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Client Expectations: How to Manage Pushy Clients

When do you bill for work not directly related to your documentation? For many Consultants and Small Business Owners the thorny issue of how (and when) to manage all the associated ‘non-writing’ costs can be a tricky area.

Project Plan - Identify all project tasks

For example:

1. Do I charge for every email, every meeting, every conference call...?

2. Every phone call?

3. Where do you draw the line?

In other words, do you charge for activities not related to the actual writing?

Examples of such areas include scheduling, requirements gathering, meetings, email queries, phone calls, phone calls, and more phone calls.

Billing Clients - What Can You Bill For?

What to do when a client demands time on issues not directly related to the project?

How do you say, "I don't think another meeting is necessary?"

Are Administration Tasks Billable?

Well, Yes and No.

When you first start with a client, you need to build up some rapport and develop trust. This takes time and doesn't happen overnight.

At some point in your relationship, you need to brief your client on how you operate.

For example, if the project is for a fixed fee, then you need to schedule your time (and the clients) so that you come in on time... and generate some income. If you go over-schedule, you both lose.

For long-term projects, you need to discuss with your client how work with items such as reports and meetings.

Obviously, you need to keep your client onside, but at some point you need explain that these take time, and time is money etc.

Once you've both discussed this --- and are in agreement --- then if the client requests another meeting/report, remind them in a nice way that this will be invoiced (or factored into the final invoice).

Note: Unethical though it may be, it is not unusual for companies to side step this thorny issue by increasing charges for the documentation and burying the admin costs inside.

We've all encountered clients who genuinely believe that non-documentation tasks should not billable, i.e. that you should take the hit for visiting their offices, creating reports, giving free advice and so forth.

During a project, keep everything transparent by sending them a line-item invoice for the time you have spent to date. This will build trust and establish your credibility.

What to do when Clients Phone Phone Phone

We can all get frustrated when clients call up every day wanting to know how the document is going. Calls, emails, more calls. But, if you understand why they do this, and how to manage it, it gets easier.

Some clients are simply interested in the process of how documentation is produced.

Others will try to micro-manage *you* as they are unsure of your abilities, especially during your first project.

Or it could be something very different that you are unaware of.

One approach to remedy this is to send a Project Progress Report (aka Status Reports) at the end of each week. Any question they have can be checked against the report. Of course, if you don’t have a schedule or send status reports, you are inviting all of this on yourself.

When they call, explain that you are progressing according to the schedule and everything is on track (assuming that it is!).

There won’t be too many queries then, unless they want to change the project specs, which is a change control issue.

Gentle Reminders

If the client persists with queries, ask them very politely which is more critical: another meeting or completing the work on time.

Suggest (i.e. hint) that another set of meetings could put the project over-budget. Most managers will want to avoid this happening.

Your Time Versus Client's Time

If you’re still confused when to bill for admin work, consider the following:

Writing the project schedule is part of the project – it's for the client.
Preparing a status report is billable if the client requested it.
All meetings are billable, providing that your client has agreed to this.

Note: Never bill for the initial consultation meeting

Lastly, make sure that you have covered all this in your proposal, and that they have agreed to it. If not, you need to consider if this is a risk worth taking.