Assuming you’re passionate about your profession, let’s make one thing clear: you should enjoy the work that you do. If you don’t enjoy your work, that means you have taken on a frustrating project or, worse, a frustrating customer.
That can happen. In fact, it happens a lot. However, that doesn’t mean you have to continue suffering. No matter how many hours you have invested, if a project doesn’t work, it will continue not to work, and you will only experience more grief. Kill it as early as possible. That would be best for both you and the customer.
So, why would you fire a customer? Let’s look at five reasons:
- The customer is abusive. This is an easy one. You should be treated with respect and dignity, and you should not tolerate any kind of abusive language or behavior. Period.
- You don’t get paid on time. You are not a bank. Be willing to bend over backwards for your clients, but they must pay you on time. A customer who doesn’t understand this will hurt your cash flow and, eventually, your business.
- You get phone calls at nights or on weekends, even though you insisted otherwise. People have to respect your time and not act as though they own it. You are selling your professional services, not yourself.
- The scope of the project perpetually increases, but the customer refuses to increase the budget. This happens a lot. You start a logo, and then the client asks you to throw in a website. The responsibility for setting expectations is yours, but if you do that, and the customer still pushes for more without being willing to increase the budget, then you’ll end up with an unprofitable business.
- The customer doesn’t respect you professionally and ignores your recommendations. To stop caring and just take orders from the customer takes all the fun out of a project. It kills your productivity, erodes your portfolio and stunts your skills.
Obviously, an important question is whether you can afford to fire your client. This is a valid concern, and it depends on the circumstances. This goes back to what you value with customers, and so this will vary from company to company.
Ad agencies, graphic designers, animators, directors, illustrators and more took their time out to dress up their favourite worst feedback from clients, transforming words that would normally flinch you, into a diverse collection of posters. Here is the compilation of most ridiculous client comments in the form of creatively and funny posters. Click on each individual picture to enlarge.
