If you’re a consultant, you may not realise it, but a large (and difficult) part of your job is to manage people’s attitudes and behaviours. This task is made even more difficult because it is usually most apparent when clients are unhappy or disagree with you. Even the best consultants will have to deal with challenging clients at some point in their career. I want to share some of the things I’ve learnt from my experience so far as a consultant.
I firmly believe that when it comes to keeping clients happy, prevention is better than a cure. Most of the tips I’ve shared look at how to prevent clients from ever becoming a problem, but I also cover some tips to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible if things do go wrong.
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1. Communication solves all problems
At Distilled, we have a saying that communication solves all problems. Over the years, I’ve found this to be true. If the problem can’t be solved by communication, it can almost always have been prevented by it. I don’t mean to recommend phoning your client "once a month" as standard, because good communication is a frequent a mix of formal and informal subjects. Don’t just call your clients regarding work; call them on a Monday to see how their weekend was and on a Friday to wish them a good weekend. These little bits of extra effort can make a big difference in the lifetime of a client relationship. As a general rule, I like to speak to my clients at least twice per week and meet face-to-face at least once-per month if possible.
If you have clients abroad, speaking frequently might not always possible, but even so, you should still make the effort -- especially if they are a long standing client. For example, I’ve just spent the last two weeks in Cape Town visiting one of my clients. Obviously South Africa is a long way to go, but we’ve been working together for quite some time, and the value we both got from finally meeting face-to-face was invaluable. Lots of the consultants at Distilled have success stories that are sometimes directly related to a turning point in a client relationship as a result of taking them for a beer and getting out of the office to an environment where you can both relax and talk off the record. In general, the more communication, the better. It may feel strange at first, but you can always find an excuse to call a client.
2. Have a genuine care for the success of the business
Communication is closely related to my next point, because care generally comes as a result of regular communication and getting close to a client. If you speak to someone two or three times a week, you get to really know them -- not just from a client point of view but what they like, what motivates or demotivates them, and even what they’re up to at the weekend. Hopefully the result of that is that you really want them to do well, and that the success of the business means more that just a job to you. You’ll enjoy your job a lot more if you genuinely care about the success of the business as much as the client does. Anyone that’s been in SEO for a while will know that it’s often not a 9-5 job; quite often, it’s evenings and weekends. Unless you really care, you’ll start to resent working with that client. Reaching this point in a client relationship is invaluable. Let me explain a bit further.
There are always going to be ups and downs with clients, and in general clients, will react in two ways to bad news. They either get angry, shout and scream (usually via email), or say it’s entirely your fault. The second reaction is to pick up the phone and talk about how it can be resolved. If your client knows that you genuinely care about the business, you’re more likely to get the second reaction. It means they are more likely to skip the shouting and pointing fingers part and start trying to find solutions to the problem. They know they don’t need to tell you how bad it is because you’ll also feel the same. Getting to this stage of honesty with a client is rare, but it’s a great place to be. This is what turns retainers into lifetime clients and testimonials.
3. If I do this, will you be happy?
You may recognise the following scenario: you get to the end of the month, you’re happy with the work you’ve delivered, you send the monthly report, and the client is disappointed. While this is a bit annoying, it’s easy to stop it from happening again. At the start of every month, create a plan of what you expect to get finished that month, show it to the client, and ask them, “If I deliver all of the things on this list by the end of the month, will you be happy?” If the answer is no, you have a bigger problem. If the answer is yes, then as long as you deliver what you said you would by the time you said, then it's less likely they'll be disappointed. As a side note, the things you say you will deliver should never be results. Only promise things like documents and meetings, and never promise results or outcomes as they are outside of our control and you’re likely setting yourself up for disaster.
4. Document everything
One of the most basic things you should do as a consultant is keep a record of all conversations. After every meeting or phone call, follow up with an email to the client and summarise the main points of the meeting. This is a pretty thankless task 99% of the time, but it can be your most important piece of evidence should the clients record of events ever be different to yours.
5. Never go above your contact
Another common problem you may run into as a consultant is struggling to get things done on the client side. This could be rolling out changes to the site, getting more budget, or just getting some budget in the first place. Whatever it is you are struggling to get done, never try to go above your point of contact to their superior. Not only does this come across as bad manners, it makes your main point of contact look bad to their management. Don’t forget, one of your roles as a consultant is to make your point of contact look good, not the opposite.
