T5 How do you deal with difficult clients?

Ohh Good Sometime clients makes us for frustrated.
They often do not like to pay high prices but the way they make changes every now and then does not justify their low prices.

I mostly try to be nice with them and try to make changes when they needed but frankly this is not cool for any digitizer.

Matt Conner
Designer with Quality Punch
www.qualitypunch.com

i'd tell them that if they want it exact, they're going to have to put out the $ for the 60 weight thread....and fleece-boy i'd probably tell him no. it depends on the design and if there are other options and how much "artistic license" they will allow...but if they didn't go for other options, i would say "ok...i'lll do the 3mm lettering for fleece, but since you didn't take my advice there will be an editing fee when you want me to change it because you didn't take my advice that it would SUCK."

i don't think the comment about embroiderers knowing the limitations is fair. i have a lot of customers that send just a couple of designs a year because they're doing stuff for family members, or they're just starting up, or for whatever reason...they don't get it. not yet. i love helping these people out...for the same reason i love helping out people on these boards. i remember, 20.5 years ago, when i was brand new and depended on people like us for advice. i tried to do one of my first designs for my mother (an embroiderer of 100 years who talked me into digitizing). it was the letters SP in a box. i edited that design to death, and she stitched it out probably 30 times. it was awful....and we still laugh about it. i still have it...digitized 5/19/97. i'd post a picture but its too embarassing! :D

tax deductible roadtrip...even better! :D

i don't know anything about advertising agencies and the logos they create...and i would imagine that they don't know anything about digitizing or embroidery either. it sure would be a nice bonus if they did! but i just consider it part of my job. explaining what will work and what won't and give options. i had to redo a bad logo a customer got somewhere else yesterday. there was a larger version and a smaller version. the larger one was fine. the smaller one, they did the tagline in running stitch lettering. ICK! my recommendations:

"so, for the smaller version they have a couple of choices

live with it as an illegible running stitch lettering

i can do it as a smaller satin stitch lettering and it will still be illegible AND you'll get thread breaks

do the top lettering smaller and keep the taglines the same size as the larger one

don't use a smaller version, or

remove the tagline and lose the "INC." on the second line of text on the smaller version so i can make that line a little larger, but they can keep the rest. "

i'd much rather give recommendations for a design that will work up front, than do a design that i know will look or stitch like hell.

they come to us to learn. :D
...and to the lists

yeah...you've gotta start somewhere! i think one of the first big lessons for embroiderer to learn is that great digitizing can make or break a company. not only that, but it can make what is supposed to be a fun adventure into a new business a major headache. if they're just learning embroidery, and have a terrible design, they'll stitch it out, it will look like hell, and they'll have a hard time figuring out what they're doing wrong....when it may not be their fault at all. its hard enough to learn embroidery...much less trying to do it was bad designs. that's why my motto is 'not even the best embroiderer can make a bad design look good'

a customer of mine in KY that i've been working with since 1997 told me a story yesterday. a guy brought in a horribly embroidered shirt. not only was the digitizing awful, but they didn't bother trimming it up and left a huge thing of backing on the inside. he laughed at it and asked where it had come from. his customer told him that he had it done at the embroidery shop on the other side of town. that's now closed.

appreciate the referrals! you heading out for another vacation? :D

i usually tell my customers what will or will not work and offer recommendations/suggestions before i start a design so there are no surprises when they get the design. i'm a big fan of getting it right the first time.

i've only had to "fire" two customers in 20 years. one was because their check bounced every time. the other was because i did a great jacket back design, but they would pick the design to death and kept wanting to make changes to the design that would make it worse. like, removing satin stitch detailing to have the fabric show through instead, etc. i did it for a while until it was obvious that the design was going to end up looking awful and he wasn't getting happier. i just finally told him that i was sorry, that i wasn't able to make him happy and didn't charge him for the design. it was a load off!

sounds like fun! i love road trips. we always try to find weird (cool) unique roadside attractions along the way. jungle jim's grocery store outside of cincinnati is fun. seen a tunnel maze made out of weeping willow branches, a miniature village, etc. check out: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

sorry...not embroidery related.

There are certain limitations for doing business , If he is paying you , you have to do your best to satisfy him . Yeah i remember i did ask my customer to go somewhere else in 2009 , it was a simple logo and he was keep asking for changes to change the width of the outline . then adding some shadows but in the end he came over chat and start abusing where i had to stop him and gently ask to create his account somewhere else . After that he felt sorry for it but never said and its been 7 years now .. getting order on a daily basis .

I have done all of the above.

Fire them, call them out on their difficulty, discussed the situation politely. Charged more money. And in some cases backed off a bit shut up just did it to get them out the door