CYA – Client Focus
To those of you who believe that if you repeat what you want to happen over and over again it will happen, stop it. You’re annoying the hell out of the rest of us who are trying to make it happen for you.
It occurs in the world of writing and editing a lot – the clients, good and bad, don’t quite hear what you’re saying. Right now I’m working with a very nice client who seems to have some rare form of email blindness, for no matter how many times or ways I say it, he’s not understanding that his project will not be done this month. It would be different if I said it once and I was vague, but folks, I’ve said it four times now and very directly. I started saying it in August, when it was very apparent that the job was bigger than expected. I thought with ample warning, the client would have a chance to make a contingency plan.
Apparently that didn’t happen, for here it is December and once again I’m getting asked the same question I’d answered three times prior. Will the project be ready? No, the project will not be ready. Pretty clear to you, right? What makes it worse is that I really want to have this project completed. I’ve worked my tail off and now I have writer friends helping me, as well. I’m waiting for the next question, which will surely come this week or next. Maybe I should set up my response like a Dr. Seuss rhyme – “It won’t be finished in December, just as it wasn’t in November. It will not happen, no sirree, no matter how often you ask me.”
Clients, please. We love you. We want to do good for you. We want to make your project our priority. However, you are not our only client, nor can we devote all our time to you, as we love all our clients and they deserve some of our time, too. If you want to pay us a ton to be our only client, we’ll devote time accordingly. However, this being the real world, we understand you have a budget. So do we. That’s why we have to take on other client work, too. Otherwise, we’d starve. So please have patience. Please hear us and read our messages – we’re not putting you off or slacking in any way. We’re conducting our businesses in a sensible manner and we’re working on your project as much as we’re working on others.
Truce?
Surely they’re pulling your leg. Surely they’re not that oblivious. Please, reassure me. My word.
kk
I’m afraid Kristen will be disillusioned — I’m sure they really are oblivious.
Thanks for catching the bad writing mistake — it was supposed to describe a pizza, not a type of margarita — although, after baking over 700 cookies in the past few days, I’m ready for a margarita, and I wouldn’t care if it tasted like pizza with tequila sprinkled on it!
Devon, you gave me a smile today! I was thinking, “Well, maybe pizza-flavored margaritas would be good!”
Kristen, I wish. Oblivion R Them. I love them to death, but geez. Wake up and read the emails!
Seriously. Maybe they’re in some kind of denial.
Keep us update, haha.
Love, love, love the Dr. Seuss rhyme! I think you seriously should send it along to him. After all the average person does read at an 8th-grade level. If you stoop even lower than that he might actually understand. I think I’ll have to keep that idea in mind for my next difficult client, which I may have as we speak.