6. Provide useful and tailored monthly reports
Let’s be honest -- writing monthly reports isn’t fun, and it’s made even worse by the fact that after you spend time writing them, they often don’t get read. However, they’re very important as part of the prevention phase. It’s even more important the closer you are to your client. Even if you speak to your client regularly, you still need to send a summary of what you’ve done every month, as well as the results. Put simply, if you don’t send reports, your clients will forget what value you added that month. For example, I’ve been in the scenario in the past where a client sent me an angry email and questioned the results from that month; I pulled up analytics to show that things were actually going very well. His response was, “Wow, that’s amazing, I had no idea we were doing so well. Unless you constantly remind me that we’re doing well, I’ll continue to moan at you.”
That’s pretty much a direct quote (you know who you are).
He was right; I fell into the trap of thinking that because I spoke to them most days, I didn’t need to send a report. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Use reports to show what you did, what the results were, and get sign off on the next month's activity. Writing reports also helps to keep you accountable for your own work. By writing at the start of the month what you plan to do and showing it to the client, you’re more likely to get that work completed if you know that you’re going to review it at the end of the month with the client.
7. First mover advantage
Imagine the situation: you go into the office on Monday, only to find your client has dropped for all keywords. What do you do? Tell everyone that if anyone calls, you’re not in? Flee the country? No -- you need to step up and call the client before they call you. If you don’t call and try to fix it before the client notices, you’ll end up with an angry client for two reasons: first, because of the drop, and second, they pay you to notice when things go wrong and they noticed (in their eyes) before you did. Always use the first mover advantage and call the client to let them know. It’s not going to be easy, and they might shout and scream, but they’ll appreciate that you noticed it straight away. Tell them the situation and that you already have the team working to find out the cause and find a solution.
The second part of the post focuses on finding a cure when things do go wrong, despite your best attempts to prevent that happening. For the purpose of this post, let’s assume you’ve received an email from an unhappy client, and they’re threatening to leave; let’s also pretend it’s an unjustified complaint, meaning you genuinely think you have provided value and there’s just a misunderstanding. Here are a few tips that have worked for me in the past in resolving the problem:
1. You can’t win an argument
I’ve taken this from How To Win Friends And Influence People, but I’ve found it to be true through life in general, so it stuck with me when I read the book. It's always my first tip in resolving a conflict with a client. Don’t argue, because you’ll never win and even if you do prove the client wrong, you’ll lose the contract as a result. As Dale Carnegie puts it in the book:
“Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save face? He didn’t ask you for your opinion. He didn’t want it. Why argue with him? Always avoid the acute angle.”
Does that mean you need to let clients say whatever they like and walk all over you? Of course not, but you do need to help them see your point of view, not force them to see it otherwise you’ll just get resistance. I typically start with accepting it’s my fault in some way or another. This doesn’t need to mean it’s actually your fault; I usually word it as my fault for not explaining something clearly, or presenting information in an ambiguous way that was easy to misunderstand. Doing so helps to put the client at ease. Clients like to feel that they call the shots, and it makes them more willing to listen to your next point, which hopefully is the answer.
2. Delivery method
In the majority of cases, clients will deliver bad news and complains via email. Regardless of how nasty or challenging a client may seem, people generally don’t like conflict via the phone, and even less in person. Use this to your advantage. It’s too easy to fire off a counter aggressive email rather than pick up the phone; resist the urge to reply by email and try to arrange a meeting instead. I like to respond with something immediately to acknowledge that I’ve received their email but make it clear that there’s been a misunderstanding and that email probably isn’t the best medium to explain. In order of preference, try to respond by:
- A face-to-face meeting
- Skype, G+ hangout, or something that you can see the person’s face on
- A phone call
- An email
If you are able to arrange a meeting or a phone call, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of coming out with a success story than trying to resolve via email. If you do manage to get a meeting or a phone call, ensure you have your ducks in a row and responses to all the questions the client is likely to have. To help with this, something I’ve found useful is to actually write out an email like you would have responded, but don’t actually send the email. I’ve found this useful in working out exactly what I want to say and to be sure I have all the answers to their questions in a way that makes sense.
3. Disarming honesty
If you’ve messed up, admit it. Nothing says "I’m an idiot" and gets clients angry like coming back with excuses and trying to pretend that it’s not that bad. If you made a mistake, or even if the results just aren’t as good as you were expecting, admit it, your client will appreciate that you’re in this thing together it adds to the genuine care in the business as well if you’re first to go to the client and say you’re disappointed with the results. Otherwise, you’ll have a client that thinks he’s going mad because you see value that they don’t.
