How to Handle Difficult Proofreading Clients

As a professional, handling difficult proofreading clients can be challenging. Understanding how to navigate these situations effectively, however, is crucial for maintaining client relationships and ensuring the success of your proofreading business. 

In this blog post, we explore practical strategies and techniques to handle difficult proofreading clients with professionalism, patience, and grace.

Types of difficult proofreading clients

Relationship management is an essential component of any freelancer’s business, proofreading included. After all, for potential customers, our reputation is almost solely based on what people say about us and our services.

Most clients are great to work with, appreciative of the value a quality proofreader provides, and are more than happy to put in a good word for a valued contractor. Unfortunately, there are bad apples in the world, and we are all bound to have to deal with difficult clients every now and again.

There are many different types of difficult clients, more than can be discussed in a single blog post. Many of them, however, fall into one (or more) of the following categories:

Overly demanding clients

Nothing is good enough for these clients. They always want one more revision. They may also try to get more work out of you without being willing to pay for it.

Clients who don’t pay on time

These are the clients you must constantly remind about overdue invoices. While they usually eventually pay up, a few may not pay at all. Regardless, waiting on an invoice to be paid is stressful and anxiety-producing for the freelancer. 

Unresponsive clients

These are the clients who don’t respond in a timely fashion to legitimate requests. They could be overly busy or just poor managers of their own time. Either way, trying to deliver top-quality proofreading work without timely input from the client can lead to challenges.

Scammers

Unlike the difficult clients listed above, scammers are not legitimate clients at all. Rather, they are actively trying to steal from you. You can read more about how to avoid scammers in this blog post.

Strategies for handling difficult proofreading clients

It’s never fun to deal with difficult people, whether in your personal or business life. But as regards proofreading clients, there are some things you can do to work with such clients.

Stay professional and courteous

No matter what, be professional. Always take the high road and treat every client with courtesy and respect, even if you don’t personally care for them or their actions toward you. You are the face of your proofreading business, and you need to treat your customers in the same way you would want to be treated.

Try to find common ground

If possible, try to work with the client to find a path forward that everyone can agree on. Perhaps there are process or communication improvements that can be made that will eliminate their frustration. Maybe there is a difference in expectations or values that could be addressed. Don’t discount the idea that the issue could be as simple as miscommunication, misunderstanding, or misalignment between parties.

Escalate when the situation warrants

Although likely not the first step to take, sometimes escalation is warranted. If your client is a business, you might need to get a manager involved to help resolve an issue. If you are contracted via a platform like Upwork and the client is violating the terms of service, you may need to report them to the site. If the client skips out on paying you, you may need to investigate bringing a lawsuit or taking them to small claims court. (In this event, be sure to talk with a lawyer, and know that if the bill is small, it may cost you more to recover it than it’s worth, in which case you could be better off eating the loss.)

Avoiding difficult proofreading clients

The old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is true with respect to client relationship management too. The best way to handle difficult clients is to avoid working with them in the first place.

There are several strategies to consider to avoid challenging clients.

Set clear expectations from the beginning

Before ever agreeing to perform work, take the time to hash out the scope of work, the pay rate and frequency, expected turnaround times and availability, or anything else that is crucial for the job. Do your best to ensure that both parties are on the same page when it comes to expectations going in.

Have a signed contract before you start the work

The best way to ensure a common understanding between yourself and a client is to create and sign a contract. (For small, one-off projects, a contract may be overkill, depending on your appetite for risk.) You should have a boilerplate proofreading contract on file that you can tweak for each client or job. A simple way to do this is to sign up for a free seven-day account at LawDepot.com and download any contract templates you might need. (Just don’t forget to cancel your account within the seven-day window!) 

Research the client

Freelance contracts are a two-way street. The client has the choice to work with you, but you also have the choice to work with the client. If possible, see what other freelancers or employees say about working for the client. Do they have a history of positive interactions or negative ones? Consider your initial interactions with the client too. Do they seem like a genuinely good person to work with, or are there any red flags with what or how they communicate? If there is any doubt, you can choose to walk away—there will always be other clients and opportunities.

Ending a contract with a difficult proofreading client

Sometimes you cannot resolve an issue with a difficult client, or you may get to the point where it is no longer worth the time and effort to continue working with them. 

Try raising rates first

One option to consider in this case is to tell the client you need to raise your rates. There may very well be situations where dealing with issues isn’t worth $20 per hour but might be worth $40 per hour. Additionally, if you have a discussion with the client about raising rates and they demur, you now have an easy out to end the contract.

End the contract with grace and professionalism

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that you are equals with your client. Either of you has the power to end a contract in the event that things are not working out. If it ends up that walking away from a difficult client is the best option for you, be sure to do it with grace and professionalism. Give them notice (a week is plenty) and fulfill all of your existing obligations. Be kind but firm.

Wrapping it up

Handling difficult proofreading clients requires patience, professionalism, and effective communication skills. This post highlights strategies you can adopt in your proofreading businesses for more successful client relationships.

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