Are Your Clients Doing Enough to Warrant Your Services?

When you’re a small business, you will most likely try to work with any client you can get. However in the long-term, this can be detrimental as you may not work well with the client, and they may end up wasting a lot of your precious time. Whilst clients are important to you, you are just as valuable to them.

Not long after working with a new client, you may start to realise that there are difficulties with the way that they operate. We look at some of the problems that can occur.

Compromises

Do not be too compromising. Especially if you are a small business. You do not want to be taken advantage of and to have loads of extra tasks piled up, or to be charged a lesser rate than your efforts deserve. Clients may not fully understand how much effort you put in, so make sure you communicate this clearly to reach a fair agreement.

Contingency payment

If your client works with contingency payment, then this may result in your payment taking an age to come through. If your business is small and you cannot afford long waiting times until you are paid, then you may want to consider working with someone who offers retained payment instead.

High expectations

Do you regularly get asked to find those all too difficult candidates who are next to impossible to find, and you end up getting nothing back for it? The more this happens, the more money you lose out on and the more time you waste.

Inconsistency

Do your clients keep changing the goalposts? Fair enough, not everything stays the same, but when it repeatedly happens, this just becomes too time consuming.

Lack of exclusivity

Does the client work with other recruitment agencies without you knowing? Often, you find yourself putting all of your resources into finding a candidate, only to find that out of nowhere, someone else has found a candidate. In some cases, you aren’t even told straightaway if a candidate has been filled for the role.

Communication

Communication may be difficult depending on the client. Keep on top of things by scheduling a regular meeting or phone call.

Honesty

Be honest from the beginning, so you don’t have any misunderstandings further down the line.

Clash of personality

You can’t expect everyone to get on with you, but having someone who you just cannot get along with can be very draining. Maybe there is one person who works for your client that you don’t get along with. See if there is another contact from the company who can be your regular go-to instead.

Hiring process

Do your candidates get a long-drawn out hiring process? Are they asked to complete many job interviews to the extent that the process becomes demoralising?

When considering which clients you should work with, you should also consider the candidate’s perspective. Is your client a good place to work for? Is there a high turnover? If this is the case, maybe you can give the company feedback as to why things are not working out. If they don’t listen, it’s time to think whether they are the kind of team you can consistently work with in the future.

If you have multiple clients, compare your relationship with each of them, to see what works best for you in a working relationship. Make a note of things which are holding you back, and think of who would make your ideal client.

If you don’t feel you can work with your client long-term, then trying to do everything to please them will only hurt you. Unless you are in a position where you have to rely on the services of a troublesome client to keep your business afloat, we recommend that you take a look at whether your clients are helping or hindering your company’s progress.