4. Know when to say goodbye
Finally, if none of the above is helpful, know when it’s time to say goodbye. Not all client engagements will work out the way you want them to, but it’s important to breakup on good terms. Even if you’re not the right solution for them at the moment, you could be at some point in the future, so take care not to burn your bridges. You never know where your client could end up working in the future.
I hope you’ve found my tips useful. All relationships are diverse, but I’d be interested to hear about any tips you have for dealing with challenging clients. Thanks to Caitlin Krumdieck for letting me pick her brain about previous Distilled clients and adding to the ideas above. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Perhaps I am older and cranky, but for us the best way to handle a challenging client is to NEVER start work for them. If you have been around a while you can sense this type potential client from miles away. That doesn't make them a bad client, it just means they are a bad client for you!
Refer them to your local competitor! (joke)
If you are in a situation already this is an excellent blog. Thank you!
Hey Mike, that's a great point. In an earlier draft version of this post, picking good clients was actually in the prevention section but I cut it out when editing. Having a good sales team who sell projects for the right reasons is a big part of that. If you have a sales team that are eager to sell any project just to get an up-front commission, you're going to have a hard time.
This is a great post. I have recently gotten in an awkward place with a client. I now realize that in all of my other (good) client relationships I had been hired by the top person - CEO or President. The bad egg is the one where my point person is a subordinate. Never again. Prevention!!! Do we all agree that the relationship is collaborative from the start?
After every phone call I always send a recap email to my clients. First and foremost, I want to make sure that everyone is on the same page and there are no miscommunication issues later. Secondly, I want to have that documentation. You can do everything in your power to keep a client happy but you never want the relationship to come down to a "he said she said" moment. Get it all in writing!
Awesome post, Craig.
This one hits home from back in my consulting days but your tips can easily carry over into the in-house realms. I especially like number 4 in the "cure ahead" section of the post and don't think too many of us know when it's time to say goodbye.
On a side note, why so many thumbs downs on the comments? Someone having a bad morning?
Yeah, I was wondering about that too!
More than a bad morning %#!. I have gotten thumbs down on my last 3 post comments and in 3 years commenting here, I had only had 1 thumbs down before. Like most everyone else here, I always try to add to the conversation. Clearly someone has an issue. Hope it doesn't negatively impact participation ongoing.
Hey Craig
Certainly, communication is huge as is making sure the client understands what it is you are doing and the goals. Also, the nature of the beast and that whilst we may step up, so may other competitors so there are no guarantees, just a commitment to do the best possible.
One thing that I have learned over the years is that some clients are just not a good fit for SEO and if you find yourself explaining the same things week after week, month after month and especially if the client has a history with direct response type of marketing TV / Radio especially then the slow, multi factorial nature of an SEO / Inbound program is not always something they can wrap their head around.
It's always fun to bask in the glory of success, but you sometimes have to roll with the punches when things don't go so well.
Nicely timed so close to the end of the month and reporting time!
Cheers
Marcus
Nice. You are saying good that some time your clients creates tough situation so its very difficult of handle all of that, All these points that you tell here really meaningful in both offline and online business. Thanks
Thanks
I think if the client is more traditional and they have bigger budget for TV/Radio, these are really the best clients to get in their and show the true value of SEO/ online marketing. The reason been they usually have a decent budget for offline media. The thing about SEO/online is you can really get deep with tracking ROI unlike offline marketing methods.
Sure enough these types of businesses may be a hard sell, but that is where you just pick up the direct competitors they have and say XYZ your main competitor is pushing hard online, their is good opportunity for you here.
Second to that you really have to get in their and train them u to understand the concepts. Sure it might take a bit longer then a client who is an expert in the field, but some times the clients who are an expert can provide you with different types of challenges.
Great post and we want to say that we agree with Marcus Miller on this. Often times clients just arn't the best fit for your company and sometimes it is often best to walkaway before either side gets heated.
Any business, SEO agency or otherwise, should not be afraid to say to a prospective or current client "I'm sorry, but this isn't working out". There's no shame in doing so and you are, invariably, helping all parties in the long run.
