This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Tips for dealing with a Difficult Client?

Tenesha182·Dec 09, 2022

Posted in:Advice Management and Leadership Vents

Hi Elphas!

I'm in agency client facing role and one particular client is extremely difficult to deal with: attitude, conflicting direction, it seems she constantly tries to catch gotcha moments. I want to get to a place of being so airtight that there is no room for the attitude, but I know some people will always have this type of personality. By all metrics we are servicing the account well, often it seems to be coming from a place of power tripping.

What have you done in the past when working with difficult people/clients? How can I manage the relationship to mitigate her issues?

stephaniecn·Dec 10, 2022

Honestly if it’s bad enough I fire them. I’ve had to do this with clients, some of whom were my highest paying clients. But it’s always a major relief (and learning lesson). Ain’t nobody got time for bad clients, make room for better fit clients :)

LumpySpaceProgrammer·Dec 10, 2022

So at one point in time, I was the lead of client retention on my inbound calls and when I had time I had a list of 200 clients I had to call outbound toSo at one point in time, I was the lead of client retention on my inbound calls and when I had time I had a list of 200 clients I had to call outbound to see if they wanted to pay their overdue balance. I don't have a temper but I used to take things to heart and I would bawl my eyes out after every shift. Then, one day, MY manager said the simplest thing for the 42nd time, "don't take it personally." For some reason that time it clicked. Everyone knew these people were difficult, it wasn't like I was the only one getting attitude. I always remind myself that, for me to get to the point of treating people I don't know so poorly, I would have had to have had the worst day of my life. So I act as if they just had the worst day. They rant and rave and I say, "oh my goodness I can't imagine your frustration, let me personally get this taken care of for you. I went through a similar situation a couple months ago and my heart hurts thinking you had an experience like that here." A lot of times they want to feel heard or cared about. Sometimes they just want to be abusive to anyone who will listen and in that case, "ma'am, im treating you with respect because you are deserving of it. I am deserving of respect as well. If you can't speak to me professionally, I'm going to have to professionally cut ties with you. I wish you well on your journey" because you're not getting paid to be treated like dirt.

alexandralatter·Dec 12, 2022

Have you tried confronting the issue in a polite, but direct way? I have had relationships with clients in the past where I made it clear that their attitude/tone/continuous requests were negatively impacting our ability to drive success and build a positive long-term relationship together. If you have a manager that would have your back you can refine the language you want to use with this client, but ultimately, it will need to be addressed if you want anything to change.

caseyonder·Dec 15, 2022

Echoing others.. what's the cost and benefit of keeping her? also is it "just" triggering or does the attitude actually get in the way of the work? no relationship's perfect and ultimately I would not want to work with people I didn't enjoy working with.

Tenesha182·Dec 27, 2022

Thank you all for the responses. Unfortunately, it's a client I'm serving as part of a company so not necessarily my choice to cut ties and the business is multi-multi-million dollar anchor for them. Not taking things personally and reflecting the relationship I would like to have is what I'm going to do moving forward.