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For the first time ever, I have a client who has expressed that they don't feel like they got their money's worth on a website. I'm really frustrated about this because I gave them a very detailed proposal up front outlining the project, the cost, and my policies. I negotiated on the price and went down to meet their budget. Then the person from the organization whom I had been dealing with left and I'm thinking none of this had been communicated to the persons who took over (in fact, I was just told today that they only recently found my proposal, when the website was finished over a month ago).
When the new person took over, there were many, many changes throughout the the scope of the project, both in design and functionality, some of which I did for free and some of which required an additional charge. I spent more time on the phone, in face-to-face meetings, and communicating via email with this client than I have ever spent with any previous client, largely due to the numerous changes along the way. I also spent more than 4 hours training them at no additional charge, despite the fact that my proposal only includes one hour of training. Then, just today, more than a month after they told me the website was great and finished, they came back requesting additional changes, at the same time expressly stating that they feel like they did not get their money's worth and even asked me point blank how much time I spent on the site. Today, I spent more than an hour on the phone with them fielding those accusations, discussing possible changes, re-going over some of the training, and even making some CSS changes while we spoke. I would normally bill for this time, but I feel like I am in a hard spot because I just recently relocated to a new town, they are one of my first local clients, and I am worried about the client speaking negatively about my work in the community.
I feel that some sort of email addressing their concerns is most definitely warranted, but I'm not sure yet how detailed I should be about the original agreement and all of the extra work I have already done. Part of me wants to point out to the owner of the business (who has expressed the concern) the timeline of communication and the fact that there were several failures of communication on her staff's part and perhaps even email her a copy of the original agreement since it seems she might never have seen it, but I don't want to appear to be displacing blame. I very much want them to be satisfied, but I also don't feel that I ought to have to continue giving away my time...so how to address the time spent on the phone today and the additional changes that they have requested?
And that is a book about my frustration of today. Anyone have any words of wisdom or thoughts on what you would do in a situation like this?
Mother. Web & Graphic Designer. Lactation Consultant. Blogging about how it all fits together, most recently from northern Colorado. Visit my blog or my design site.
It seems to me that you're more interested in making a happy customer than in proving that you've put in more work than necessary on this project.
That being said, you're never going to make a happy customer who refers others to you unless they truly appreciate the work that you've done for them.
In this case, you may find you want to:
- Indicate tactfully how much work you agreed to and how much your exceeded that limit.
- Express that, nevertheless, it's important to you that your clients come away happy, and as the point of contact left in the middle of the contract, you're happy to re-work the plan with this boss.
- Define a scope for this "re-work," from a complete redesign to addressing the concerns that have been expressed since the change in POC.
- Create a new proposal and contract, so that your client understands what options they have this time around.
It's absolutely frustrating to run into these situations, because it's so hard to convey to your clients the time and effort that different tasks take. Consider what your ultimate goal is in this exchange, what time you can afford to give away to this client, and what the effects of their positive or negative attentions may have on your business.
Personally, I like to go for the more back-handed approach:
- Express (tactfully) the complications that arose in this project and how they were handled.
- Offer to completely re-work their site to their new specifications, at a discounted price.
- Boast about their site on my portfolio, no matter what their decision was.
- Include something about "Worked with changing POC's during the project timeline" and "Adapted to a changing scope readily and efficiently to ensure a timely delivery."
- Cheerfully discuss their project no matter what, even when questioned by others, saying things like "We didn't split on as good of terms as I am accustomed to: the change in the POC proved too much of a disturbance for our working relationship. However, we were able to finish the site, above and beyond the original scope, and I was quite pleased with the result!"
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@Au Couer - I agree with most of what Lauren has already said. Here are some additional thoughts:
- if you don't respect your time, don't expect that your clients will respect it. If you do work and decide to discount it to $0, prepare an invoice showing the real value and the discount you applied. Be sure that invoice is read. Don't ever work for nothing.
