How to Cut Ties With Difficult Clients

In the previous article, we guided you on how you could deal with difficult clients. We have given you tips on how you can survive from them. There may be several reasons why voice over businesses lose clients. Personally, losing a client because they are difficult to deal with must be the most heartbreaking of all.

What if you have done everything you could, and yet, the business between the two of you keeps getting sour?  What if you have given them every possible resolution on their concern? What if this client is becoming a stress in your voice over business? What would you do?

How would you fire a difficult client?

The first thing that you need to do is save the relationship that you and your client has. You may exert a lot of effort, and try to avoid losing a client. But somehow, there are chances that you cannot repair the damages, and all that is left to do is burn bridges. Terminating your agreement with a difficult client is your last resort. Yes, they may be giving you a lot of work but, if things are not really going well, maybe it is time for you to focus on your other clients. What you can do is review your clients, one by one, and assess them based on the revenue that they are giving to your business, and on how easy they are to work with. You may find precious jewels on your list, and be able to remove that rocks that rills the smooth flow of your business. 

There are certain ways on how you can cut ties with them without talking to them individually. You can do it silently, and without them noticing. You can change your prices in a way where they will drop off naturally, or suspend a service that only those clients that you want to repel use.

Before you terminate an agreement with a client, there are certain grounds that you need to review. 

First and most important, you should check your contract. It is best to check before pushing through with firing them. It is a must that your agreement letter includes terms about terminating in your agreement.

Do not terminate them in the midst of a project for it can harm the reputation of your business. It is best that you finish the projects included in your contract before proceeding with the termination.

In the last article, we have tackled how important remaining calm is. Now, staying professional is the best way to deal with this mess. Do it in a calm, and diplomatic manner. You have to explain everything intently. Explain why you are terminating the agreement. Also, remember to keep the issue to yourself. Never ever badmouth clients even if you did not have a good experience while working with them.

What you can do is refer your clients to other businesses to offer the same service. Just because you cannot handle them, does not mean they cannot be helped by other people. 

How to avoid difficult clients in the future?

Prevention is always better than cure, so next time, it is best if you screen the clients that are planning to be part of your voice over business. Here are some qualities to watch out for according to Thought Co.

You need to watch out for clients that set unrealistic deadlines, or are vague about the deadlines; clients who always haggle for discounts; those who say  that their project is very easy (let’s face it, nothing is easy); steer away from clients that say they fired the last one they worked with; and lastly, trust your instinct, if you feel like you will not go along with them, leave them be. Remember that there are a lot of fish in the sea!

How to avoid client related problems in the future on your end?

In a business, it is not always the client’s fault. We may be blind to the truth that we are not handling them very well too. Here are some things that you can do to avoid dealing with clients that you think are difficult.

First, you can always say no. If they are proposing an unrealistic time frame, you can always, always decline the project to avoid future problems. If you think that their expectations is far from what you can offer, you can always say no to it. Or, what you can do is blow their own expectations onset, and set their expectations that will meet the service you can offer. If you meet at a certain point, then good! If not, you can try referring them to other services.

Second, never do something that is against your professional ethics. If you feel like they are asking you to do a job that is under the table, you can always say no. The integrity of your business is more important than the money that the client is willing to pay you.

Third, you can increase the prices of your service. Difficult clients, those who pay late per se will automatically drop out of the services that you offer if you do these. Only those who are willing to work with you will stay for sure, because they are the ones who are impressed with your service, and the one who do not ask everything for free.

Lastly, all of your contracts and agreements should be legal, so that, your business is protected from the clients who are trying to taint your business by double crossing you, or by playing the victim.

Being true to your work will give you a lot of clients. It is good that you have a lot of clients, but it does not mean that you have to accept them all. Filter them out, and work with people who will help you grow, and avoid working with the difficult ones. Difficult clients can do more than make you lose profit. They can give you physical and emotional stress, and they can even hurt your reputation by spreading false information to other people.

How did you handle difficult clients before? Share it with us!