As much as we long for our work days to go along smoothly without problems, at some point during the day, you’re faced with a challenge. It’s just a part of life that challenges will occur. Those challenges range from having technical difficulty with your computer all the way to having a client who wants to terminate their contract because they don’t think you’re helping them.
While I can’t help you predict every single that could go wrong in your business, here are some ideas for handling disgruntled clients. Incorporate proactive business-building ideas to help avoid unhappy clients, but also take care of yourself, so you’re in a better position to remain stress-free when situations arise.
1. Create an Action Plan
While you don’t want to dwell on the fact that bad situations may arise, knowing how you’ll handle yourself in difficult situations can be a relief when the time comes.
Think up some “worst possible scenarios,” write them down, and then write down how you’d handle each situation. Take time to really think through each scenario and then rewrite your answers as needed. Keep this reference handy, so you can just pull it out when you have a difficult client.
2. Set Up Business Processes to Handle Difficult Clients
While creating your action plan above, think about business processes you can implement to handle disgruntled clients. You can’t rely on automation completely, but certainly, an email can start the ball rolling. Just knowing the logical next step in the process can relieve stress when you’re worried about why this client is leaving you.
3. Review Your Own Business Boundaries & Tools
Practice what you preach. Review what boundaries you have in place and if they’re working for you. You are your client’s best teacher, and you lead by example, so if they see you answering emails at 11 pm, they will continue to reach out to you at all hours, fully expecting an immediate response.
4. Write a New, All-Inclusive Contract
Don’t leave your clients guessing what they’re paying for. Add program details to each contract along with fees for handling extra requests.
Also, add each of your new policies to your contract and require an initial for each policy to show they read it. Worst case scenario: If the client says they didn’t know about a specific policy, you can point to the contract where they initialed as having read it. It’s tough to fight that!
5. Use a Template to Start Writing Your Contract
If the idea of writing a contract gives you hives, try starting with a contract template. Square.com has a set of 12 free templates available to all, even if you don’t use their payment service. Simply download, read the instructions on the first page of the file, then fill in the blanks.
6. Get Some Legal Feedback Regarding Your Contract & Policies
When in doubt about what your contract should say (and to verify that your policies are legal), contact a lawyer to review your contract and policies. Find an attorney who works with small businesses in your state or province, or try a service like Legal Zoom.
Legal Zoom has attorneys in all 50 U.S. states and offers an array of services from business setup and operations to living wills and estate planning. Pricing ranges from flat fees for independent projects or a monthly fee that allows monthly consultations with an attorney and an annual business review.
7. Hire a Virtual Assistant as Your First Line of Defense
If you tend to take criticism personally and you get flustered easily when someone is upset, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to handle that initial contact. With the proper training, a VA can diffuse the situation before you even have to get involved.
Don’t get overwhelmed with the idea of hiring a contractor. Ask some business friends for referrals or go to a well-known resource, such as VANetworking.com, to find VAs for all your business needs.
8. Create Your Ideal Client Avatar
Your client avatar is your ideal client who you’d love to work with. You should have gone through this exercise already, but even if you have an avatar, a quick review is a good thing.
Remember, even if your business can serve EVERYONE, it’s best to narrow down your market to pick the best person for YOU to work with. Get detailed with the description. Give your avatar a name. Get to really know what pains this person and what they’ll pay you to help them get rid of that pain point.
9. Hire a Copywriter
Now that you’re clear on who you’re trying to attract to your business hire a copywriter to review ALL your website copy and program descriptions to be sure you’re hitting the right emotions. Consider this an investment in your business, especially if you’re having difficulty attracting clients in general or if you’re attracting the wrong type of clients.
Although a copywriter can’t guarantee success, they should have an extensive resume of working with other businesses or marketers and should happily give you references to check.
10. Practice Self-Care to Ease Your Stress
Taking care of yourself is paramount to running your business and taking care of your family. If you’re sick, then your business isn’t flourishing. If you’re burnt out, then your business is stagnant.
Simply taking breaks during the day and going outside for 15 minutes increments can be helpful to calm your mind. Get some yoga and/or Pilates DVDs; join a gym or a roadrunners club. Take a bath with Epsom salts and your favorite essential oils. Self-care doesn’t require a long time commitment, but it should be done daily for the best stress-free results.
11. Unplug for the Weekend
Getting away from all electronics for the Weekend isn’t a torture test; instead, you’ll be surprised at how much more time you have in your day when you’re not glued to a screen.
At the very least, unplug your brain from electronics at least one hour before bed every night. Also, keep phones, tablets, and televisions out of the bedroom for the most relaxing sleep. Those ambient light rays actually harm your sleep pattern, which accounts for still feeling sleepy when you wake up in the morning.