No doubt you've all heard/read that Zappos will give you a $2000 bonus if, after your first week, you don't want to work with them. It's not a PR stunt - it's a genuine attempt to ensure that you fit into the work culture and ethos of the company. Finding SEO clients is exactly the same - not only do you need to provide for them, they have to be able to provide for you. If you're a consultancy, do they actually listen and action on your recommendations? As an agency, can you reach them quickly? How do they prefer to communicate?
Being transparent and all of the advice given above is terrific in helping you or your company be ready for a client. But don't neglect being a little demanding or selfish yourself. This is your work, your living. By being their SEO you're being an advocate for their brand. By proxy, your company is affiliated with their brand. If things transpire that make you question whether or not you want to be associated with the company, don't be afraid to sever the ties yourself.
Great blog post with some great actionable advice.
Hi Craig
I've been customer facing for most of my working life, in some pretty tough environments, but dealing with clients in this industry is a different kettle of fosh to anything I have experienced. Major keys ot success I find relies in relationship building from the offset, there can be trust issues because our business is an unknown quantity to many of the people we work with, and it is not always a priority.
A lack of understanding can breed frustration on their part. Gentle education, drop by drop seems to work on many levels. This helps build trust and cement the relationship as well as giving the client a better picture of what we do, thereby involving them and promoting trust and confiddence.
Of course, all clients are dofferent and some are too busy to get into all that understanding business, but the more they are involved in the process the better campaigns seem to work, mostly.
Thanks for this, Craig. Really helpful tips on maintaining great relationships with your clients and doing better work for them overall by staying in touch. I can see how this constant communication will pay off, especially when there is misunderstanding or a month may not go quite as successfully as they have imagined. SEO is hard - it's a long-term investment that requires you to keep your clients hopes up while they wait to see results. And we as SEO's just want to deliver as soon as possible!
Great Article, I fully understand that I need to work on my personal skills as I am a real geek.. Working towards a better client relationship is key to any SEO business, and presenting yourself is even more key.
"You never know where your client could end up working in the future"
This is very true. I've realised in my time working in SEO that, at least in the UK, the industry is pretty small and more often than not you'll know someone who knows someone. I'd experienced this several times...
Bang on. And this speaks to point five - were an agency were to go above my head and explain to my boss that the reason traffic is not increasing is because of something I've not done, then the following would happen.
- the contract would likely not be renewed
- I'd likely never work with them again, no matter where I was
- all of the people in our industry would hear about it, too.
It's a *really* bad move. Who would my boss listen to? Me, who he hired, and who he sees every day, or an agency which already is likely perceived to be underperforming and with whom he has no relationship.
Try to look at things from the perspective of the client, however unreasonable and irrational they might seem. Who knows that the irritating, pestering calls you get from them may well be the manifestation of some stress on their part and have nothing to do with your action at all.
Is it just me or are clients getting harder and harder to please as time goes on? Even in situations where our customers know they are in the wrong they are demanding at times and Craig nailed it on the point of 'You can't win an argument'.Communication is always key in our business and yes preventative communication, while it can be time consuming, is worth every second from avoiding one of these situations.Not burning your bridges is also a great point. Taking the time to do damage control is very important these days with the ease for someone to trash your reputation online even if it doesn't have any merit.
Wow.. This is really good article.. Here I would like to add some more points about dealing clients which helped me lot in my business.
1. Always be transparent with clients. If you hide anything then it will put you in trouble.
2. Do something special..like on their birthday or Christmas send them gifts, chocolates, sweets. This method really helped me lot to build good relationship with clients and it creates good impression about you in the mind of clients. For example I am in India and my clients are in Europe so every year i am sending them Indian food items, traditional gifts items etc. on Christmas and their birthday.
This method can increase your little bit expense. But it is effective method to develop good relationship with your clients.
Clients are more important in any kind of business, i agree with your post, Providing required information to the clients and providing up to date information on daily basis is a good habit in keeping the relationship healthy with your clients.
So glad to see I'm not the only one who writes a list of responses as if I'm going to send it in an email, but then use them a bit of a structure to have a phone call instead. It might seem like extra work taking up time but it really helps me structure what I need to communicate in order to get the client to see what's going on and it also makes sure I answer all of their points so they aren't left feeling frustrated. I'm much more a fan of phone calls over email - if you're in a bad mood you will interpret an email negatively regardless of the actual intent behind it. Phone calls / face-to-face allow you to add an extra dimension of communication that can save the day! Awesome post.
This article is really really impressive.
