How Can You Maintain a Positive and Productive Relationship With a Challenging Client?

How Can You Maintain a Positive and Productive Relationship With a Challenging Client?

Navigating the complexities of client relationships can be a daunting task, especially when the client poses a challenge. Drawing on the expertise of client relations professionals, including a Music Producer and a Founder, we've compiled four key pieces of advice. From maintaining open, honest communication to listening and providing candid feedback, these insights are designed to help you foster a positive and productive rapport with even the most demanding clients.

• Maintain Open, Honest Communication
• Focus on Big Picture Mindset
• Practice Patience and Provide Updates
• Listen and Provide Candid Feedback

Maintain Open, Honest Communication

As a music producer, it can be challenging to maintain a positive and productive relationship with a difficult artist. However, one piece of advice I would give is to always keep open and honest communication, even if you're going to tell them something they don't want to hear. It's important to set clear expectations and boundaries from the beginning, and to consistently follow through on them.

In addition, I have found that actively listening and showing genuine interest in their creative vision can help build trust and strengthen the relationship. Overall, by staying professional, transparent, and respectful, while also valuing their input, you can navigate any challenges with your artist clients and maintain a positive working relationship.

Focus on Big Picture Mindset

Keep them focused on the big picture and have them understand their 'mindset' might be hindering their success. I teach them like I tell my kids: 'No one grows in their comfort zone; they are going to need a challenge to grow.' I work mainly with diabetics, so it's easy to keep them focused on diet and improving their condition. I remind them, 'The sacrifices are easier than the consequences.' That usually gets them thinking the right way.

Practice Patience and Provide Updates

To answer this question, let me start from the client's point of view. Every client, be it challenging, wants to be listened to, to be understood, to receive timely project updates, on-time delivery, and commendable results. So here's what I personally practice to handle such clients.

Keep Patience: A challenging client can be impatient, short-tempered, have illogical expectations, and more. The first thing that is my strength in handling such clients is patience. When you have patience, you have everything. When you behave patiently and politely with the client, like any other person, he will get normalized and understand your space as a provider, too.

Provide Client With Timely Updates: The secret is not the big steps but the small ones. Update the client with the project's progress from time to time, after several small steps. This way, the client can tell you about even the minute changes he wants, which not only saves my team's time but also helps us deliver great results to them.

Listen Before Speaking: To understand what the client wants, it is necessary to first listen to what they are saying. When you let them speak and comprehend their words, you will understand where they are coming from. Hence, you will absorb more of what they want instead of what you want. Thus, you can communicate their wants to your project team in a better and more efficient manner.

With these three steps, most of the clients in my career have been more than happy with our services and deliveries. I hope this is helpful for you, thanks!

Listen and Provide Candid Feedback

The best way to maintain a positive and productive relationship with a difficult client is to listen and be real. Hear out their concerns, repeat their concerns back to them so that they truly know you were listening and understand, and then use that to give candid, honest feedback and suggestions, even if this is not the answer the client wants to hear. Doing this will help you build trust because the client will see that you are genuinely trying to help them and not just tell them what they want to hear. If done well, this strategy can turn a challenging relationship into one of the most rewarding, and someone who will become your biggest advocate.