Discussion Topic: Tell Us About Your “Nightmare Client”

Every translator, interpreter, freelancer and language service professional has had at least one “nightmare client.”

One of our translator once told us: “I can handle a client who is ignorant. I can handle a client who is arrogant. But not a client who is both.”

If a client is ignorant but not arrogant, you can do great work for him, because he will let you, for the most part, run the show — and look to you for advice and guidance.

If a client is arrogant but not ignorant, he may be demanding, but you can learn from him — and take your translation work to the next level.

A nightmare client, to me, is one who is both ignorant … he doesn’t know anything about your translation service or skill … and arrogant: even though he doesn’t know anything, he proceeds to dictate to you how to do your translation work.

Have you ever had a “nightmare client”? What were they like? What did you do about it? Did you keep working for them? Or did you “fire” that client? If so, PLEASE tell us how you did that!?

Best Practice in Debt Collection

How do the best companies manage their debt collection? Many companies believe that their debt collection performance is entirely a factor of their clients' willingness to pay. This article seeks to dispel this myth and advises readers how to put themselves firmly in control, giving examples of what has worked well for organisations across a range of industries.

Define your objectives

In determining your collection strategy, it is vital to support the corporate objectives of your company. For example, if you are the market leader in your industry or are producing a unique product, you will be more readily able to dictate payment terms as, put simply, if clients do not pay they do not get the goods!

However, competition is the norm and flexible payment terms are sometimes used as a differentiator to win and retain business. In such situations assertive collection techniques can cause problems and you can only take control by removing the reasons for non-payment.

Billing

The billing requirements of your clients should be taken seriously. So many organisations fail to take account of what their clients want, and do so at their cost. The best performing companies implement the following simple strategy:

* Listen to what clients want;

* Be honest with the client about capability to deliver client requirements;

* Agree billing mechanism.

Ask how you can make it easy for your clients to pay - before the bill is disputed. The best time to ask is at the point of setting up the account, so you can build in quality processes from the outset of the relationship.

Billing quickly

Billing quickly and accurately will go some way towards taking control of collections. Best practice suggests that invoices should be raised and despatched within 24 hours of delivery. There are two traditional methods of billing: proof of despatch and proof of delivery.

Proof of despatch is where the supplier produces a delivery note and/or invoice based on what he believes has been despatched to the client. One pharmaceutical distributor with which we have worked sends a single document which serves as an invoice and proof of delivery when despatching goods to the client. They have a requirement that damages or shortages are advised within 72 hours, so in theory the client cannot make a claim beyond these three days. This supplier has put himself very much in control of the process.

* Proof of delivery is where the supplier despatches goods but does not produce an invoice until the goods have been delivered and a proof of delivery returned. Managing the time between the goods being delivered and the invoice being despatched to the client is the key challenge, with control more readily achieved if distribution is managed in-house. Difficulties can arise where third parties are used for distribution as timing delays between delivery of the goods and return of proofs of delivery can be significant. One large food manufacturer overcame this by using a service level agreement with their distributor, which included penalties for late submission of documentation.

A third, more efficient means of billing which can greatly reduce the cycle time between delivery and invoice despatch is electronic data interchange (EDI) (see fig. 1). EDI allows the supplier and client to communicate prior to delivery, checking prices electronically and registering order details. The client can flag up pricing -and order discrepancies before delivery to prevent mistakes being made. Following receipt of the order, the client will electronically notify the supplier of the goods received and the supplier will produce an invoice based on these details. The supplier may then transmit a remittance advice to the client and receive payment, all electronically. EDI does however entail a significant investment in infrastructure, and it works most effectively where the buyer and seller have established a strong partnership.

Another alternative, perhaps more visionary, is electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). This replaces paper trails (e.g. traditional invoices, cheques or remittance advice) and manual processes with highly automated business functionality using web technologies. EBPP allows for the delivery of richly formatted invoices linked to related documents, such as statements, payment advice or bank statements.

Clients using EBPP can view bills and make payments at their convenience. The web offers more information and enhanced client service features than a printed invoice or statement. Each item on electronic statements can be linked to further information. For example, a client can easily compare the current month's bill to the same month a year ago. With web enablement of existing back-end systems and security-- enhanced access policies, this technology can give your clients controlled access to the data they require. All this can be achieved for a fraction of the cost inherent in the establishment of EDI infrastructure. The burden of accessing data will be placed on the client, and to be successful will require a high level of buy-in to this approach from them. Client relationships will need to be clearly defined to ensure that they are aware of their obligations to access data and to make payments in line with agreed terms.

If Your Customer is Costing You...Drop Them

A lot of time, energy, and money is spent on developing new customer relationships. Often you will find this to be a rewarding experience for you. You may even develop relationships that will last years into the future. Some of your customers might even become close friends of yours. But sometimes the exact opposite can happen and depending on how badly you need the business of that customer it can become a real nightmare for you. If this happens you might have to ask yourself just how badly do you need them?

It is during the early stages of building your business that every customer really counts but at some point in time you need to examine your relationships with you customers. You need to ask yourself if all the hoops you jump through for them are actually worth the sales that you receive. You might be surprised by how many aren't. Does this mean they all need to be dropped as customers no? In fact it would be better if you could figure out a way to make the relationship more fruitful for you. But when you do realize that a customer is simply not worth the effort that you are giving them then you need to drop them.

