Over the past few years we met tons of clients, good and bad. So far, we managed to handle them properly. The good one we keep and create more business opportunity and the bad one we don’t wait just throw. Hey, doing business not always perfect, there are a lot of risks and we did encountered two clients that we felt the biggest headache and gave tons of problems. This is what we want to share today.

Client A

So called “Dato” old Indian guy mid 50′s. We was glad to finally get some potential client (at that time) until we saw his true color after delivered his business directory listing project. He delayed our payment until we knocked his office and asked for payment. He did pay us cash on that day and asked us another favor which we doubt he will pay us.

We didn’t really listen to instinct and delivered the task. That’s when he kept giving excuses, not answering our call and so on. We walked to his office but he ignored us and walked away from the office refusing to confront anything. The job only for RM700 but he couldn’t pay. We noticed how cheap this Dato is and definitely he’s a corn Dato.

Client B

This is the biggest headache since we started our business. Never admit his mistakes, say one thing now and later say something else. Claiming himself as genuine and gentlemen but is not.

We stuck with this client since last year July. He asked us to do something basic system for his seminar at beginning but ended up doing project that can easily cost RM30k to RM50k for jewelry shop. From numbering system for seminar to Jewelry shop system? That’s crazy!

We had some argument about these issues and solved it with agreement on November to clarify things. He seems to agree to the terms and conditions we set for him. But now he started to give troubles again and our programmers gave up on him and wish not to continue his project.

How to solve this?

The amount of troubles we went through for these projects aren’t benefiting us. So, we took extra mile to prepare clear cut black and white agreement to protect our self. We did all these because of the experiences we face every day when dealing with clients. With that we create our own agreement that protect and benefits both parties.

There are a lot of ways that can be done to avoid such issues and one of it is clearly define your terms and conditions from the beginning. Make sure the tasks and requirements noted down clear in the quotation and when handing over the quotation make sure to remind them again to read the terms.

We had few friends and clients said, “Hey your terms and conditions are longer than your quote”.

Another way to protect yourself is by preparing some form to capture the meeting minutes (in our case Project Review Form) every time meeting with client. Note down everything client request, comments and things he said and at the end of the meeting ask for his signature. This can be used as proof at later stage when encounter misunderstanding.

Most customers will do all the sweet talking and make you feel that if you are harsh, you won’t get business from them in the future. Remember, this is not true and personal advice is to walk-away from this kind of client. You do not want this client because the moment they don’t pay, it is noise. It becomes a cost to get YOUR money back.

Cheers!

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