Fire them! Use the 80/20 rule. Focus on your other customers. Unless these are big accounts, then, I would just say it is a part of doing business.

I use a ticketing system which works well and then I can get someone to manage it for me if it gets to much of a hassel.

Quentin

Same here. From my experience, the most annoying one are actually the big clients.

Oh well, you can focus on getting even bigger clients and eventually fire them

-Andrew

Setting expectations is really big. Funny, I just replied to someone recently about offering services that put you in control. I imagine your bigger clients are folks where you are doing things to their website. I decided against doing this anymore because of similar situations. I still offer a review and consultation of their site and will let them know what they need to do, but I don't get involved with implementing. I will bother them to do it, lol, I switched the roles. Every now and then, one of them will ask me to do it and I tell them why I don't and they say they wont bother me or change what I did, etc... If I feel this is a one and done deal I'll do it and charge them but if I feel its going to be one of those situations I stay away.

I know how you feel. Its the ONE thing that holds me back. The thought of someone pestering me is horrifying! Trouble is, this is why its so easy to sell - you are selling yourself and that's what the customer wants - YOU

I set up expectations and let the client know if they would like further consultation that is built into my package I will invoice them accordingly, this seems to help as they have all their questions prepared and emailed to me so I can review when we catch up

cheers
Arturo

The biggest problem is that they dont provide content and expect us to do it.

We COMPLETELY understand where you're coming from. Surprisingly enough, we've been practicing saying, "No" to potential clients...even when it represents a decent amount of money for us. I just wrote about this the other day:

Why We Won't Do Business With You | AdSense Flippers

Sometimes it's just not worth it and will keep you from hitting your strategic goals.

I can completely relate to this. 'Offlinie whiny' clients expecting miracles in days. I agree with the above statement...80/20 rule.

If they don't provide you any content bill them for the time it takes for you to create it. They will come around once they see putting together their own content saves them money.

When I was faced with this problem, I hired people to do all the client communication and marketing. However my experience wasn't as expected since what I hired were quite incompetent, I am still in the process of improving the system. Ideally, you should do the same, let them do what you hate, just train them well.

I've got a client at this very minute who is pestering the life right out of me. Every day he sends me emails asking the stupidest questions and advice for me. Just today he came away with...

"I know you like to only have 1 or 2 keywords per page but I would like to rank for these (insert around 12 unrelated keywords) on the homepage. Can you just add them to the bottom of the page and hopefully Google picks them up?"

I already told him I wouldn't do that numerous times and he still asks me... at least once a week. I'm going to have a sit down with him shortly and tell him to let me get on with our agreement or to find someone else to do his work for him.

Quentin, id also like to know more about the ticketing system. Do you use this for all your customer support or do you give your customers a phone number as well.

Ive just got a new IP phone with separate number for my home office because from what ive read it really helps with sales. However im dreading it ringing all the time and invading my precious time. If i could deal with everything via a ticket system i would feel a lot happier about things. Its not so much that i dont like speaking to people, its just that i want to do it when i want to do it and not be at the beck and call of people.

Is it possible to do away with a phone or is your business really going to suffer?

By the way I think PLESK is a free platform

I will take any offline clients you hate dealing with.

Mostly I have found how they come into the relationship, determines how it goes...

If they expect miracles, then you will be hounded for miracles..

If they understand its a PROCESS not an EVENT, then you can have a normal life.

The only ones I ever really have a problem with are people I think of as, "amateur web-wannabees" ....they know just a little, and want to do your work for you, and want to be 'tutored' for free. I think one I have believes thats what she paid for.

Setting expectations, as already mentioned, is big. Also, I never want to do any thing too fast. If we agree on some action, I don't want it perceived that it was quick and easy for me to do.

For all their occasionally demanding ways, I love Offline clients. They usually have more money, more solid 'real businesses, and more staying power than online types.
...plus I like dealing/meeting fact-to-face.
_____
Bruce

Someone may have already said this in so many words, but I thought I'd add my take on it just to get my view across.

Step 1. Provide clear guidelines, expectations, and DISCLAIMERS, for any service you sell.

Step 2. Fulfill those expectations 100% (or at least fulfill to the point that they can't prove otherwise)

Step 3. When they nag, stick to your guns, RESTATE YOURSELF like crazy, and let them know that they got exactly what they paid for.

If you do this effectively and KINDLY, they'll understand what your service is and what it is not. If they don't like your service at that point, they'll either ask for more (at a higher price) or just cut their losses. If they do like it, they'll stick with it. No grey area. But, most importantly, it will get them off your back AND will give you the ability to dispute chargebacks and refunds regardless of the outcome.

I'm assuming that you love the business venture of being a marketing consultant, but the most obvious way to not deal with demanding (and annoying) clients is to sell $300 information products that you sell on a daily basis. This way you earn a nice income and let the big and nagging clients to fend for themselves instead of being a**holes to you.

But you say you like the consulting biz, so i guess you will kinda have to deal with it. If you're looking for more new clients, the first thing you have to ask is if you have enough time in the day to take on new clients. 40 clients sounds like alot... how do you go about managing 40 clients on a monthly basis?

