Business Owners Are Worst Clients
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Business Owners Are Worst Clients
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#2I'd like to see the prompts used here because Claude will simply reinforce whatever conclusion you already reached if your approach to prompting isn't neutral.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#3I own a business and I go out of my way to respect other businesses, because I know how hard it is to own one.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#4I wonder if there's an element of self-selection. The type of people to own a business could be more likely to put up a fight when things don't go their way (e.g. to protect the business and their investments), whereas the typical consumer is more likely to accept things as they are and not fight the business ("whatever, I'll just use another service").
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#5Devil’s advocate: they’re more demanding because, unlike employees, they are not pushovers. They have skin in the game.
You seem to have equated “more likely to terminate with critical comments” to “worst.” Seems pretty reductive.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#6I wonder if there's an element of self-selection. The type of people to own a business could be more likely to put up a fight when things don't go their way (e.g. to protect the business and their investments), whereas the typical consumer is more likely to accept things as they are and not fight the business ("whatever, I'll just use another service").
I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#7Devil’s advocate: they’re more demanding because, unlike employees, they are not pushovers. They have skin in the game. You seem to have equated “more likely to terminate with critical comments” to “worst.” Seems pretty reductive.
They might be entitled people or sociopaths.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#8I own a business and I go out of my way to respect other businesses, because I know how hard it is to own one.
Second that,
Not only respect other businesses but when I am working for one I am aware that every penny they pay me is a negative for their company. So I make sure my work is done as quickly as possible and I don't "milk the clock".
In my experience the worst clients you can spot right away. They are the ones who are trying to get a discount. The work is always too much and it is never good enough. I filter clients by letting them know costs in advance. If they complain or suggest that it is cheaper down the road I politely suggest they find someone else. Otherwise...you end up doing 2x the work for half the price.
Also, if someone advises you should "Do the work at a discount and then it will be good advertising for your company". I suggest either walking away immediately or asking exactly what type of "advertising" they are actually going to be doing. From my experience these people give the worst reviews.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#9I wonder if there's an element of self-selection. The type of people to own a business could be more likely to put up a fight when things don't go their way (e.g. to protect the business and their investments), whereas the typical consumer is more likely to accept things as they are and not fight the business ("whatever, I'll just use another service").
I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.
Damn this hits. My dream is a solo firm where I deal with nobody. I’ll never get there of course because the world runs on relationships.
Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients
#10Devil’s advocate: they’re more demanding because, unlike employees, they are not pushovers. They have skin in the game. You seem to have equated “more likely to terminate with critical comments” to “worst.” Seems pretty reductive.
For that matter—not seeing the source interactions or the prompts—I wonder the extent to which business owners see business relationships as negotiated rather than “picked from the shelf.”
When I’m dealing with small businesses, I tend to explain my frustrations long before I cancel, and offer them a chance to fix them. Whereas with an off-the-shelf product, there’s no point: I say “just cancel my subscription please and thank you.”
I could see that being coded as “confrontational,” but more often than not, I and the vendor fix what’s bothering us and continue with our mutually beneficial relationship.
Oftentimes, I’m not the only customer with that pain, and fixing it with me has the happy side effect of making their product or service more attractive to others too.
By the time I do leave for good, that process has failed, so it doesn’t surprise me that there will be residual reasons for leaving…