How do you deal with difficult customers???

[dave9652]

Good one Kevin.....You are "The Man"

 

[k0ua]

hey, I'm with you LD1... I understand what you are saying. There is a difference between asking for a little extra and demanding more trying to imply that you are ripping her off. Luckily I haven't had any experiences like this. In fact, just the opposite. I had a neighbor (2-minute tractor drive from my house) ask me to mow 2 pastures that totaled a little over 2 acres. It was very tall grass- like 8 feet in some spots. He was close and a neighbor, so I told him $100. He was okay with that and when I finished he asked if I could mow the ditches outside the fence and how much would I want. Probably took me about 20 minutes and I told him not to worry about it, but when he wrote the check he gave me $115 and insisted on paying more because he asked more than the original deal.

Exactly. That is the way I treat people that I hire to do work for me. If they do a good job on the agreed scope of work I pay them the agreed upon price. If I CHANGE my mind, and decide I want something else done outside of the agreed upon scope of work, I feel obligated to pay extra for that work to be done. Sometimes they say, " Aww. that will be ok, I don't need anything else" or something like that, but I still pay them extra. I don't try to beat people over the head for small amounts of money. I feel if you treat people right that work for you, then you will receive superior service. You won't be on the bottom of the list if they are busy, and they will be happy to come work for you. Not Teed off because you beat them up last time.

I don't know that looking at the job in person vs. looking at it over Google Earth would have made any difference on the other parcel of land outside of the fence, which is the parcel in contention because I doubt she would have mentioned it in person either. She sounds like the type of person that wants to "beat you over the head", so that she can feel good inside and/or brag to her friends about the good deal she got.

These are just my opinions of course and you may see things differently. There are often more than two ways to look at any conflict.

James K0UA

 

[Timm250]

You missed the point...She wasn't right, however doing a little extra could have been money in the bank for future business...Oh well, just more work for someone else.....

I think another acre is more than a "little extra". That is a 50% increase of the original quote.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using TractorByNet

 

[ENC]

Spit some beechnut in their eye.

 

[J F]

I did that one time...that wanted the other eye done for free.

 

[JJZ 109]

Big thing is, please yourself with the quality of work you do and stick to the rates that pay the bills; because in the end, happy customers are a dime a dozen but so are unhappy ones...

To answer the question of the thread title. I don't, I let them go to the competition...

That's the point I've gotten to also. Don't like the price? Call the competition. There's a reason that I'm buried in work and have been all season. That reason is not because my work sucks and I over charge people.
Many times red flags appear during the initial conversation. One of my potential customers apparently did some online research and thought he knew more about the business than I did. Wanted me to change the way I've always done things and then started asking the most nit picking, non important questions I'd ever heard. The next time he called to see if I'd arrived at a price to do the work on his terms, he was informed that I'd picked up all the local work that I can handle and I didn't need to drive as far as his location was from me.
At that point I think he realized he'd overstepped the bounds because he then asked if that was the only reason. He was told that it was the only reason he needed to know. I don't know who or even if anyone else took the job. I moved on. Sometimes you just have to walk away from what you know will be a large headache.

 

[JJZ 109]

Exactly. I feel if you treat people right that work for you, then you will receive superior service. You won't be on the bottom of the list if they are busy, and they will be happy to come work for you. Not Teed off because you beat them up last time.

James K0UA

Bingo. Had another customer. Very small job, about $180. I wasn't making a killing here by any means. He and his girfriend whined about the price so I dropped it a small amount. Then they took forever to pay me. Ignored all kind of phone messages and mailed bills before finally getting around to paying.
Guess who's looking to get more work done now? Guess who's message I did not and will not return? I'm buried with real paying customers. I don't need the aggravation..

 

[Lt CHEG]

That's the point I've gotten to also. Don't like the price? Call the competition. There's a reason that I'm buried in work and have been all season. That reason is not because my work sucks and I over charge people.
Many times red flags appear during the initial conversation. One of my potential customers apparently did some online research and thought he knew more about the business than I did. Wanted me to change the way I've always done things and then started asking the most nit picking, non important questions I'd ever heard. The next time he called to see if I'd arrived at a price to do the work on his terms, he was informed that I'd picked up all the local work that I can handle and I didn't need to drive as far as his location was from me.
At that point I think he realized he'd overstepped the bounds because he then asked if that was the only reason. He was told that it was the only reason he needed to know. I don't know who or even if anyone else took the job. I moved on. Sometimes you just have to walk away from what you know will be a large headache.

Good point. Last time someone complained that my price was too high, I encouraged them to do it themselves which they did and then contacted me again for help after trying to do the work themselves.

Also I recently had a customer that I did some mowing for and she neglected to tell me about all the rocks in a certain part of her field. I think she was a little upset that I did not mow that rocky area after whacking a couple of good sized rocks. She told me the field was a nice open field with no obstacles, big rocks or trash to worry about encountering. I ended up doing the job sight unseen because she was in a hurry and I was able to bid a little extra to factor in the potential difficulties. It was a good thing that I planned for some extra time or else I wouldn't have made my normal rate. Anyhow she has now contacted me again without realizing that I was the same guy who mowed for her over the summer. I told her that I would get back to her if I had time to bid the job without saying I was the guy who mowed for her a few months ago. In reality I will probably not look to do the work again because I just have a bad feeling that she is difficult to please. If I do bid the job I will bid it for considerably more than I did it for earlier because it will probably mean about a third of an acre worth of mowing with my Stihl bicycle handled trimmer with brush blade to get the area that I'm sure she's going to want done this time.

 

[hawkeye08]

NO. my ad says prices NORMALLY 35-50 per acre. Again, NORMALLY. There was nothing normal about mowing around hundreds of large trees in 3 small lots that total 2 acres, and briars and torn trees so dense they needed backing through. THATS NOT MOWING.

But all of that is irrelevant. I dont price by the acre, or by the hour. Those are just tools I use to figure a price. I bid a job PER JOB. She called. Wanted X amount of work done. My price was Y. I did X amount of work, and she want more done without paying. How is that hard to understand??? Are you one of those customers who wants tihings done for free, and get mad cause someone wants to charge more, to do MORE than agreed upon????

I always get in trouble when I say "normally" so I use "typically" now.... just smile and cash the check.

 

[JJZ 109]

Anyhow she has now contacted me again without realizing that I was the same guy who mowed for her over the summer. I told her that I would get back to her if I had time to bid the job without saying I was the guy who mowed for her a few months ago. In reality I will probably not look to do the work again because I just have a bad feeling that she is difficult to please. If I do bid the job I will bid it for considerably more than I did it for earlier because it will probably mean about a third of an acre worth of mowing with my Stihl bicycle handled trimmer with brush blade to get the area that I'm sure she's going to want done this time.

Funny how people's memories work. I often get calls to do repair work on jobs that I supposedly did 2 or 3 years before I was even in business. In my business I don't repair other contractors' work. 1) Not my work, not my problem. 2) There's very little money to be made repairing the work of others when I have so many new installs of my own to do.
I hope that my previous 2 posts don't make me seem like I'm uncaring or that I've only dealt with disagreeable or unpleasant people because that certainly is not the case. The vast majority are very easy to work with and understanding when I have to explain that I'm usually working through a backlog and can't get to them immediately.
One little lesson that I have learned: The customer is not always right. But that isn't to say that I always am either. :confused2: