Are Your Customers and Clients Controlling You?

by Kori Rodley Irons | More from this Blogger

28 Apr 2008 06:36 PM

The other day I wrote about how we cannot control what our customers and clients do-no matter how much we might want to or how much energy we put into sales and customer service. There is a flip side of this coin, however, in that we might be letting our customers and clients control us! Do your customers and/or clients have more influence over your life and your home business than you would like?

There is no denying that customer service is incredibly important in any sort of business. Even if you have a small consulting business with only a couple of clients, there needs to be some focus on keeping people happy and delivering good service. Unfortunately, our best intentions of customer service can get twisted around and we might find ourselves being pushed around, bullied, manipulated or controlled by our customers. The occasional special request is one thing, but if you are constantly changing your hours, offering special rates, shifting time that you had planned to spend with family, friend, or other clients, or other major changes for the sake of a particular client or clients-then they may be controlling you and your home business operations.

Only you can get in charge and wrestle back the authority in your home business. After all, many of us started our businesses so that we could have some autonomy and control. Set limits, declare your work hours and stick to them, and negotiate out the details of a contract and then stick to it. I have found that when a client is trying to push for a lot of extra services and more control, I have to get very, very specific with what is in the contract agreement-any ambiguity and the other party will take advantage of it to push for what he wants.

It may take some time to un-do what has been done, but you can get control of your home business back-you just have to be determined and focused on setting strong limits and defining the parameters of your business.

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