When the Customer is Not Right

Circumstances in my business have given me a lot of reason to think about customer service, satisfaction policies, and refund policies. Having always felt that a business owner gives MORE, not LESS, and having been raised on the philosophy that you just accept hardship and cope with it, it has taken a great deal of thought, and reasoning to create some new policies which set a limit on how far certain types of clients can push me.

We charge flat rates, so we often have to set limits on what can and cannot be done within a contract. With the average client, a polite, “I’m sorry, but the technical difficulty of that feature is beyond what your contract covers” is enough to let them know where that limit is. And typically, we don’t have to issue refunds, because when problems are encountered, we can address them and help the client move past them.

Two situations recently made me start really thinking about when the customer ISN’T right, and when a refund should NOT be issued. Those are hard things for me to define, and I dislike it intensely when someone is displeased with the outcome. But when the problem is not one that I caused, but which the client brought on themselves, I am not responsible for making it right.

In one situation, the demands of the client became such that it was interferring with my ability to keep up with work for all of my clients. I eventually said NO, because it was unfair to the rest of my clients for one client to demand so much time and work that it was impossible to keep up with the reasonable requests of the others. I had one dissatisfied client. But to satisfy that one, I’d have had a dozen dissatisfied clients. And it needs to be stated, that this involved a fairly low priced contract, for which I had already delivered about 5-7 times the amount of work agreed on. This client would make requests that wasted time, and think nothing of it. “Just make two copies of that graphic so I can compare them and decide which one I like.” or “I don’t have the right text or image yet, just make one up so I can see what it might look like.” Those things waste time, and cost extra work that is not reasonable when time is not charged hourly.

In the other situation, the client asked and was informed about the amount of work their part of the contract would entail. They assured with enthusiasm that they were up to it, and were ready to get it done quickly. This was a half-priced contract where we were responsible only for install, design, payment processor setup, and support – we would do personal training on request at no extra charge. The client began the work, then lost interest, and changed their mind. We offered a training session – which they scheduled, then canceled. They then accused us of not informing them of the amount of work needed (which we had done both in person and in writing), and demanded a full refund of all money paid. Since we did not have a refund policy for this specific service, we looked at our general policies (which they had agreed to during the payment process), and offered a refund based on those terms. This meant half of the setup fee was refundable. The client said that was not acceptable, that they had never agreed to any such thing, and that we needed to refund the whole thing or they’d file a complaint with the payment company. We promptly refunded the amount of half of the setup fee, as we had stated we would, and informed them that they HAD in fact agreed, showed them the document, and informed them that since the services agreed on HAD been completed and delivered, and that there was no issue of either non-delivery, or misrepresentation of services, they had no justifiable reason to file a complaint.

In both instances, there were strong reasons for setting a limit with the client, in spite of having strong customer service ethics. It came down to sustainability and what is reasonable and fair. To satisfy ONE client in this instance, would have done long term harm to our business.

In the first instance, keeping this client and answering all his demands would have undermined our entire business. We over delivered, and he got far more than his money’s worth. He was angry that I refused to do more without additional pay. But this, again, was not something we caused, and was beyond reason to expect on his part. It was better to have one dissatisfied client than to allow one client to destroy our business.

In the second instance, we were dealing with a situation that we did not cause – in fact, we try very hard to ensure that clients purchasing that type of product KNOW that it will take work. She changed her mind. That wasn’t something we caused. This is a service for a direct sales company. Had we just given the refund to make her go away without being upset, then she would tell her downline to go ahead and order a site from us, that if they changed their mind, we would refund. That would do a lot of harm long term. We were fair and honest with her, and the problems were not things we caused, and we offered several options to try to help her overcome the problems, but she did not want to even try.

I really struggled with figuring out the appropriate thing to do in both of these situations. In normal circumstances, I am more than willing to go out of my way for a client, and to do more than they paid for. We typically include a certain amount of wiggle room in our flat rate quotes, and I expect to have to work hard for what I earn. I generally LIKE my clients and want to give a lot for them. But there also has to be a limit. Otherwise a business is not sustainable.

Because of these two clients, I now have a new refund policy for the one particular service, and I have a new guideline for myself, to know when it is better to “fire the client” than it is to continue working with them. Neither of those things are handled lightly – I never want a dissatisfied client if I can avoid it. But I also recognize that some clients never WILL be satisfied, and that beyond a certain point, it is THEIR choice, not mine. When I have done all I should have done, and more, then it is ok to let them be unhappy, and to walk away. It still isn’t a nice thing to have to deal with, and I don’t think I will ever be able to do that without a lot of thought and analysis of the situation, to make sure that I was in the right in doing what I did.

I don’t know if I have a point in all of this, except to share the experience and maybe the bit that I did get out of it. If I have a point, it is maybe that when you ARE doing it right, this kind of decision generally WON’T be easy. It wll always cause thought and discomfort. But that lines must be drawn for problem clients, to keep the business sustainable for the GOOD clients.

When you did not cause it, and when you did more than was reasonable to try to make it work, it is ok to let the client choose to be dissatisfied.