jhferguson
New member
@celtish "awwww, I wish I could!"
"I can't do that. I finished it under budget (14 hours)."
"I don't rush things bc I do them right and guarantee my work."
"No. That's not what we agreed to. "
"My costs have risen significantly and I can't do discounts"
"I don't offer discounts bc it wouldn't be fair to my other clients."
"I'm very transparent with my pricing and the price is the price."
"I've given you my best possible price."
A lot here are telling you to change your pricing structure (by offering discounts) or your estimates (by doing project totals and not hourly). I don't think you should do that if it's only four customers a year.
You gotta shift your mindset so that those customers don't upset you as much. Put yourself in sales/customer service mode when dealing with them. Empathize, act like you really wish you could, play the small business owner guilt trip, or act confused bc you signed a contract why are they trying to change it. Or pretend like they made a joke. "Hahahaha I wish. Will that be cash or check?" Lol
Don't offer a discount. Don't reward their behavior.
I think bargaining/negotiating can be cultural and a lot of people are raised to do it in every situation. Don't take it personally. Most are just shooting their shot and will be fine when you say no. If they are threatening a bad review over it, they are awful people and you can call them out in response to their review. If they threaten that, ask if you can get their threat in writing, or say this conversation isn't productive and end it.
Edit to add another thing I remind clients is that my pricing structure doesn't allow for discounts. I flat out tell them" yeah I could give huge discounts if I jacked my rates up, but I'd rather give a low price all year round to everybody and keep it simpler for the customer. "
"I can't do that. I finished it under budget (14 hours)."
"I don't rush things bc I do them right and guarantee my work."
"No. That's not what we agreed to. "
"My costs have risen significantly and I can't do discounts"
"I don't offer discounts bc it wouldn't be fair to my other clients."
"I'm very transparent with my pricing and the price is the price."
"I've given you my best possible price."
A lot here are telling you to change your pricing structure (by offering discounts) or your estimates (by doing project totals and not hourly). I don't think you should do that if it's only four customers a year.
You gotta shift your mindset so that those customers don't upset you as much. Put yourself in sales/customer service mode when dealing with them. Empathize, act like you really wish you could, play the small business owner guilt trip, or act confused bc you signed a contract why are they trying to change it. Or pretend like they made a joke. "Hahahaha I wish. Will that be cash or check?" Lol
Don't offer a discount. Don't reward their behavior.
I think bargaining/negotiating can be cultural and a lot of people are raised to do it in every situation. Don't take it personally. Most are just shooting their shot and will be fine when you say no. If they are threatening a bad review over it, they are awful people and you can call them out in response to their review. If they threaten that, ask if you can get their threat in writing, or say this conversation isn't productive and end it.
Edit to add another thing I remind clients is that my pricing structure doesn't allow for discounts. I flat out tell them" yeah I could give huge discounts if I jacked my rates up, but I'd rather give a low price all year round to everybody and keep it simpler for the customer. "