Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : When customers ignore your advice

[Mike V]

When customers ignore your advice

We all work to total customer satisfaction. Every once in a while a customer comes along that might mean well, but ignores the advice you give. I just ended a 30 emergency evening phone call with a customer who'd removed an important system update, after I'd already told him doing so would break services on the machine. Not only that, but it was not going to address the problem at hand. The customer is nice on a personal level, but in terms of following the advice they're paying me for, a lot is desired. They have lots of "unique" problems caused by advice not taken by myself and other contractors / vendors hired to help them.
How do you deal with these folks? And what point would you just walk away? Or do you just not give up? Do you tolerate more of this behavior from a well paying or larger customer?
To me there is a point where I start to believe my services could be put towards some "greater good" elsewhere. Where I tire of just putting the customer's broken network back to a barely working state, because they ignore my advice. After a while I feel like Sisyphus.





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[Techark]

You let them break it then you fix it.
That is your job.
If you tell them not to do it and they do it anyway then they pay extra to get it fixed. Pretty simple really, they will either learn or run out of money at some point.





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[JFSG]

People learn from mistakes.
*But unfortunately some doesn't..





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[MACscr]

Correct, as long as they are paying you for this "extra" time, then who cares, right? 10 Hours of paid work from one client is just as good as 5 hours paid work for 2 clients.

[Atarim]

It sounds like you're doing this professionally. You're giving them good advice, which they are free not to take - after all, they're the customer. Then you're able to help them out by fixing it all over again (for pay, of course). There's nothing wrong here.
Just feel free to vent here on WHT when you need to!





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[ldcdc]

I like Techark's advice. Just make sure you charge them enough to feel that the "greater good" has just been accomplished.
A problem that may arise, which depends largely on his personality, is the customer not taking responsibility for his actions, and putting, inside his hard or when talking with potential customers of yours, all or part of the blame on you. Instead of having your efforts acknowledged and giving you the referrals you deserve, he may help tarnish your reputation.





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[ubuzz]

Quote:



Originally Posted by ldcdc


I like Techark's advice. Just make sure you charge them enough to feel that the "greater good" has just been accomplished.
A problem that may arise, which depends largely on his personality, is the customer not taking responsibility for his actions, and putting, inside his hard or when talking with potential customers of yours, all or part of the blame on you. Instead of having your efforts acknowledged and giving you the referrals you deserve, he may help tarnish your reputation.


Some people refuse to take personal responsibility for their actions and look for someone else to blame...
If you are being compensated for your time and believe this person is not hurting your business otherwise then I would keep them.





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Mike

[albunix]

Quote:



Originally Posted by Mike V


We all work to total customer satisfaction. Every once in a while a customer comes along that might mean well, but ignores the advice you give. I just ended a 30 emergency evening phone call with a customer who'd removed an important system update, after I'd already told him doing so would break services on the machine. Not only that, but it was not going to address the problem at hand.
Quote:


The customer is nice on a personal level, but in terms of following the advice they're paying me for, a lot is desired. They have lots of "unique" problems caused by advice not taken by myself and other contractors / vendors hired to help them.


How do you deal with these folks? And what point would you just walk away? Or do you just not give up? Do you tolerate more of this behavior from a well paying or larger customer?
To me there is a point where I start to believe my services could be put towards some "greater good" elsewhere. Where I tire of just putting the customer's broken network back to a barely working state, because they ignore my advice. After a while I feel like Sisyphus.




You serve your clients needs, and unless you put on your TOS that you won't assist anymore for broken things due to the inadvertent actions taken by your clients than you have to really go after all they'd break and expect to be fixed.
I believe patience in dealing with such clients, along with a well setup plan to limit client's moves is what it takes if you want to be in a similar type of industry we're into





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[Mike V]

Quote:



Originally Posted by ldcdc


I like Techark's advice. Just make sure you charge them enough to feel that the "greater good" has just been accomplished.


Sometimes it's more than just dollars and cents to me. I wonder if my efforts could be better served elsewhere. Going out to put a broken system back to its barely functional state for the thirtieth time starts to wear on me after a while. I start to feel like the first mate on the Titanic.
Quote:



Originally Posted by ubuzz


Some people refuse to take personal responsibility for their actions and look for someone else to blame...


Customers that don't take my advice and use it as leverage not to pay don't stay customers for very long.





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