I had a friend of mine, also a small business owner, give me a call the other night. She was fuming bad. Apparently one of her clients had misunderstood something that she had promised as part of the job’s contract. Though the contract information had been placed in writing and gone over together, the client, unfamiliar with the type of job that my friend can perform, misunderstood exactly what she could do. He expected her to provide one thing and yet that thing was not one that she could provide, and so she provided what she could, and what she thought he had wanted from the start.
I wrote the other day about how small misunderstandings can sometimes be avoided through just asking questions and clarifying information between client and worker. All of us, when at work, know our jobs well. At times we forget that others who need our services do not understand what it is that we do as well as we understand what we do. In fact, some people seek us out because they have little to no knowledge about what it is that we do, and so they need our help performing that task for them.
In my company, I’ve worked with very computer literate people, but I have also worked with some who have no computer skills, who are afraid to even turn the thing on, and yet need a website designed as part of their business. It’s imperative that as a business owner I understand their skill level before I begin the job, so that I can explain the most technical things in the easiest terms. It is imperative that a client is on board, knows what I can do and also knows what I cannot do.
My friend ended up canceling the job with the client and refunding his money, though she had spent a good ten or so hours up to that point doing what it is she thought that he wanted her to do. Unfortunately for her, he was irate with what she initially provided and he would not hear her out when she tried to explain what she could provide. She ended up telling him whom he needed to contact in order to get the job that he wanted done, and she also explained to him how he should ask for that job when he moved on to the next company.
If you are working with clients who do not understand your job, taking some time up front explaining what it is that you do and why that is important oftentimes avoids problems down the road when the client realizes that what he wants is not what you are offering.
Remember, you are the expert, so it is your job, not your clients, to inform, explain and to ask questions that will help clarify a client’s needs.