Subscriber DC writes:<\/p>\n
“After 23 years as a full-time freelance copywriter, I still
\noccasionally find myself in a difficult situation with a client.<\/p>\n
“As you know, in their terms and conditions, most copywriters
\nstipulate that copy revisions are free of charge, but changes to
\nthe assignment will incur an extra charge.<\/p>\n
“I do this too, but sometimes there can be a slight grey area in
\nwhich a client can argue that a small change to the assignment is
\nactually just another revision. [This incremental additional work
\nis referred to as “scope creep.”]<\/p>\n
“My client did this today, and I’ve ended up effectively working
\n3 extra hours for free. For goodwill I offered to ‘meet halfway’,
\nbut the client — a very large company — now refuses to pay
\nanything above the quoted amount.<\/p>\n
“More than ever, clients know how powerful they are and it looks
\nlike I’ve got to grin and bear this loss. Perhaps there’s a
\nnewsletter article here?”<\/p>\n
Well, this covers two fundamental rules of the service business,
\nboth of which are important.<\/p>\n
The first rule: the time to discuss costs is before they are
\nincurred, not after the fact.<\/p>\n
DC should have given his client a written estimate of the extra
\nhours the rework would take, and gotten them to agree before
\nproceeding.<\/p>\n
Because he did not, I feel the client owes DC nothing for the
\nextra rework.<\/p>\n
The second rule is: if it’s a choice between being too generous
\nto your clients vs. being a hard ass and looking out for yourself
\nfirst, you should err on the side of being too generous.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying you should be a sucker and work for people for
\nfree.<\/p>\n
But it’s almost always better, in case of disagreement or
\ndispute, for the outcome to favor the client, and not you, even
\nif it costs you in time, money, or both.<\/p>\n
Being a large corporation, the client company here could have
\ngiven DC a significant amount of new business — many tens of
\nthousands of dollars — if they continued to use his services.<\/p>\n
Therefore, eating 3 hours of DC’s time is insignificant when
\ncompared to the potential income from this account.<\/p>\n
And when you treat people in business fairly and favorably, word
\ngets around, and you build a reputation for being honest and
\nhonorable.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if DC fights the client on this, he will lose
\nfavor with them, and they won’t continue to use him.<\/p>\n
The great David Ogilvy likened the advertising business to a game
\nof chess and advised, “Guard your King and Queen; let the pawns
\ngo.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subscriber DC writes: “After 23 years as a full-time freelance copywriter, I still occasionally find myself in a difficult situation with a client. “As you know, in their terms and conditions, most copywriters stipulate that copy revisions are free of charge, but changes to the assignment will incur an extra charge. “I do this too, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}