“The customer is always right.” You’ve heard this statement over and over again, right?
I’m also certain that as a solo professional service provider, on certain occasions you wished you had never heard this phrase because you found yourself dealing with a ‘client from hell’. You know — the one who makes you tense just at the thought of meeting with them or having a phone or email conversation, the one with whom you end the session with your tummy in tight knots, with a headache, muscle aches, and a drain on your energy and spirit. Yet you simply have to paste a smile on your face while you’re groaning and cursing inwardly through it all. After all, “the customer is always right.”
Can you relate to this? Have you ever wished you didn’t have to go through such situations?
Well, I’m happy to let you know that you can reduce such incidences right down to zero. I also want to let you know that “the customer is not always right”. For you, the solo professional service provider, “the RIGHT customer is the one who is allowed to be right”.
How can you find joy and peace and whole-heartedly embrace this philosophy of “the client is always right” for your professional service business?
The best way is to get very clear on who exactly your client should be. You need to decide who qualifies for the privilege of working with you.
I can hear you gasping at my suggestion, but this is the first step to getting the best clients for your business.
Your business is an expression and an extension of you; you express your values, beliefs and passions through your business. This means that you are your business, and you need to “take care of your business” just like you take care of yourself.
Are you friends with (just about) everyone? Do you love all the clothes or shoes in the shop that are your size? Do you love all the models of cars? No? I can bet that you’re attracted to certain people and build a vibrant and fulfilling relationship with them while other people just put you off. In the same vein, the people who put you off also have people they naturally gravitate towards and with whom they build a very vibrant and healthy relationship. If you looked at things from their perspective, you probably also put them off, and they’d probably just have to ‘tolerate’ you if you were to have any kind of relationship. Ouch!
I hope I’ve now convinced you that not everyone is right for you. This should be liberating, because you now know that you don’t have to endure or tolerate clients, but rather find a way to attract those clients that are right for you while repelling those that are not so right for you right at the ‘get go’.
How can you do this?
Develop clear criteria for choosing whom you work with — other than that they have a pulse and a credit card or cash — and use these to filter clients before you begin working with them.
The best clients for you are like your friends; they bring out the best in you, bring out your creative juices, make you look forward to spending time with them, they ‘get you’ and you ‘get them’. The right clients for you energize and inspire you and allow you to do your best work. With these clients, work is no longer work; it’s play, because it’s so much fun! With such a client, you’ll be ready to say, “Your wish is my command” (to a certain extent) and applying the “customer is always right” philosophy will not be such a pain.
So if you want to truly enjoy what you do and have great clients that energize and inspire you, begin by developing your system for filtering whom you work with. Soon, your work will be lots of fun, and you’ll just keep attracting more of these fun clients to you.