- Some of the best decisions you'll ever make are deciding to break up with a client. Don't worry about pleasing every client. Worry about pleasing the clients who respect your work enough to pay for it.
- Some people want to complain about their problems. Others want to fix them. Stick to those clients who are prepared to keep their eyes on the fixing and avoid the complaining. Cheerfully point out to your client that there's obviously been a misunderstanding, mostly attributable to the personnel change on their end that had nothing to do with you. As a client, you want them to be happy, and the quickest way to get them happy is for them to itemize via email in as detailed a fashion as possible what's wrong, and what they would like you to do to fix it so that they're happy. Be upfront and explain that you'll review the list, but their including something on the list does not mean that you will do it for free or even for a fee. If you get an email with an itemized list, make a business decision about the cost of what they want and the discount if any you're prepared to give. If you decide to proceed, get payment on your normal terms, deliver what's on the list, and hopefully things improve. If you give a discount, put a deadline on it.
- If the client doesn't send an email after 30 days, re-initiate contact via email, saying that you haven't heard from them in 30 days, and that while you'd still love to make them happy, you respect their decision if they don't have the time to devote to the project or are pursuing it with another designer/developer.
- Confidently tell the client that you value them as a client and feel that you delivered great work that fully satisfied the original specifications, but if they'd like referrals to other developers/designers, you're happy to provide a few names of others who have the skills for the job. If they ask for such referrals, provide them and wish them well.
Hope that helps.
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The long and short to this is this, in my opinion - if you had a signed contract that was agreed upon prior to the new person, I would have indicated to them that those are the terms by which you would continue to work. However, if they now wanted the scope to change and development to proceed in a different direction - then you would need to assess those changes and modify the contract in writing.
One of the things that I've learned since doing this business since 1997 is... never do anything for "free" because it sets a precedence and they will come back and ask for more.
The other thing is - make it plain and clear whether you are working hourly or flat fee. I have never... and I mean never... given a client a timesheet and a breakdown of what I worked on and how long it took me to do it. That is just not reasonable. I am not the staff. I am a hired contractor. When I have had clients like that who don't value my time, I finish out the contract and move on. I won't use them as a reference and I won't do business with them. I can say that out of the handful of clients who were pissy because I wouldn't do free work - they have actually come back to me and I've declined to service them.
Going forward, I would suggest that you document every single thing and be "anal" about it just like I am. I do what is listed and if they want more, then there is a new contract. I never veer away from the original contract unless it's in writing, agreed on and they have agreed to the new terms and fees.
You don't owe them a statement to prove your value either. That is a insult. I, personally would just finish the work in the agreed upon contract and then let them hire someone else to take it where the new person wants it to go.
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For some reason I never saw the email notifications about your responses, so I am just seeing them now. I really appreciate all of the thoughts. I did end up sending her the original proposal and a timeline of changes that were requested, beyond the scope requests, etc. I told her that I would not charge them for the hour spent on the phone that day but reiterated my hourly maintenance fee for future work/meetings, telling her I would very much like to continue working on the website but that I hoped she could understand that I cannot do so for free.
And then I never heard back...so I guess that wasn't the response she wanted to see. It still bothers me since she is a local business very visible in the community, but I know that I more than delivered what was promised so I'm working on getting over the fact that she is just going to be dissatisfied no matter what.
Mother. Web & Graphic Designer. Lactation Consultant. Blogging about how it all fits together, most recently from northern Colorado. Visit my blog or my design site.
Well, don't beat yourself up about it. I had the same thing happen to me where I live with a large organization. And while I did hear a few negative things that she said about me - the people knew she was a pain in the ass and took it with a grain of salt. I still got their work. Don't put that much power into another person's hands or in your mind or you will defeat yourself. Know that you did the right thing, that you did what was asked. We cannot always satisfy everyone. There will always be people who want something for free - you just have to know how to tell them - "yes, you can have that, but it will cost you $XXX.XX." If they don't want to pay, move on.
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