your workflow and see if you have time for the job, and you can prepare for when you'll actually work on it to meet his deadline. If he comes back saying he needs everything right away you can look at your work load and tell him if you can or can't do the job in the time line that he needs it in. Then when he tells you to start working on one or the other you can tell him that you've got it under control and will be done by the due date.

Hope this helps

Chaz
 
10sacer

10sacer

New Member
You have to set the ground rules before starting any project like design work on what is a reasonable timeframe for completion, charges for changes and rush charges for altering the timetable. Its merely a question of who is in charge of YOUR time.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
player said:
Not me. Business is stressful, and I can understand someone losing it... If it is a one time thing, I can take it. If it is how they do business, I'm out.
Click to expand...

Not here, that would get a customer thrown out of my shop, forcefully if needed. There is no excuse to loose your cool, totally unprofessional. I don't need the money badly enough to put up with that BS.

We had 2 brothers come in a few years ago, they would start yelling at the tinest things, according to them it's becuase they were portuguese and that was "just how they communicated" tod them they better go find a shop run by a portuguese guy then!
 
P

player

New Member
watsons signs said:
Not here, that would get a customer thrown out of my shop, forcefully if needed. There is no excuse to loose your cool, totally unprofessional. I don't need the money badly enough to put up with that BS.

We had 2 brothers come in a few years ago, they would start yelling at the tinest things, according to them it's becuase they were portuguese and that was "just how they communicated" tod them they better go find a shop run by a portuguese guy then!
Click to expand...

Yes. Alternatively if they have been great to work with and a long term customer and they lose it once I can handle it.
 
threeputt

threeputt

New Member
Unless six hundred bucks a month is very important to you, I'd lose no time in saying goodbye. (on a business level) If you still want to be friends with this guy (because he's in the same building and you've got to see him all the time) OK. But business does not work the way you say it's been going. No way we keep a guy like that as a customer. In business, as in most relationships, you get treated as badly as you allow.

That guy is six hundred bucks worth of Rolaids and Aspirin.
 
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