I am working as Consultant from last 5 years and face the same issue with some clients in past. I also put these kinds of tips in my work pattern and fix the issues easily. I really appreciate Craig - for this informative article post.
Thank you !
Warm Regards
Denish Verma
SEO Consultant
Working for the long run with clients may be the toughest obstacles of being an Agency SEO. Thanks for the killer tips!
Great post, clients can be extremely difficult some times. It actually highlights the quality that you need to have before you write your designation as Account manager.You are saying good that some time your clients creates tough situation so its very difficult of handle all of that, All these points that you tell here really meaningful in both offline and online business. Thanks
Transparently It Does Matter , the way of convince and your idea and presentation methods to the customer is huge base on marketing as it's 1st priority .
So i can i do agree with the post given thought .
I firmly believe that the customer is always right--even when they are wrong. That's why your point above "prevention" is key!
This post applies to web pdesign as well as SEO, as I have found that clients can be hard to deal with. But I think like it says setting a plan upfront is the best way. Setting realistic goals is the way to goal then if you over perform then great (you can even set up bonuses for over performing) but if it's not clearly defined you can be sure you will eventually run into eventually. I would say to add to this make sure you explain results in ways that your client will understand.
Got one right now. The key is not having unspoken expectations on either side. Communicating effectively helps a ton.
Keeping good records (and remembering where you kept them) is incredibly important, especially when a client expects you to collaborate with separate advertising or design agencies. It's easy to lose track of which agency is responsible for which tasks in those situations.
Nice thought, stay up and post some more technique about challenging clients.....
Thanks for this article... is very helpful to identify those clients that become challenging sometime for default or sometimes because other companies don't know how to handle customer service until the top level.
Great article! Swallowing your pride can be so hard sometimes!
I totally agree Craig. I always put the client first no matter how acute the situation is. A majority of my clients don't read there reports, all they seem to care about is making sure they are ranking for there keywords.
It can be tricky to get your point across to "the client that is always right" but always provide a solution going forward.
Great read Craig.
Danny Howard
Thanks you for the post. I have also need like this technique.
Bullsye, Craig! I myself found some really good points to use in the future. However there are clients that "smell" from the first meeting. No matter what you deliver as results in ranking and sales, they always undervalue your job. They always give credit to their sales team or the season, high customer service, brilliant overnight ideas and so on, but not you.
In one of those cases I gave up working with the client and in less than 6 months, he came back to me, begging to renew the contract, because the sales were dropped dramatically without our work.
Sometimes you need to show them the door to earn respect and credit.
Cheers!
Good post,
Every month we are sending rקports to our clients and this picture describes the situaton in the office:)
Great post Craig. I have an immense amount of respect for you and everyone else at Distilled.
Okay, so I have a question, because I am an in-house SEO, not an agency.
You said, : "never promise results or outcomes as they are outside of our control and you’re likely setting yourself up for disaster."
As an in-house SEO, I can tell you right now, that without results, I won't have a job. I agree with you, that promising certain results, i.e. "you'll be first page in Google!," is totally wrong. However, as a matter of course, I need to assure my company that on some level they are going to see some kind of results from my work as an SEO. Otherwise, why on earth would they want to keep me?
So, given that everyone expects results, how do I walk that tightrope? I can't justify my position as an in-house SEO by simply being a reporting machine.
Really interested to know your take on this. Thanks so much!Dana
Hi Dana,
Thanks for your comment, great question. I'm not saying you can't forecast result, I'm specifically talking about the quantitative ones that get people in trouble - "I'll have you in position 1 in two months" - those are just crazy.
Ultimately people invest in SEO for an increase in targeted organic traffic, not for number one rankings. That's why I always report on increased organic traffic not rankings. By using traffic as a benchmark, regardless of which keyword the traffic comes from you can show results.
I hope that helps, thanks again for the comment.
Telling an unreasonable client where to go is cathartic though. Admit it.
I am not a big fan of phone calls in general. I'm a writer so email's my preferred medium most of the time, but when there's a misunderstanding, it can often make a huge difference to be able to have a direct conversation with someone.
I also appreciate your recommendation of disarming honesty. I think humility tends to be vastly underrated in business, but plays a crucial role in building trust. An individual or business that's quick to own up to a mistake and assure customers or clients that it's being addressed will usually inspire more gratitude than anger.
Ya I 100% agree with you. all the topics which are discussed here are the very basic requirement to do your job successfully.
