Speaker 1: Today on The Journey, we're going to talk about how to manage client expectations and set boundaries. Have you ever found yourself in one of these situations? Let's say you're at the dinner table for family gathering and you have to go excuse yourself to respond to a client via email, or you missed your son's soccer game because you're responding to a client or their needs.

Speaker 2: You may feel like these are just really bad clients. You may have thought these are bad clients, but it really comes down to the expectations and boundaries that you've set with your clients or forgot to set with them. As a freelancer, you really want your clients to like you. That means you're probably going to end up jumping when they say jump, and how high, and doing things you don't want to be doing.

Speaker 1: Totally. Plus, to get that testimonial. You might cave to your client's request and not stand your ground just because you want that end result. Good testimonial, a good client referral.

Speaker 2: That's social proof. We all want it, right? You might be finding yourself doing things that you never agreed upon doing because they're like, cool, also I need this, and I need this, and I need this. Then if this goes on too long, you begin to resent your client and your future clients. Then you start getting mad and placing blame and blah, blah, blah. You think they are just terrible,

Speaker 1: terrible clients. Yeah, so if you don't set these clear expectations and these boundaries with your clients, you're teaching your clients to just keep on asking, keep on requesting more, keep on pushing back. Then what happens to you? You just keep saying yes, keep saying yes. I got to know what are some best practices to really set the clear

Speaker 2: expectations with your client. All right, so let's start off with just general response times. You really want to set the expectation of how long you're going to respond to a client, whether that's 24 to 72 hours, between eight and five, Monday through Friday, what that looks like. Otherwise, they're going to send you that email and expect an immediate reply. It doesn't matter if you're eating dinner. It doesn't matter if you're at your kid's soccer game. It doesn't matter what you're doing because if you don't set that expectation, they expect you to be at their

Speaker 1: beckon call. Yeah, and then here comes the next day, rise and shine, and you have a client that's

Speaker 2: dissatisfied and unhappy with you. Yeah, and I would probably get in the habit of not responding right away to client emails, even if you have the capacity to, because then they're just going to expect you to reply that quick every time. Set a time frame on it. Give yourself that bit of breathing room so it really helps basically train your clients to know when you respond.

Speaker 1: Yeah, or you could even respond maybe in the moment that it's fresh, but have the email actually send a scheduled time, a later date. Yeah. Okay, so what about when clients decide they want to change the scope of things? Like, hey, that video that we were going to do originally, five minutes, now the client comes to you and says, it needs to be 10 minutes long

Speaker 2: in duration. Plus, we need these cool graphics and we need all these special effects. Sounds like something we would do. We're not going to change the budget. That's called scope creep. So it happens a lot when you don't set expectations of what you'll actually be doing and the parameters within that. Clients can expect the world, right? So when you're talking to your clients and when you're setting expectations, you really want to lay out the services that you offer and what extra services are, right? So if they do want extra things, whether it's that extra five minutes or graphics or all these cool things, set an hourly rate or set whatever that quote would look like. So they know if this project goes beyond, say, the deadline or the features, whatever it is, they know up front that, hey, it's going to cost them extra and the deadline

Speaker 1: might stretch. I like that too, because then it does give you that chance to branch out, be more creative. Right. I hate to put a leash on creativity. Yeah, that way they know if we

Speaker 2: need to grow, we can. We absolutely have that option. But here are the options and this is how

Speaker 1: we will go about it and have that clearly stated. So it sounds like communication is pretty key, right, Nealey?

Speaker 2: What? Oh, communication. Yes, we're talking about that. So communication is key and it goes both ways. There are deadlines that you have to hit as the small business owner or freelancer, side hustle, whatever you are. The same goes for the client, right? So they may have to give you content for their website by one week and then images for the next one. Whatever that looks like, you have to be up front with those expectations and clearly communicate. Don't pull a Nealey.

Speaker 1: So something I mentioned with like the email example or, yeah, you might respond right away, but you don't actually send the response until later. It kind of ties into the tip of like, respect your time. Think about what expectations you want to set with your client. And one thing I like to do is when it comes to meetings, always be on time. And that sets the right example for your client as well. And to respect your time that you're giving that. Yeah. Show your client

Speaker 2: that your time is valuable, but also their time is valuable too. Both. Set it both ways, right? Goes back and forth. So set some ground rules and some boundaries of when it's appropriate to contact each other, the response times, all these things. That way there's a cohesive, just clear communication. That's the word. I can't communicate. I'm working on it. Now going forward with setting those expectations and just those boundaries, you want to let your customer know or your client know that you're going to be consulting along the way, along this journey, right? Now you don't expect them to do everything you tell them to, but you should set the expectation that they should have an open mind or at least engage in the conversation. Because at the end of the day, you are the expert and you have experience to share and they should at least hear what you're saying and then go from there.

Speaker 1: Totally. I know at GoDaddy Social, one thing when we onboard a customer, we let them know like, hey, you're going to have a call with your dedicated account manager who you can consult. So as we're managing your Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, responding to Yelp reviews, Google reviews. Yeah, we do all that. You have an actual account manager that you can check in with and review like, what are the results of all the work you guys are doing for me? So you as a customer can see and have those conversations. I love that. Especially because, you know, social media, it's like the ROI can get a little blurry for a local business owner. Like, how do you measure this? So I love the ongoing consultation that you can have throughout. Now, this one might be a

Speaker 2: little tough to do, but you have to let your customer or your client know that you like to deal with nice people and you're not going to tolerate if they're going to be rude, offensive, vulgar, or anything that is just not okay, right? And if they do, you're going to tell on them. But no, seriously, you want to set some ground rules that you're going to respect them and you

Speaker 1: expect for them to respect you. Yeah. And also embrace different communication types. Like, what are your expectations there? Are you going to be communicating with your client predominantly via email or on the phone or video call? We do a lot of video calls. Yeah. Or are you going to meet in person? People still do that, ironically enough.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And you don't want someone showing up at your house at like 10 o'clock saying, hey, I have a problem. I need you to solve it. That's a boundary I have to set right now. I'm

Speaker 1: going to stop coming to my house. Yeah. That's the wrong communication type. It's also

Speaker 2: the wrong time of day. With setting boundaries with your client, you want to make sure that you relay the work required for them to do and in the medium that you request it. So like me, when I was a freelancer, when I was trying to get content just from my clients, I would have them upload all their images, their brand assets to the local OneDrive folder. That way I can access it. They can update stuff and go from there. So I would request that. Now, if they ask me, if they just sent it to me via email, I would direct them back to the Drive folder that I've shared with them saying, hey, to keep everything super organized and make sure nothing gets lost, please to the left. That's right. To the left, to the Drive folder.

Speaker 1: So also you need to be clear about the participation required from your client. You need feedback from them, right? Input, revisions. You need to have that communication in order to grow with that client. Sounds a lot like a marriage. A little bit. And so the benefits of all of this, setting the right expectations and the right boundaries for you and your client really sets you up for longevity and success in that relationship.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And you're going to start to feel like you have less and less bad clients because you're setting the right expectations, setting the right boundaries. Most of the time, they're going to respect you and follow those expectations and boundaries.

Speaker 1: Then those bad clients are just gone. All right. That's a wrap. You just learned how to manage client expectations and set boundaries. Be sure to like, comment and

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