12. Be Approachable & Authentic
Prospective clients will be attracted to you when they see you in action. Whether that’s on a Facebook Live video, on a podcast interview, or hosting a webinar, people will make quick judgments about your coaching style based on how you conduct yourself.
Being authentic with your stories and your demeanor will naturally make you more approachable to your fans. Some people will connect with your style, and others won’t. So long as you’re authentic and not trying to imitate a big-name guru, then you will attract your ideal client.
13. Admit When You Make Mistakes
No one likes to be wrong but owning up to your mistakes – or mistaken advice – is a form of personal responsibility. You’re not playing the blame game by always pointing the finger at someone else. Instead, you’re showing your integrity by being honest, and that goes a long way toward repairing relationships with clients who are about to leave you.
14. Take your client’s concerns seriously
Don’t just “smile and nod” while your client rants endlessly. Listen carefully to their concerns, investigate their claims, and report back in a timely fashion on how you’ll rectify the situation.
That does not mean, however, that you just roll over and give in to their demands. Each case is unique, and your relationship with the client thus far will likely dictate how lenient you’ll be in keeping them on your roster. But everyone wants and needs to be heard, so listen and then suggest an appropriate solution. You can’t control whether your client will be happy with the resolution, but you can say you tried your best.
15. Stay calm, even when your client is yelling at you
It’s been proven that people will mirror the signals that you project in any situation. So, if your client is yelling at you, chances are you’ll want to yell right back. But what good will that do?
Try instead to act very calm, let them rant on, and then in a calm voice, proceed with the conversation. Your client may subconsciously change their tone, and then you can work toward a resolution.
16. Cut your losses, especially if it means your reputation remains untarnished
Terminating a client is always an option, no matter what the disagreement. Don’t worry about your bottom line, and don’t worry about the loss of time you spent working with this client. If you can walk away with your integrity, knowing you did everything you could to help this client, then that should be enough.
17. Learn lessons from every unhappy customer
Bill Gates said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Once you resolve your dispute with your client, go back over your notes and determine if things could have been handled differently. What could you have done differently? Your client? Could you have given different advice? Do you need to switch up your exercises or tools? Is there a process or tool you can implement to avoid this situation in the future?
18. Keep networking, both online and offline
Networking will keep prospects coming to you, but you’ll also get to know other coaches in your circle, so you’ll develop a nice list of referrals should anyone not be the right fit for your coaching business. Remember, not everyone will be YOUR ideal client, but they may be someone else’s. Likewise, those coaches may also refer prospects to you or may even become your biggest affiliates if you have unique programs to offer.
This type of networking – especially with other coaches – also allows you to show your true, authentic self, so if a disgruntled client writes an unflattering review online, you’ll have warriors in your corner defending you.
19. Ask your clients to be specific with their complaints
Unhappy clients often wield broad generalizations when they’re gearing up for an argument. But if you can listen carefully and ask them to be specific with their complaints, you may diffuse the situation quickly because they won’t have specific complaints. They may be unhappy that they do not see the desired results overnight. Or they might be unhappy because they realize the desired results aren’t happening due to their inaction.
Of course, be prepared to hear something specific that you did or did not do. In this case, you’ll have to evaluate if this is a legitimate complaint and offer a resolution.
20. Use video conferencing and a whiteboard to keep the conversation on track
It’s so much easier to let your anger out on an invisible person at the other end of a telephone or a computer screen than when you’re face to face on a video conference. However, this plan can help tone down the conversation more quickly, and you can also take notes on your whiteboard to show that you’re listening to your client’s problems and also to show that you’ve discussed certain topics if they come up again later.
If you don’t have a whiteboard, take notes during the call and then email them immediately so s/he knows you were paying close attention and care about resolving the issues.
21. Practice active listening
It’s one thing to say, “Listen carefully,” and another to actually practice active listening. Through simple body language, you can help diffuse a volatile discussion by staying calm, keeping eye contact, never interrupting, and repeating the most important points your client discussed. Active listening takes a little practice – especially if you have a million things racing around your brain – but this skill is valuable in all situations and with adults and children alike.
Just as the Boy Scouts say, “Be prepared.” Set a steady foundation for your coaching business with boundaries, contracts, and policies. Be flexible when an unusual situation occurs. Evaluate each event individually before jumping to conclusions or placing blame. Be confident in your skills and know that your time, experience, and knowledge are valuable.
You may not be able to avoid unhappy clients forever, but you’ll be better prepared when the time comes.