Great post! We all have / had clients who can be difficult to deal with at times. The simple but true aspects you pointed out really called out to me: Care for the success of the business, be the first mover, and provide useful reports. The reports need to include info that means something to client; I personally do them weekly instead of monthly.
I really liked the segment on best mediums of communication:
face-to-face meetingSkype, G+ hangout, or something that you can see the person’s face onA phone callAn email
+1 & SHARED!
Craig,
Interesting Post! One of the toughest scenario in SEOs life is to deal with clients. You are lucky if you got some cool-understanding-clients but not if you got some where-is-my-ranking kind of clients who only spew venom.
I think it all depends on what you are promising to the client. Like, if you are promising them rankings within 6months & you are not keeping up to their promises then definitely it is the right of the client to make your suffer. I agree with you that don't promise them something out of your control like results which is not static. Always, always map out the approximate figure & not exact like in case of increase in traffic, increase in sales etc.
I recall, dealing with one of the SEO agency & they were located out our reach. At first they were very good, were talking to us via email on daily basis & letting us know the overall work they'll be doing. But after getting the contract their real face revealed. Not a single communication for atleast 2 or 3 months. And, when we told them that we'll be not paying for the said month they told us that they'll stop all the SEO work they were doing. We were determined on our terms & asked them unless they don't provide us the report we'll not spent a single penny. At last they showed us the report & it was all crap directory submission, article submission, low quality social bookmarking etc. We immediately terminated the contract & hired some inhouse SEO people.
I believe in all what you said. Be in touch with them once in a week, admit it if you done something wrong. Keep them educated with daily SEO news. Let them know where are you currently & how it'll be in future.
Thanks.
What a post. While I was reading the post I felt as if it's about me. I have read the book How to win friends and influence people, I have gone through similar client behavior and so on. I think every SEO goes through this. I didn't had idea on how to react in some situations but now this post has answers hidden for me.
Thanks Craig.
This post is very true. I've used the same client management techniques but maybe in a more informal way. It's nice to see this clearly laid out like a formula. Communication, initiative and honesty usually earn trust and respect from clients. If you do everything reasonable to help a client and they still don't treat you well, cut 'em loose. Some clients can't pay you enough for the level of stress they dump on you.
2. Have a genuine care for the success of the business.
Love that, Craig! I see so many young consultants growing their own business and falling short here (unintentionally). A consultant's tendency should be to [naturally] care because these businesses are an intangible arm of your company or services. If you have it in your heart to care about your business, you have some space for a few flatmates too.
After all, not caring about the businesses you are servicing often results in a portfolio lacking a desirable quality.
Hi Craig,
This article is great and has a ton of good takeaways, to inform and retain clients.
There is also one client type that is very unique, they will be happy with what you do and feel like they have learned enough and can take care of it themselves(and save money). They thank you for your help and ask for all the login info to the communities and networks you have created. At this point you know that if they don't succeed they will be back. If they do succeed you helped them achieve results. Either way burning a bridge would not be beneficial in any way.
Instead of making the client feel like they screwed you over it's much more beneficial to have them create a good testimonial (like you mentioned in the post), but also ask for a reference. Now that you got the client on track (you've proven your value) he will be happy to recommend you. Most businesses don't have the time/patience to learn and apply real marketing strategy or SEO. When a business is referred by a friend to a company and the company delivers, the company can gain another reference, but they have to ask.
As long as you can deliver what you say you are going to do, a client will boast about how great you are. Im sure Distilled and SEOmoz can both agree word of mouth marketing has the highest conversion rate.
Interesting, some articles that I have read on this subject are not so complete, but this post has helped me a lot, thanks for the information you have given us
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So that's where I messed up! This is one of those "Aha!" articles for me.
Keeping prices "cheap" prevents you from keeping a focus on communication and therefore no matter the results, you lose as a consultant.
This has re-ignited my drive to get into the new Consulting Skills Module in Distilled U. I should have done that a Long time ago.
This is a good common sense approach to dealing with difficult clients. For me, the key is always to minimize miscommunication. Thanks for the share, Craig.
I agree, dealing with challenging clients, especially SEO clients, can be tricky. It's hard to explain to a client who doesn't really understand SEO why their site is not pulling. Some expect to see their site at the top on the first day. Dealing with clients in a calm, non defensive manner is always the best way to handle situations with clients. We have found that providing detailed reports is very important, even if our clients don't even read them. Reports keep track of everything, so you always have documentation to use or refer to when a client is upset.
