7 types of difficult clients and how to work with them
Perfect clients. They exist! But you can’t have that every time you work on a project.
Finding common ground with clients (even the most difficult ones) is a skill you have to develop or have someone on your team who embraces this in day-to-day work.
In truth, neither you nor your clients want to deal with difficult situations. We all want a positive, smooth, and conflict-less experience as we work together.
That’s not always the case, is it?
Let’s dive deeper into the behavior of different types of difficult clients so that you’re equipped to deal with anything that comes your way. Remember that these types of clients can have a mix of characteristics in real life. As we offer solutions to deal with difficult clients, remember to try different approaches depending on what works for you and your situation.
How to detect difficult clients and manage them
The easiest way to understand you’re dealing with a difficult customer is the aftertaste you have following your communication. If you notice irritation, emptiness, frustration, or negative emotions, things are not going well.
Check out this list of the most frequent types of difficult clients and read simple strategies to cope with the challenges they bring.
1. Unmotivated clients
More often, these types of clients come with almost an unlimited budget but lack a clear understanding of why your services can be useful to them. Usually these clients contact you just because they’ve heard your service is generally good for business (“Maybe our company needs rebranding, could you do this for us?”) or just because it’s trendy in their industry (“We want to have a facilitator in our team, others say it’s good to have one”). In any case, you will quickly get the sense that contacting you wasn’t a carefully considered choice.
Why is it hard to work with them? They may feel lost and disoriented, and you have to make the extra effort to figure out their needs. It’s likely that some of these clients will even leave if you manage to explain the value you can bring to them. It might also turn out that they need a product or service different from the one you offer.
What do they really want? These clients want to be given a structured explanation and a clear understanding of how your service can do them good—or why it won’t. Let them picture their future without your involvement—and weigh the pros and cons. You want to really focus on the collaboration, not just the pricing.
How do you work with unmotivated clients? Dealing with this type of client may be difficult: they are supposed to be the source of information, but they are not open to detailed discussions. They don’t really know what to be open about. But the good news is that these clients can become enlightened if they see the real value of what you do and feel the tangible effect of your involvement.
Tip: Think ahead. Start communicating this aspect and the value of your business on your social media accounts to give potential clients more understanding about what you do.
2. Impatient clients
These types of clients are on the other side of the spectrum—they do know what they want, and they want it right now. They don’t want to accept that you have a planned workload—they demand their needs be prioritized over the rest.
Why is it hard to work with them? They might focus on their needs and don’t really understand the flow of work in your industry, which can cause communication problems. Clients like this aren’t aware of the workload and projects you’re juggling at the moment. For this reason, the deadlines they set might be unrealistic.
What do they really want? They probably have a good reason to expect their work to be done in a short amount of time as an utmost emergency. Maybe, they have a business problem they have to fix super fast—or they pay you extra budgets and believe you should offer solutions faster.
How do you deal with impatient clients? Dig into these clients’ stories and discover the true reason behind their impatience. Explain your regular pace and discuss why you can’t make things ahead of schedule or what you need (people, new rates, deeper client involvement) to move faster. Lay out a realistic timeline for them, and leverage the benefit of thinking a project through to deliver better results.
3. Cautious clients
If you want to know what would be a hybrid of an unmotivated and impatient client, here’s the answer: it is a cautious client. This type of customer has a clear vision of the final result—but they just can’t be satisfied enough to call it a day. They want minimum risks and will avoid bolder decisions which might fell risky.
Why is it hard to deal with them? We can only reach outstanding results by thinking outside the box. But with this type of client, this is a super optimistic scenario because they will avoid brave concepts out of fear of losing business (for example). And, of course, there’s a high risk of getting frustrated, losing time and ending up with something mediocre. You will hardly have a winning Cannes case or set new benchmarks for the industry with these types of clients.
What do they really want? One reason why they prefer small steps might be the high risks they face. If so, they need careful risk management and even more guarantees that your service will bring only benefits, not challenges. The other reason they tend to be slow at deciding things is that they strive for perfection—but this explanation might also be rooted in the fear of losing something they truly value.
How do you deal with cautious clients? It’s okay to be concerned about the result, but there is a limit. If they turn to you for solutions, sometimes your services might help them bring in even more business with bolder ideas. For this reason, it’s highly recommended to openly talk it over and plan a risk management strategy to minimize the loss if something goes wrong. Planning the project’s schedule (and keeping to it no matter what) will also help if the reason for cautiousness is striving for perfection. It’s okay to remind the client that some services bring even more positive results if they are implemented faster—in many cases, it’s better done than perfect.
4. Complaining clients
If you feel that whatever you do is never enough for your client, you may be dealing with a complaining customer. It’s hard to please them no matter how quick or nice your service is – they will always find some imperfection and blame you for something. Sometimes they can even start non-productive arguments with your team, driving people to frustration.
Why is it hard to deal with them? It’s hard to please them because more often they don’t even understand what improvements should be done. They can dramatize every aspect of a problem without offering any options to correct things. These clients might ask you for “a greener green” or “a bigger logo”—but are never able to explain why this change should be made.
