OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Do You Have a “Client from Hell?”

angry_customer.jpgHow do you know?

Here are seven clues before they become clients:

  1. Want free advice on the phone;
  2. Meet, but only, reluctantly, and then want more free advice;
  3. Challenge your standard terms and conditions;
  4. Resist producing usable records and documents;
  5. Delay signing your engagement letter while expecting you to start work;
  6. Mention that they have sued or reported one or more of your predecessors;
  7. Resist making any form of upfront payment (where this is part of your terms.

Eight clues, after being engaged:

  1. Seeks more work but won’t agree to pay for it;
  2. Changes the scope of your work;
  3. Wastes your time;
  4. Insists on ‘gut feel’ advice rather research;
  5. Uses buzz words and terms that they evidently don’t really understand;
  6. Slow and stubborn in producing needed information;
  7. Delays production of key documents until the last minute;
  8. Pays a day late and a dollar short.

Source: Mark Lee.

Tell us your own “Client-from-Hell” story…

One Response to “Do You Have a “Client from Hell?””

  1. Wayne Schulz

    Here’s a free — and time tested early warning sign that you’re about to pick up a client from hell.

    Go to their bathroom.

    I’m serious.

    Client’s who treat their people (and professional advisors) lousy — almost always have a terribly dirty bathroom.

    Try it out the next time you drop in on a client or prospect.

    PS – This only means the bathroom has to be appropriately clean to the workplace. Obviously a bathroom in a manufacturing plant floor is different than those in the executive offices. You’ll know pretty quickly when you visit the rest room.

    Let me know if I’m not 100% on the mark with this….. is has not failed me yet.