This is true. Along with wanting instant results, some misunderstand how SEO is supposed to be done. Plus there's also the process of explaining everything from scratch especially is the client is just new in the biz.
From my experience, it's always effective to give resources and examples of past works you've done, while dictating the process you've been through to get to that rank or search visibility.
Every Clients will have different thinking in developing their project, we should handle the in a smooth manner in responding to their question. We develop Prestashop Modules and themes and we face different clients and get their requirements and satisfy their needs and finish it.
Good post Craig. It is hard sometimes to have a good communication with your client. I hate when clients do the opposite of what you advise them to just because they think they are right. Sometimes I let them do what they want just to avoid arguments which often leads to fixing what they did later. The delivery method definitely helps. Reports keep my clients happy and I always explain them every detail or give a small presentation about it. I have never said goodbye to a client, but I must admit I was very tempted a couple of times.
Good post, Craig.
One thing I've noticed recently is that a couple of our new clients are asking us for proof of our link building. It's like they want to see something measurable to prove that we've been doing work. Is this a trust issue or just general misunderstanding of the SEO process? Because, as you can imagine, the rankings aren't just going "pop-up" in the first couple of months of the work
Sounds more like a pre-sale communication issue. You have to give the client the correct expectations (even in writing). Businesses need something to quantify results from all of their individual marketing expenses. Like it or not, we need to tell them in advance what those results will be measured against. Traffic increasing? More conversions? Rankings ? (cough).
If you don't, then you have a expectations vacuum, and the client will fill it with what they understand... How many _____ have you done.
That's true, but there's a little bit more. Coming at this from the client side, there are two good reasons why clients should want to see what links are being built. Firstly - it's their website that's on the line should Google take a dim view of links being built, and "well, I didn't know they were doing that" clearly doesn't cut it.
Also, if an agency is coming to us and saying, well, building links is important, I want to know the progress on that on a regular basis - sending me a bill for hours won't keep me on side for long. Of course, manage my expectations wrt quantity, quality, lead time, etc, but show me something
But how can you explain to a client that one or two of the right links are likely to be much more valuable to them than 10/20/30?
well - that's a good question. Two answers, really - don't sell on volume, and secondly, if you know they are more valuable, then it's easy to show them, right?
If you can't show they are more valuable (or even, more likely to be), then you probably need to question your reasons for building them
Sometimes you have to turn a client down or find an alternate route, ie a company invents something very valuable/unique, there is no search for any phrase because it needs to be branded. That does not mean that there is no social media outreach that you can relate to.
Creating a brand, results in creating the search. I find it is most important to go over what the client should expect and the approach you will take from the proposal stage. If the client knows what to expect and they feel close to you they will trust/respect/recommend.
Great Question. At Distilled we tend to handle this a few ways:
1) Make sure you are reporting on what you are doing as well as any analytics based reports. You say the client wants to know what you have been doing to prove you've been doing link building? - What about sending them a list of people you've been contacting (or at least the number of people)? What about sending the actual outreach e-mail? If you want to be really transparent you could share a google doc of who you've contacted and the status. Crucial to this is making sure that at the start clients know the process you will be taking to build links and that they realise it's not an instant win.
2) Manage expectation at the start and set KPI's towards the goal of links. So for example the first month is all about identifying where to get links, the second all about outreach and the 3rd about getting the links. This way the client knows they won't see links till month 3, but that everything you are doing between now and then should be helping.
1Mike makes a good point about the pre-sales communication question. You should be making sure a client understands how long it takes to get links before the campaign starts, so they don't expect the impossible.
Thanks Caitlin, a lot of that makes sense. I'm not involved with the sales side of things which is where some of the issues we're experiencing now may have come in.
For the past 7 years I have been showing clients the proof of links we have built, clients always enjoy transparency.
I have worked with clients who used other agencies who claim they can not show their link building because its their "IP", these are usually the businesses doing the dodgy link building.
What about if you create 10 links one month and then five the next? Doesn't this create problems?
Well you need to be showing metrics around these links, if you say to a client you will get 100 links every month their is your first problem, you have a number which the client will expect each month.
If you say "We will build a lower number of far higher quality links, which we will base via domain authority, page authority and and traffic metrics" you need to start educating clients beyond just building a link its also about driving traffic and sales from that link.