Yes it is hard giving up on a relationship that you have worked so hard to develop but it needs to be done. This one customer can be taking up valuable time and resources by distracting from other customers that you can make money on. And the longer you wait to do something about the situation the more it is costing you. So how do you go about ending a relationship? Politely that's how.

When ending a relationship with a customer there is no need to be rude to them or have them develop any hard feelings towards you. You need to take the time to explain the situation to them. No they may not like it. But you need to be truthful with them. Don't be fooled into thinking things might change because this is often not the case. There are of course times when a relationship is worth salvaging and you'll have to make that decision yourself. But try not to let past sentiment be an influencing factor no matter how hard.

Developing good long term customers is about developing relationships with them. But it is a two way street. They may think that you need them more than they need you and while at one time it may have been true. It is not always the case anymore. So just as you value your relationship with them hopefully the same can be said of them valuing that relationship also. If they don't then you need to remember that your business comes first not theirs.

About the Author:

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. The years of experience in small business have given him insight into a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business information you can go to http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com

Warning Signs of a Nightmare Translation Client

Once upon a time, I received the "three warning signs" from a potential client all in the first sentence: "I don't have much money, I need my translated site up and running a.s.a.p., and my current translation company won't return my calls".

Hmmmm...why, I ask you, did some benevolent light bulb go off in my head - the toxic urge to help someone in need, perhaps - and not the glaring warning flares? I don't know. I took the bait. We met, I agreed to slash my rates, get it done in 30 days, and thus began a relationship with a client that, because of their micromanaging and nitpickiness, ended up diluting my rate to about minimum wage.

I learned early on how to spot the warning signs of a nightmare client. It just took me a little while to figure out how to say "No.". Early on, I am sure that the desire to grow my business was at the heart of the acquiescence, even in spite of that feeling of dread you feel when you are about to execute the contract. Now, with plenty of work from corporate clients, many of whom refuse to micromanage because they have jobs to attend to, I can be a lot pickier.

With that, here's my anaysis of the Big Three. Feel free to add your own.

"I need to do this as cheap as possible"

Usually, this comes out in their first inquiry. If I track the nightmare clients' profile, I can definitely trace this comment to usually the very first phone call. In fact, it's interesting how many of the potential clients who made this statement from the outset would ultimately either stand me up, or cancels the first consultation before we ever got off the ground.

"I need your best price" certainly sends up the red flags now. Not because clients who insist on a fair and equitable price are inherently nightmare clients, but, clients who begin with this as their foundation, those who are price-driven, ultimately don't understand value. They ask "what will you do for me?" instead of "what will my translated document do for me?". And usually, this type of stance is followed by:

"I need it yesterday"

A tight time constraint is not, in and of itself, a problem. In fact, a number of my better clients have been somewhat urgent about a launch date. But taken in concert with bullet point #1, this becomes indicative of a client who has no understanding of or regard for the process. They think you are sitting at home with nothing else to work on other than their $1,000 translation project. Usually, all other aspects of their business, project, etc are equally in disarray. They are close to closing down, and their translated document is a last ditch effort to generate business, and so on.

This type of frenetic urgency is interesting, in that, usually, these people are the nitpickiest clients of all - critiquing every font, gradient, and crop. Wanting it done over and over until the picture they saw in their head begins to take shape, or, more likely, until it begins to look like a whole multi-lingual campaign crafted by an advertising agency, which is what they wanted it all along, but were afraid to say so.

Until I began to grasp the concept that "your failure to plan is not my emergency", I was usually being reactive to the timeline wishes of the nightmare client. Now, the launch date is set by when the calendar will allow.

and, finally, but most daunting of all:

"My current translator won't call me back"

I have seen and heard many variants on this theme. Sometime it's couched in secrecy, i.e. "our last company we just had a...well, it just didn't work out"; sometimes overt, to-wit: "the translation company I hired dropped me" or "says they won't do my translation because they don't agree with my content".

Hmmm....

Now, this is much different that the client who breaks with their existing translation company because truly, they are getting bad service, or perhaps they entered into a relationship with a fledgling translator who either got in over their head or evaporated before they ever got off the ground, but you can definitely tell the difference.

This is the client who, by the tone and description of their "falling out" is clearly suspect, and it's very soon apparent that the reason they had a falling out is because they were pouring scope creep into their relationship by the truckload, micromanaging, changing their minds, and diluting the value of the already whittled-down price way past the point of tolerant. I have had a few of these clients and have come close myself to dropping them mid contract (in fact, I did fire one mid-relationship. It's rather liberating)

The fact that there was a break in the relationship with their previous translator should send you running for the hills. When combined with the need for speed and the demand for your rock-bottom dollar, there's almost no need to follow up with questions about why the previous relationship ended - you know why.

Being able to turn away business is a little intimidating at first. It seems counterintuitive to growing your company. But IMHO, it's just the opposite. Turning away BAD business, and there is most definitely bad business in this field, frees up your time to market yourself to and design for quality clients. clients who get it - who understand that a translated document is about value, not about price, and that will trust you to do your job in the manner in which they have hired you to begin with.

Just my two cents. Any other red flags?

Best Regards,
Michael Kuan

(adapted from an original post by Pat. )