difficulties with clients

[Nick Griffin]

Better late to this party than not making it at all?

I’m not a psychologist (and I don’t play one on TV), but having myself fallen into similar traps in the past, I’d like to add a thought to the discussion.

Oftentimes when we get frustrated and push back against clients in inappropriate ways, it’s because we have allowed a situation to spin out of control. We’re mad at the client and allow it to show on topics other than what has us mad in the first place. I believe the proper term is transference. In your mind you can be mad about how you under-priced the job in the beginning and let others excerpt control even though they’re clueless yet your getting huffy and putting on auteur airs over what color the logo should be. It’s being dishonest to yourself and can cloud your vision in dealing with real issues.

There’s seldom a good reason to be a jerk with clients. Clearly keep in the forefront of your thinking the fact that you are in business. Get the job done in a professional manner as efficiently as possible and move on. For most of us there are many, many more clients out there so extract yourself from the bad ones and get on with it. If you are going to have a disagreement do so based on the actual issues and don’t get all “whiney hiney” (sorry, Mark) because it just reflects poorly on you as a professional. It’s never a good thing to be described as “difficult to work with” even by a grinder.

And finally, thanks Lisa. Thanks for starting a thread with yet another of the issues so many of us face. The Biz COW is a remarkable water cooler for our extended workplace.

[Tim Kolb]

[Nick Griffin] “Oftentimes when we get frustrated and push back against clients in inappropriate ways, it’s because we have allowed a situation to spin out of control. We’re mad at the client and allow it to show on topics other than what has us mad in the first place. I believe the proper term is transference. In your mind you can be mad about how you under-priced the job in the beginning and let others excerpt control even though they’re clueless yet your getting huffy and putting on auteur airs over what color the logo should be. It’s being dishonest to yourself and can cloud your vision in dealing with real issues.”

I’m late into this one as well and I agree completely with Nick (as often happens). Usually handling issues when they START to go off track is much easier. If the question had been asked when the young, brash, yet inexperienced and unskilled interloper arrived…

“Excuse me Mr./Ms. Client, I’m confused since Amy Amateur came on set, she appears to be attempting to direct…is that your intention? I have a much less flexible fee schedule when I’m a camera person/gear rental source as I rarely end up with something I can use on my reel. How would you like to proceed? It really is inefficient to have so many people calling the shots…”

Then you propose quadrupling your fee and letting the upstart lead on…the cliff is ahead. But you’ve been smiling and professional the whole time.

It’s a lot like disciplining kids. It’s far easier to correct when their behavior is a little out of line and you can talk calmly, than it is when the situation has elevated to complete chaos and you have to yell to get their attention…it takes a little more work to address the small issues than to let them pass, but then they don’t become large issues…

—As an aside, I’ve found after 20 years at this that I help myself a bit when I say out loud that a certain piece of input or a recommendation is “…my informed opinion.” when there is a subjective difference of opinion on an aspect of production. I’ve found that it helps me to call it out as subjective and identifies it to the client, producer…whoever. That way when we have a hard and fast issue such as engineering limits on certain color saturation and safe areas, I can also identify that as non-negotiable and it’s credible.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

CPO, Digieffects