Every freelancer or small business that has been in business for any amount of time has had at least one problem customer come into their realm. No matter what you do in your attempts to please them, they are never happy or satisfied. This is an unavoidable scenario for small business that deals with numerous visitors from many diverse cultures. The major common dispute originates between parties coming from different areas of the globe resulting in a clash of cultures. The sensitivity to a certain tone or view could be fundamentally unlike and perceived in an unintentional way. An example here is a person from an Asian culture. Even if you recognize they are wrong and made a mistake, they cannot lose face in any part of a dispute. If they do, it is in their culture to be defensive and hostile with the fact becoming totally immaterial. Once they lose face, they have to regain it or the dispute cannot be resolved. By knowing this when a mistake is seen, instead of responding with “you are wrong” the approach has to be “would this work better”. It is all about presentation and perspective. A common indication that a client might be a problem is if from the beginning they are fuzzy on what exactly they want or need. This can be because of many different reasons. The customer might have problems expressing themselves verbally or they might just not know exactly what they want. Many freelancers, small businesses and marketers have problems with this type of customers because the customer themselves are confused. They might know where they wish to have the project end up like, but the starting point and the path to get there are unknown to them. These types of clients can be identified in the beginning when a freelancer notices the project description is not very detailed. When further clarification is requested and the response does not address the issue, this is a major warning sign of a confused client. Handle these customers with care and guide them with caution by asking relevant probing questions. Rephrase your question until you get a clear response to the issue or by picking up key words from the reply. Always verify what you understood to make sure you and the customer are on the same page. Then there is always the customer that is never happy, no matter what you do. You know the type. They ask a service provider for one thing. When that is delivered, they claim they asked for something else. When the changes are submitted, they are still not what the client is looking for. Some of these customers even refuse to pay for work they asked for. When you encounter a client like this, ask them which part of the job was acceptable and which part is not - politely. Have them recognize where or what part they are having a problem with. Corrections or adjustments to certain parts are acceptable to a certain degree. But if the client wants you to redo the whole thing is a totally different matter. It is also important to create a file for all correspondences for each customer so you can refer to them and verify contents of correspondences, if needed. Taking someone to court that is half way around the world will not happen. It is best to resolve any dispute or problem with polite sincerity. Bear in mind, fuzzy customers could be perplexed and need to be guided without it being clear while some customers will never be happy. Do not dwell on it. Just move on and remember the warning signs that they sent in their interactions to avoid this type of issue in the future.
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This article talks about problems with disputes that many businesses need to know.
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