Yeah Craig, Only healthy conversations can build better client relationship. (what I've learned from my past).
Hi Craig! I would really have to agree with you that one of the most basic things we must do as a consultant is keep a record of all conversations. I believe that this is very important especially every after meeting or phone call. I think it is also important that we follow up with an email to our clients and summarize the main points of what we have discussed.
Love the article Craig. One thing I might add is taking a proactive approach in telling your client that something went awry before they hear about it from someone else.
Now, I am not talking about every little hiccup, but something like a client's site being down is definitely noteworthy. If you are the one who brings it to their attention and lets them know it is worked on, you will be much better off than waiting and hoping you get it fixed before they notice. It's like telling your teacher that you got an answer wrong on the test that she marked correct. They'll generally give you the points.
Why is it there is always a thumbs down?
This article post is one definite solution for different kinds of clients. We must keep in mind that "customers are always right." Customers or clients something are bit annoying they want something to work out but it can be done if it is not for SEO perspective.
Cheers....
Hi Craig, It's a nice post. Very happy to read this. All your points are great. Expecting more such client relationship posts soon...:)
Thank You Very much..Cheers!!!
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+1 on the document everything and follow emails after a meeting. That has done wonders for us. It's the little things that keep the business relationship healthy.
Thanks Craig Bradford sir,Really Intresting post,i was wondering with the same the problem,we get queary but could'nt convert in to business,but Now i will try with this post article,
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Hey Craig Thanks for sharing such nice tips... but what to do with those who feel they know better SEO then what an expert is doing and want us to do what they are saying as they are paying a lot of money... :(
Craig - right on the money bud!
It actually makes me feel good knowing - I am not the only one dealing with a knucklehead every now and again.
Wow this is a wonderful post. It actually highlights the quality that you need to have before you write your designation as Account manager. Great to find them in one place.
Awesome article! A refreshing/eye opening presentation about a year ago was made by Wil Reynolds. He mentioned how when he first started his firm, they took any and all customers on board with them, regardless of how well-suited they were. Now, they're much more picky with the clients take on which leads to more success and potentially a less bumpy road (obviously every client brings potential problems). I just thought it was a great way to keep things in perspective. If the client sells a bad product and isn't trying to be the best business they can be, they're probably not going to be a great client. Make it easier on yourself and only work with qualified clients! If/when you run into an issue with them, I think this article summarized extremely well how to approach the issues, as well as prevention. Well done, Craig.
If you want to become successful person then you should accept challenges happily because this is the best way to know your work power.
Excellent advice Craig on all points. We have found that documenting everything has been helpful for the reasons you cite. At the time of documenting, it does seem tedious, but motivation can come form recounting the number of times it has added value in the client relationship. Documenting an important call and then emailing the client to make sure you both heard the same thing can catch mis-communications early enough to mitigate the potential fall out of walking away from the call with differing perspectives which, if uncaught, grow into missed expectations and client dissatisfaction.
In the end, sometimes a client relationship doesn't work out to mutual benefit and walking away in a professional manner will reduce fall out while leaving the door open for future business, both from them and the people they talk with. A happy customer will tell a few of the contacts about your agency whereas a dissatisfied client, on average, will tell 7-10 contacts why they should not do business with you. Thanks for sharing,
Something that's actually really useful is to understand how website improvements happen in your client's business. Often the role of an in-house SEO person (be they dedicated, or more general on-line marketing) is not to do day to day SEO, but rather, quarter-back the process. Sending over monthly reports that say things like 'you still need to do fix your sitemaps!' ever month aren't helpful. Helping your contact build a case for each piece of work to be done - that's really valuable.
Great post, clients can be extremely difficult at times. The point you made of calling them when something goes wrong I think is brilliant. I've seen people before when mistakes are made hope that the client doesn't notice! Of course they'll notice and they're not going to be happy. Like you said " they’ll appreciate that you noticed it straight away".
Great post this Craig! Initially the clients should be clearly made to understand the concepts of seo, the methodologies followed to get their business the desired and fruitful results, the difficulties involved in getting their site rank for the competitive niche terms and mainly following up and keeping the clients in loop at any point in time during the project is very important. The monthly activity report should help the client clearly visualize the progress and understand the effort put in doing the ethical seo activities to get the desired results as promised.
Great tips Craig :) Also one point want to add is be clear with your client for what you offers,what their current website status, how much time will take to get some good result and etc things so they have clear idea about your views and work.