I once had a client who wouldn’t talk to me if there was a man in the room. He wasn’t directly my client — I try to only work with clients who are happy to see me — as I was simply a sub-contractor on his project. But I’d meet with both the client and the actual contractor on a regular basis throughout the contract. Throughout the meetings, the client would only communicate with the contractor, who happened to have a Y chromosome.
It was a religious matter: the client was an ultra-Orthodox Jew. But, as it happens, I’m Jewish, and have interacted with many other ultra-Orthodox Jews who found ways to be polite, despite religious constraints on how they should respond to women. The client in question was essentially choosing not to be polite. Describing it as a religious matter wasn’t entirely accurate — rather, it was more of an excuse for bad behavior.
Handling Clients Who Can’t Be Polite
The obvious response in such situations is simply to avoid working with clients who give every indication of not being interested in working with you. But the reality of the situation is not always so simple, unfortunately. My less-than-civil client was not actually my client. I’d signed the contract with someone I was quite comfortable working with. There were many considerations that meant that simply tearing up the contract wasn’t an option — not least of all is the fact that I make it a point of pride to complete projects as contracted. And, as many new business owners can sympathize, I simply wasn’t in a financial position to turn down paying work, no matter how distasteful it was.
If there’s no way to get out of working with an unpleasant client, then there’s simply the option of getting the work done and the project over with. That’s exactly what I did. I actually beat the deadline to get that project done and in by a week and a half. I also took some steps to limit our interaction: I worked out a deal with the contractor who was ultimately responsible, allowing me to minimize the time I spent in meetings with the client.
Avoid These Clients, When You Can
After my part was done, I told the contractor that, while I would happily work on other projects with him in the future, I wanted to stay away from this client (and clients like him) in the future. As it turns out, the lack of politeness was just one characteristic of a client who turned out to be major trouble. I can’t claim that all impolite clients are bad news, but a client who can’t find away to work agreeably with you may have other problems down the line. In the case of this client, that trouble turned out to be an attempt to stiff the contractor I worked for, which just led me to reinforce my policy of not working with clients who couldn’t afford to be polite.
Image by Flickr user Bruce Berrien
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Tags: client, polite, religion
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