What do they really want? They want some attention and respect. Likely, they had some negative experiences in the past when their comments were not heard—and they got poor results. So, this time they want to express all their doubts and influence the result. They also want to feel your boundaries—if they know the limits of others, it will help them to be mindful about their ones.
How do you deal with complaining clients? Try to figure out what is the driving force of their concerns. These clients may be afraid to be excluded from the ideation process and are over-protecting their right to participate. Invite them to develop the project development plan, introduce them to every stage, and explain the logic behind your decisions and the cost of every unnecessary update. You should agree on everything in your project with your client, and responsibility must be shared. Avoid excuses but remain cooperative at every stage—if you fail to build strong and sincere communication with this type of client, they won’t be satisfied no matter how great your work is.
5. Stingy clients
These clients are very concerned about their budget and will try to save on everything. Some of them can see the true value of a quality solution and they would be happy to pay for it, but in most cases, they are overly protective of every “penny.” But if they are offered a good deal, they will be happy to accept it—and be as grateful to you as possible. Although some types of stingy clients simply don’t value your time and effort.
Why is it hard to deal with them? The goal of every business is to make a profit. If your clients save money, you likely lose some. If you are asked to lower your interest all the time, your motivation and self-assurance dissolves—and you don’t have any reason to work. The attitude towards the client also changes: it’s not a piece of cake to do something for a person who doesn’t appreciate your input and value.
What do they really want? If the client asks to lower the price or argues every financial sheet you send, there are two major reasons why it can happen. The first one is that they love your service, but their budget is lower than you expect—and they just want a lower price package. The second one is that they don’t see the value in what you offer to them—and all they need is to review their goals and get a closer look at your pricing policy.
How do you deal with stingy clients? If your prices are constantly compared with your competitors, you are always asked for a discount, or clients are just reluctant to pay, it’s better to cease collaboration. But it’s always good to analyze what are the reasons to ask for a discount. If you see that a client really needs your service to upgrade to a new category, you might help and offer a gift certificate with a deal (you can quickly design gift certificate cards in VistaCreate for a kind gesture):
6. Know-it-all clients
Clients of this type already come with their own ideas and leave little room for your concepts and interventions. Most often, they underestimate your experience and critique just everything you create. But if you follow their advice and make a mistake, they will blame you for poor expertise.
Why is it hard to deal with them? They want to micromanage the smallest task to ensure everything is “done properly.” Sometimes they really can have a deeper insight into the topic (especially if they come from a narrow and specific niche), but in most cases, they want to judge your work and your approaches. Your team might feel it has two bosses—their original one and the client, which doubles the stress.
What do they really want? Obsessively controlling clients want to keep everything under total control. They might have some reasons to be suspicious and criticizing—most probably, the previous work they outsourced had some failures, and now they want to double-check or (which looks even better to them) just tell how to do things from A to Z.
How do you deal with know-it-all clients? The best thing is to set the rules of your communication. If they come to your team, they should trust you and your expertise—it’s a must for a comfortable collaborative environment. They are expected to fill out a brief for the project—share their expectations and insights about their product, but nothing more if the team doesn’t ask for it. It will also help if you discuss how many rounds of correction or comments you accept. You’d better not break this limit—if so, these types of clients will think you don’t know what you’re doing, and their anxiety will burst with a new wave of comments.
7. Workaholic clients
It’s great to be motivated and excited about work and share this attitude with clients, but when they bombard you with emails on weekends and neglect the standards of work communication, it’s not okay. Such clients can demand the whole scope of work to be done faster and don’t really understand why you need holidays—but never want to pay extra for your effort if you agree to work on Sunday or return their emails when you’re on your holidays.
Why is it hard to deal with them? These types of clients might lack consideration. They ruin a sustainable work environment with their continuous requests to work late hours and skip weekends. Sometimes you really have to speed up, but in this case, you have to review your agreements and deadlines.
What do they really want? They want everyone to sync with their rhythm, but usually, there’s no point in doing so. Clients of this type might feel anxious when you don’t respond to their emails during the weekend, but if you do, it won’t reduce their anxiety—it will only tell them that it’s okay to continue working like this.
How do you deal with workaholic clients? If you agree to play by their rules, you and your team will burnout. If you systematically break your work routine at a request of another client, your corporate culture will be damaged. These types of clients can be demanding, but more often than not, it’s better to say “no” one time to unreasonable requests than to burnout your team.
The ultimate approach to dealing with all customers
The best way to preserve your mental health when working with difficult clients is to remember that no one is at fault here—there is simply a disconnect in the way you communicate.
First and foremost, your approach to working with any type of client has to have a premise. The premise of comfortable working conditions for both parties. Some things that can help you avoid the problems mentioned in this article includes:
- Work contracts
- Brief sheets
- Project descriptions
- Strict timeline for projects
- Settled deadlines
Each brand or company has their own approach to this process, but the basics are right before you. Establish a one-size-fits-all approach to working with clients by doing some “housekeeping” before you jump into collaborating on projects. If you do this one thing right, you actually avoid many problems that might come up as you continue to work together.
We hope this article has helped you understand different types of difficult clients. If you know someone that’s struggling with any of these types of clients, pass on the article to help them out!
