Post: #1

I'm looking for some opinions from others that work on a fee for knowledge basis (consultants, lawyers, accountants, love tourists etc) on how to deal with cheap clients. I work as a consultant and every week I get emails or phone calls from customers who I did a project for months ago with questions like "how does this work" "how should I code this" "what does this mean" "what should i do".

I have no problem answering short unrelated questions from my good clients but these people make me feel like I'm just getting played for answers. How do you guys deal with it?

Post: #2

Start invoicing them for your time. If a question takes 30 minutes to answer, bill them for .5 hours.

9 out of 10 times they will ignore the invoice and never call you again.

Post: #3

redacted

Post: #4

I HATE HATE HATE these types. They're always the ones who generate you the least amount of revenue too.

Post: #5

Great thread. I have been looking to hear from others as to how they handle these types of situations.

Also, any comments would be welcome on handling distant acquaintances or family friends who try to hit you on the spot for advice.

I have been terrible at dealing with these scenarios.

Worst part is, they get the information so easily from me, that they don't appreciate it as the $100-$300 worth of value that they just received for free.

Post: #6

I get this all the time for computer related things. I get retarded phone calls asking how to do things on the PC or iPhone.
I don't mind helping my friends. I usually fix their shit for free. But they start to expect free house calls after a while.

It's not a big deal for me to format and reinstall Windows and recover some files for them if I have their PC at my place.
Most things take a few minutes to to do but take hours to complete. Like Doing Windows updates. If I'm home I can
start it off and leave it running overnight and it's done the next morning. But it's a trap doing it at their place cause
you're stuck there for 4 hours or more fucking with it.

Post: #7

If it's the same questions, why not write a couple of short ebooks on common topics. "you're in luck, I just finished my guide on XYZ and Im happy to offer it to you at a discount". They'd probably be happy to buy from you - then you've done the work once, and you can sell it over and over as an upsell to clients with common problems in the future. Productize your service bro!

Post: #8

I just say I'll get back to them and never do. If they're really insistent, I tell them I'm going to have to bill if it's over 30 minutes.

For good friends, i give a little more leeway but I was pretty pissed when I gave 3 days of free work to a friend when I was teaching myself a new statistical technique. I even said I'll come in to explain the analysis in person that week since I was between jobs. 3 months later and after I got a new job, he asked me to write up and explain the analysis again since they lost the write up and don't know how to interpret the data. I just ignored it and he forget or felt too uncomfortable to bring it up.

Post: #9

If there's a strong demand for advice on whatever you're doing, you might consider starting some kind of blog or newsletter. That way you can turn the answers to the clients that you like into usable content to throw at the ones you don't like. It could up your profile, get you new business, or get you speaking gigs or magazine pieces.

Post: #10

Great opinions so far, much appreciated. I already do plenty of speaking gigs (sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on the planet that enjoys public speaking) but the free stuff tends to be way too specific to cover if I had a book or blog or seminar.

Most of the time its book keeping or accounting related like "Ok, so if I bought two tennis shoes, returned one and then run on the other 50% of the time for personal use and then 50% of the time for work use how do I code that with the software I use, and oh I already tried to do it already and fucked it up so how do I fix it too"

I'm pretty partial to warning an inquirer that if its going to take more than 30 minutes I will have to bill them.

Post: #11

A lawyer owes every client the duty of providing competent representation and the duty of acting with reasonable dilligence. This duty exists even if the "client" has not paid the lawyer or even if the "client" has not signed a written agreement with the lawyer. If a "client" claims that a lawyer did something which was unethical, it doesn't matter if the "client" didn't pay the lawyer anything. What matters is whether or not a client/attorney relationship was formed. It is therefore extremely important to be able to sniff out moochers and tell them to go fuck themselves and/or ignore them completely.

In my opinion, the only people who may be worthwhile for me are people who have criminal charges pending, people who actually suffered injuries in automobile accidents, and people who are going through a divorce and/or custody battle. Everyone else is automatically a moocher as far as I am concerned. I realize that many people need wills drawn and need immigration help, but I wouldn't touch wills with a ten-foot pole. That area of the law breeds "friends" and/or family members who are exercising undue influence over persons who are not mentally competent. For the vast majority of people who seek immigration assistance, nothing can be done because of the way the law is.

People who approach me in public and claim to need a lawyer are never worthwhile. If a person has the means to hire a lawyer, do you think that person would go to court without a lawyer and approach strangers to ask them questions? The answer is no. If a person has the means to hire a lawyer, would he appoach some guy sitting in a bar who is looking at an Athens, Greece Data Sheet on his cell phone and start asking him for advice? Never. People who need lawyers find them through friends, family members, mailed solicitations, the internet, and television and radio advertising. No exceptions. Everyone else is automatically a moocher and should be avoided.

My radar is pretty good as far as being able to detect moochers who call me. Every person who calls me and immediately after I answer the phone asks me how much I charge is a waste of time and I usually hang up when they ask me that. People who do not mention money at all during the initial phone call are usually worthwhile and very seldom flake. People who call me and don't initially mention money, but ask me about my fees later in the conversation, are usually moochers and very often flake. People who talk extremely slow during that initial telephone conversation are often moochers and flakes and usually do not show up if I tell them to come in.

I don't charge consult fees. People with personal injury cases or criminal cases need lawyers and it is very important that I get them into my office as soon as I can. I would scare many of them away with the consult fee and they would end up somewhere else within an hour. Family law clients are another story. Many of them are still living in the same house as their wife or husband and are merely thinking about getting divorced. Many of those people never separate from their spouses and merely spend years trying to waste lawyers' time. These types often call and ask me whether or not I charge a consult fee and I generally scare them away by telling them that I do.

I don't make appointments with people. By telling a potential client that I will be meeting with him or her in a week, I would merely be giving him or her the opportunity to find someone else before making it to my office. The flaking epidemic which has occurred with the advent of smart phones and facebook also applies in a business context. If I don't get people in immediately after they make that initial phone call, there is a good chance that they will flake. Many lawyers and other professionals still haven't learned that.

(10-25-2012 05:27 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  Moocher, "Say man, you a lawyer right? yeah man, I was over @ the grocery store and I saw a roach in the potato salad. You think I gotta case?"

This made me laugh. The variation I got was some guy who told me, "I opened up a can of Orange Crush and it had a fingernail in it. Do you think I have a case"? This was a few years ago. Maybe the guy who asked me that put a gun to his head by now and did us all a favor.

Post: #12

The appointment flaking is interesting. I haven't had that with business clients but I do remember when I was working at a place where we had to do a bunch of seasonal hiring by about 2006 the amount of flaking that was done, even after people had accepted job offers got to be pretty ridiculous. We had to pull an airline move and start overbooking jobs and then fire a couple people after the first few weeks.

Post: #13

(10-28-2012 07:32 AM)wiscanada Wrote:  The appointment flaking is interesting. I haven't had that with business clients but I do remember when I was working at a place where we had to do a bunch of seasonal hiring by about 2006 the amount of flaking that was done, even after people had accepted job offers got to be pretty ridiculous. We had to pull an airline move and start overbooking jobs and then fire a couple people after the first few weeks.

He's does PI and criminal work, you deal with a lot of retards in that area of law. I used to do some criminal law and you'd always ask for a retainer up front because they'll change their mind really fast.

Business clients tend to be better clients but it takes more effort to win them over.