#071 – Do Yourself a Favour
Manage client expectations when you do them favours

Published on October 7, 2019

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A favour is not a favour if no one knows you’re doing them a favour. A good way to manage client expectations is to be upfront when you go above and beyond. When you go beyond the project scope, make sure to tell your clients. You might be surprised when they stop taking you for granted.

Do you feel taken for granted by your clients? Do you feel that they don’t value your time? Do you just say ‘yes’ every time they ask you to do something, even if it’s beyond the project scope and the budget’s run out?

You know it’s not their fault, right? If you keep allowing your clients to undervalue you, then you will be undervalued.

One other common scenario is that one particular low-budget client that keeps adding to the scope (but not the budget) with last-minute requests. Tell us if this sounds familiar.

To diplomatically reduce their demands, you just quickly do it and try to move on. But you can’t move on because the client comes back saying that what you did was not quite right and asks you to redo it. Just to get them off your back, you do it. They then come back and ask for more tweaks, saying ‘if you did it right the first time, you wouldn’t have to do it again’. Now you’re ready to tear your hair out…

You have the power to manage client expectations

Avoid all that angst. How? Simple. NEVER DO FAVOURS without telling them that you are. Do it before you start. Even better put a dollar figure to it and tell them what that is.

Never be taken for granted again.