What? you say. Can clients really be wrong when the customer is always right?
Uh, yes.
Recently I had a situation with a client in which he thought I said one thing when emails clearly showed I had said nothing of the sort. It was obvious there was confusion. What wasn’t obvious, to him at least, was that he was alone in that confusion. But how do you tell someone who’s hired you (and able to fire you just as easily) that the mistake isn’t yours, but his?
By now you’ve probably discovered the fine art of CYA – cover your… you know. You have emails and notes, right? While the emails will back you up, what if what he thinks you said is something that occurred on the phone? Notes are great, but little nuances are lost. Tape the conversations if you must and let the client know you’re doing so – it’s a nice backup to email.
Okay, so let’s assume this was an email exchange. How do you prove you’re innocent? That’s easy enough. But how do you show him his mistake without ruffling feathers?
What I did was to express my own confusion and claim honestly that I didn’t recall what he recalled. He thought errors in his copy were my doing, but files he sent originally clearly showed the error – one I’d never have known was an error – was there from the start. I simply thanked him for bringing the issue to my attention, and I forwarded back to him the original copy, saying I received this, was this a previous unedited version that perhaps slipped through on his side, and what could I do to help?
The key is to stay out of blaming each other. Sure, it wasn’t your mistake, but you’re not here to judge. You’re here to help him sort it out and get back on track.
How have you handled this?
Kudos, savvy biz woman. You are a natural born politician. Running for office anytime soon? 🙂
One of the reasons I don’t do most work on the phone, but insist on everything via written word is just that.
When I do have a phone conversation, I send up an immediate email detailing the conversation, to make sure we’re in agreement.
Devon, I do the same. However, in this instance, the client interjected something he was certain I’d told him – it was another project he was working on that I wasn’t privy to, and he claimed I’d told him something specific to that project. It’s damn tough to convince them they’re wrong when you have no proof of a conversation that never existed. I know he’s mixed me up with someone else, so I stated my “huh?” as diplomatically as possible.
Angie, I’d go nowhere near the political arena lest my affiliation with other chocolate addicts becomes a point of contention… ;))
Although I have to grit my teeth while doing so, I find taking the high road and avoiding finger pointing is the best policy. As long as you can say that you were professional through and through (and oftentimes the other person can’t say as much about themselves), you’ll come out triumphant in the end. You handled it gracefully!
I agree with you, amanda nicole. I had a miscommunication with a client once like that and had to grit my teeth to keep from pointing out the miscommunication really started. I just smiled and made the changes he requested. Then I made sure to communicate by email on all projects from that point on. The lessons we learn…