Re: Apathetic clients

At 05:58 PM 2/26/00 -0800, Betsy Girouard wrote:

[snip]

>Does ANYONE have some advise on:
>How to keep the client active (continue to submit updates, etc)
>How to make the client continue to pay for activity ( if not under a
>maintenance agreement)
>How to spare my (well-earned) good reputation if they don't....?
>Or even: How to get rid of em' without looking like the bad "guy" (I
>live in a small town)

I couldn't tell from your e-mail if you'd had much face-to-face contact 
with these clients.  Perhaps, instead of just sending letters or e-mail, 
you should try to make an appointment, either for a phone conversation or 
an F2F meeting?  It's easy to ignore a letter or e-mail, but it's harder to 
ignore someone staring at you from the other side of your desk.

If your clients are in a competitive market (and who doesn't think they 
are?), it might be appropriate to mention what their competition is doing 
with their web sites.  Phrase it as diplomatically as you can, of course, 
and express it as a concern for their bottom line, something like, "You 
hired me to establish your online presence, and I'm worried that you're 
looking bad because you have a cobweb site."  Be tactful, but firm.  In 
some cases, it may be appropriate to forward the complaining e-mails, since 
these are, after all, coming from potential customers!  If this doesn't 
persuade them, you may have to face up to the fact that they don't consider 
their web site an important marketing tool ... and if they aren't valuing 
the web site, they're not too  about you or your expertise.

As far as continuing to pay when not under a maintenance agreement--well, 
the best thing to do is probably establish one.  Point out (tactfully!) 
that your time and skills can't come free, and if they value you, they'll 
pay you.  If they refuse to consider a maintenance agreement, you might 
want to use that as an excuse to bow out gracefully.

Regarding cutting out the dead wood, I have a (recently ex) client who 
never gave me authoritative feedback for *months*.  The most responsive 
contact I had at that company liked what I did, but admitted that she 
didn't have the clout to give the official yea/nay.  So I tried e-mailing, 
writing, faxing, and phoning her boss, who had signed the contract in the 
first place.  No response.  I wrote stronger letters--"I have not heard 
from you in X weeks, and am concerned--but to no avail.  I wasn't able to 
reach the boss on the phone because he was often out of town, which also 
ruled out the possibility of that F2F meeting I suggested above.  Finally, 
last month I wrote that since I had not received any feedback about the 
site in X months (almost a year, I think it was), I was forced to conclude 
that there was no longer a need for my services, and that I was invoking 
the 30-day "no-fault divorce" article of our contract (either party may 
cancel the contract with a 30-day written notice to the other party for any 
reason at all).  Three weeks went by.  No response.  I sent a 1-week 
warning letter informing them again that as of such-and-such date, their 
site would be yanked from our lab space and the files returned to them to 
use as they saw fit.  No response.  So, ex-client.

(In re-reading the above, I realize it sounds as if I was obsessed about 
this client, which isn't the case.  A lot of the letters of inquiry I sent 
were practically identical, with very minimal changes.  And of course, 
while all this was happening, I was working on other projects and dealing 
with clients who actually cared about their web sites.)

Your best way to protect your reputation is to be as polite and 
PROFESSIONAL as you possibly can.  No threatening letters.  No insults.  No 
whining.  Set clear, firm deadlines, and *stick to them*.

Good luck!

Rachel
--------------------------------------------
Rachel R. Hartman, Co-Owner
Hartman WebWrights - http://www.hww.com (512) 989-7844
Affordable, hand-crafted web pages for your company's needs

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