Setting limits with a client is also looking after them

The nicest thing you can do for a client is sometimes say no.

It doesn't feel nice. Not for them, and definitely not for you.

But I've come to believe it's one of the few kindnesses that lasts.

The friendly agency trap

When you run a small agency, being friendly is part of the product. You answer fast. You know the client's name, their business, sometimes their dog's name. You do the little extra because it's quick and it makes them happy.

All of that is good. Until it isn't.

The problem with little extras is that they don't stay little. Or extra. A favour done twice becomes a habit. A habit done three times becomes part of the service. And nobody ever wrote it down, so nobody ever priced it.

Then one day you can't keep doing it. And the client, quite reasonably, feels you've taken something away.

You haven't. You just never told them it was a gift.

A limit you never set is still a limit. You just find it at the worst possible moment.

Limits protect the client too

I used to see limits as something I put up to protect myself. My time, my margin, my evenings.

That's true. But it's only half.

The other half is that a client without limits gets a worse service. If we spend the afternoon on one client's favour, someone else's ticket waits. If we bend our prices for one, we have less to invest in what all of them use. If we say yes to a change that touches everything, every other client carries the risk.

A few weeks ago I said no to one request from a client, among several I said yes to. I won't retell it. What stayed with me was how much clearer the yeses became once there was a no next to them.

What I try to do now

Nothing sophisticated. Mostly three habits.

• Say clearly what's included. Before the client has to guess.
• When I do a favour, call it a favour. Out loud. One sentence.
• Never say a bare no. If I can't do something, I try to point at a way to solve the real problem.

I'm not always good at it. My instinct is still to say yes and figure it out later. "Later" is a place where a lot of small agencies go to lose money.

There's a reason I care about this beyond manners. Foxnice runs on clients who stay and pay every month. No investors. That recurring money is what pays for our products. If I quietly give it away in favours, I'm not being generous. I'm being generous with something that isn't only mine.

The nicest thing you can do for a client is sometimes say no.

The second nicest is saying it early.

P.S. Yes, I'm aware this post is me setting a limit with myself. We'll see how it goes.