I noticed a lot of people stating the obvious such as "set expectations." for those of you with extensive experience in the offline market you know no matter how upfront you are about the pace of ranking a website their will always be that 1 out of 10 that still wants to call you everyday asking the same questions.

Easily solved.

Set an hourly rate with an agreement after the project is completed for ongoing support. Go easy to start, but if they start being a pain in the ass and nagging, start the clock.

KnowwhutImean Vern?

Some really great advice here.
I really like the ticket system.
And if they still want to talk to you, bill them for every stupid phone call they make.

Yeah, that's the dirty little secret of offline marketing. The human factor. Working with real live people, face to face is sometimes difficult.

Sounds to me like you're working with the wrong clients.

There's no point in working with someone you don't enjoy working with.

Get rid of them and find some more that you DO enjoy working with.

I know it's counter-intuitive, but it's the truth.. you'll be considerably more happy and so will your clients.

I also hate sales/dealing with clients as well but I love the money. It's all about patience and you'll be good!

Why not try turning your frustration into feelings of appreciation. Focus on feeling thankful that out of the myriad of businesses they could be with, they chose yours.

I agree...some Offline Clients can be a pain in the rear. I took on anybody on my first full year in 2008. In 2009, started cherry picking who I wanted to work with. In 2010, I kept a few of my best clients and then started consulting. Your first year will always be tough, it gets better. Hugh market for Offline Marketing....

I agree with High Horsepowers point number 6 - People will only do to you what you allow them to do.

So dont fire your clients - just give them expectations, and if it ever goes above that then start charging for it.

I got a handle on this problem by implementing a project management system into the customer management cycle. I purchased ActiveCollab and created detailedtask/checklists list for every service I offer. It includes what I do, what I need from them, etc and I follow it to the tee. Each new client gets an account they can log into and I import the checklists for whatever service I'm providing.
This keeps them on schedule and shows exactly what I"m doing for the project or service. It allow allows me to keep straight what needs to be done.
Anything outside of these checklists gets billed at a high rate.

i'll charge them highest price as u did, hehe~ in fact, try to swallow the anger, and get motivated by thinking on "the money will flow in, who cares".

good luck to your business!

Unfortunately the 'unrealistic expectations, neediness and impatience' is by no means exclusive to offline clients. In fact - I find it easier to resign myself to offline clients that act like that since I know I make more money from them than doing the same thing for online clients.

I think every one of us can provide offline client horror stories - being woken up at 2am by a client calling to say their site was down... eventually realizing that the clients power is out and they just can't turn on their PC to see their site... :rolleyes:

There are three ways to handle difficult clients:

1 - Grin and bare it if you think it will lead to other client referrals (chanting "think about the money, think about the bills" works for this)

2 - When considering new client requests, take note of how needy/demanding they are in the process of giving them a detailed quote. If they are a pain in the butt BEFORE you start the order, just say "no thanks, too busy" and turn them down.

3 - Create an FAQ of the stuff these types of clients always ask. Keep a text document of them and then just copy and paste responses into emails to save time.

Just a tip - for any pain in the butt clients (or clients that you have not worked with before) always break the job up into stages and make them pay for each stage in advance. Pain in the butt clients are notorious for changing direction every 5 minutes and you want to make sure you get paid for the work you put in.

If you still end up running around screaming - just tell them "look buddy, you are paying for my time/advice/expertise if you don't want to follow it then go jump..."

When I worked as a health careers coordinator at a university, I was the one who had to field all of the little questions over and over - by phone, in person and email. It got real tiring.

So, I helped develop a series of emails that explained took the most popular questions and answered them in detail. This can also be done with a website page. Basically, they are given the information in a way that even a monkey can understand.

This cut way down on basic questions. Mostly special circumstances that required an individual response was left.

They're calling because they don't understand the process - even if you already explained it once. People tend to skip over things or hear something different. Create a standardized way of handling this and you'll have less aggravation.

FIRE THEM!!! Do what ever it takes. Stop wasting your time with them 8/40 that is 20% of your income yes it is a fair bit but if you are doing a good job for your other clients I am sure they can all refer you some people if you ask them. Also if you fire them you can spend more time on the clients that are valuable to you.

I have to agree - if they're making you frustrated fire them. There are plenty more fish in the offline sea. I learnt this the hard way and felt a weight had been lifted off my shoulders when I let that nagging % go. You can't change them. So why try? Just be sure to state firmly to new clients you get what they are getting, what you can do, and what you won't - unless they pay you more

I'm all for being thankful but their is a limit.

I used to panic 24/7 about responding to my clients' questions (including a few of the "nagging" type). It started to make me really hate doing this type of work, so I took a step back and set boundaries. I made sure my clients knew I only answered email from x a.m. to x p.m., I don't answer anything on the weekends unless it is urgent, I will return calls within x hours (instead of immediately), etc. And you know what? No one freaked out or stopped working with me, and I felt better right away. I don't want to be the business owner who is chained to their computer and phone all of the time.

I also pre-screen all potential clients. If I get a feeling they are going to be a hassle to work with, then I don't work with them. I'd rather be happy and have a little less in my bank account than stressed out all of the time!