In our 15th take at Client Horror Stories, Collin Slattery, founder, and CEO of Taikun Inc. brings us a story approached not too dramatically, but rather as a learning experience for everyone who was a part of it (and, obviously, us as well!). Today’s tale gives us a lesson on how good students are the ones that don’t need an atomic bomb of a client in order to pick up a bunch of good lessons on how to manage them.
Collin’s narrative takes us to August 2020, very deeply diving into the pandemic craziness and a client who, no matter how hard he tried to change his mind, simply believed that advertising would solve every single one of his problems. But of course, advertising was not a magic success potion for their business, and so our story smoothly turns into micromanaging meets blaming marketing for everything mess.
Today’s episode leaves us with a sour taste in our mouths, and more than a lot of lessons to take notes on, such as: “In some situations, techniques that worked for everyone else, simply won’t do it”, “ABT: Always be testing everything you do”, and our personal favorite “If a client wants to do something, even though you insisted that it was not a good idea, have them sign a document where they agree that the did it against your professional advice”.
That time when you’ve already spent $5 million only to be told they couldn’t commit (with Brandon Kirkpatrick)
That time when you’re trying to complete a massage only to be met with someone expecting you to do special services (with Suzy Hardy)
That time when you accidentally hire a psychopath who derails your business (with Robert Indries)
That time when you expected a fully formatted book for publication but ended up receiving a PPT presentation instead (with Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell)
That time when the boss used us as training troops to drop his telephone sales bombshell (with Catherine Llewellyn)
That time when you just want to complete a project but cultural differences get in the way so you end up abandoning the project halfway through (with Colin Duff)
That time when you performed a routine investigation only to find out that the billing error was close to $40 million dollars (with Sam Drauschak)
That time when you thought you landed your miracle client and ended up in the depths of court’s hell… (with Ameet Khabra)
That time when you thought you’d receive a whole box of fully functional goodies but get slapped with the reality that you aren’t part of their inner circle to deserve it (with Irina Poddubnaia)
That time when you’ve been working your butt off for a project but your client decides to disappear off the face of the earth because he can no longer afford to pay (...) (with Sherrilynne Starkie)
That time when your client had a meltdown about her bridal look and you ended up not getting paid (with Kelsey Knutson)
That time when your client forgot to disconnect her Facebook and Instagram accounts but you unintentionally saw spicy “tea” from her DMs (with Anika Jackson)
That time when your client wanted to retire early, but his wife was spending $8k a month while he spent only $2k (with Robert Persichitte)
That time when you stepped in to put out the fires in a project, only to have the head of the project play matches and throw gasoline everywhere (with Mark Herschberg)
That time when your client didn’t pay his bill, and you ended up getting a 1000 word text from his new wife instead (with Matt Davis)
That time when your client and his business partners just assumed that each of them know what to do to build a high-rise building (with Jeremy Streten)
That time when your client was super happy to get a negative headline on UK’s biggest tabloid because to them, it’s still brand exposure (with Divya Patel)
That time when your client was upset about why she was in a small podcast, that only got 10,000 downloads for her episode (with Tom Schwab)
That time when a customer frequently visits your workplace and uses the “quality control” card to eat free cupcake samples (with Braden Cadenelli)
That time when the web guy suddenly went MIA because he’s going through an existential crisis (with Timi Orosz)
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