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View Full Version : How do you help someone without giving away your services?



jamesray50
09-16-2012, 09:43 PM
I have people that email me with questions asking how to do this or how to do that? I don't mind answering a simple question, but enough is enough. I recently had someone email me. She was the treasure for her daughter's preschool but knew nothing about the software they were using. She asked me some questions about it. I directed her to some free training webinars and I answered some simple basic questions. Then she emailed me again saying how she was going to do something a particular way, was it the right way, I replied back no, and then told her how she should do it. She emailed me again thanking me, she was so grateful, saying she didn't know what she would do without me, blah, blah, blah. Then she asked another question. And she was going to ask the board to pay for my consulting services. She emailed me again, the board wouldn't pay for my services but she would pay herself, so we set up an appointment. Then she asked another question. I answered. The appointment was the next day. It was for remote training and I had sent her a link to install Team Viewer and my phone number. Half hour after our appointment was to start I received an email that she was cancelling. Seems like there is a mother at the school that is "very, very, good" with the software and she is going to teach her. I was so mad. I sent her an invoice for an hours time. I don't expect to get paid, but I wanted her to know that my time is valuable.

She sent me an email and wanted to see in writing where I charged for email assistance and canceled appointments. I told her that I didn't have it in writing, but that I also didn't assist with more than one email, the only reason I did with her was because she had said she was going to hire me, and that I had cleared a block of time to work with her and that rather than call me before the scheduled time to cancel, she waited half hour after the scheduled time to inform me by email. I told her I didn't like being taken advantage of.

I really don't know if I want to answer any more emails.

Sorry this is so long. I really wanted to get this off my chest. Thanks.

Pack-Secure
09-17-2012, 12:05 AM
Wow, that is a hard one. If you don't answer questions, people will not appreciate being blown off, but if you do answer then you may get stuck like what happened. I do not envy your situation. We answer questions all day long about our machinery and sometimes people go with our competition that just didn't have the answers, so they pumped us for information and used the other company, frustrating to say the least. I write it off as good customer service and just move onto the next set of questions.

Business Attorney
09-17-2012, 12:07 AM
What you described happens to me on a fairly regular basis, except that I usually spend the time on the phone rather than email. For me that is worse because with email I can at least do it during my off hours. Often I'll take a phone call in the middle of the afternoon and 20 minutes later kick myself for having pushed everything that I needed to get done that day back by 20 minutes.

I don't mind helping people, even people who are clearly never going to be a client. I often get calls where my best advice is to forget hiring a lawyer and move on. I'll often spend 10 or 15 minutes just explaining to people some legal concept like defamation, breach of contract or proving economic loss, and why spending money to pursue a claim is not the wisest choice. It's poor time management on my part, but I feel like it is something I should do (the same reason I sometimes answer with very lengthy legal explanation on this and a few other places).

However, as soon a caller tries to get detailed legal answers to their specific questions on the phone, I politely explain that what they are asking calls for me to render legal advice, that I can't give legal advice to a person unless there is an attorney-client relationship and that to create the relationship we need to have a signed engagement letter. Often they say that they are calling around and they will get back to me. I thank them and say that if they decide to retain someone, please feel free to call me. Every once and a while I actually hear back from someone later, but most of the ones who hang up never call back.

Of course, some of the callers are serious about hiring an attorney and not just calling for free legal advice. Those are the ones who ask me to go ahead and send an engagement letter.

So, besides being a good business practice, requesting that the potential client sign an engagement letter is a good litmus test of whether they are really serious or just seeing how much free advice they can get before they have to make a commitment to pay for the advice.

Harold Mansfield
09-17-2012, 09:08 AM
I used to get caught in that vortex all of the time. And it's now the main reason why I don't use instant messaging programs anymore, have one of those "chat" windows on my website, or stay logged into Skype. I don't even open the chat option on Facebook.

You have to post your Consulting fee and Terms of Service on your website (Which just reminded me that I didn't transfer that over to my new site), and make it clear that you charge for phone consultations.

I too will answer a question or two, but when it gets into teaching cold callers how to do things, I suggest that they write down their questions, and schedule an hour with me. Plain and simple.

You probably can't price everything, but consulting is usually an hourly charge that is consistent. It doesn't hurt to let people know on your website what that charge is.

When you get a reputation for giving it away, people will come out of the woodwork to pick your brain. And they will refer others to you to do the same.

Another good practice is to blog regularly and answer the basic questions that you don't mind giving away, not just for the SEO benefit, but it lets you direct people to a blog post that answers questions like I'm going to do to you now:
When does a Conversation Turn into Billable Consulting Hours? | NHABIT (http://nhab.it/when-does-a-conversation-turn-into-billable-consulting-time/)

You may also want to add an option to your contact form for people to contact you for consulting services.
The bottom line is, if you don't respect your time, neither will anyone else. You should definitely give customer service, but you can't give free consulting.

Freelancier
09-17-2012, 09:36 AM
The bottom line is, if you don't respect your time, neither will anyone else. You should definitely give customer service, but you can't give free consulting.

^^^ This.

I don't write code for free, I answer questions as best I can without researching it for free, but I never do any actual work for free.

If you feel like your cost of sales is too high for the return you're getting, either re-work your marketing so that the right kind of clients call you or structure your sales contacts in a way that drives the client to contracting with you before you give away too much.

KristineS
09-17-2012, 12:08 PM
It's a tough line to walk sometimes. I've spent a lot of my personal time helping people with text on their websites or other writing projects because they were friends or acquaintances and they needed help. Over the last few years, I have been scaling that back. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I may decide to go freelance at some point and two is that my ability and knowledge are what I have to sell. It's a lesson that's difficult to learn, particularly for women, I think, but no one will value your skills and knowledge more than you do. Helping out every once in a while or when it makes sense for you or serves another goal of yours is a great thing and a great idea, but the rest of the time you have to draw the line.

billbenson
09-17-2012, 05:53 PM
I spend a lot of time on the phone. My product requires a consultative sell. Probably 90% of my phone time doesn't result in a order. But I have to do it. I should rephrase that. 90 of my phone time today doesn't generate an order today. It might in 6 months though.

I think a variation of Davids answer would work. "We have a corporate policy of only giving consultation during non work hours. It's limited to 10 minutes. Why don't we schedule a time. It implies that you are more than a one person show which can be good. The second party could be a financial backer? Just get some plausible story. Frequently they will come back with "its just a short question". Your answer should be a firm I can't do it right now.

If they are shopping around, they won't call you back at your scheduled time. If the do call back, they might be a client prospect.

Another option is I'm on my way to a meeting, get their number. If you think it could turn into business, call them. If not don't.

Or, every time you get one of these calls put it on your web site. Eventually you will have an incredible reference section on your site. This will dramatically improve your site rankings, and if it's the same question you had before, just point them to the answer.

As for me, I just try to answer the question if I think it could be business or say "I'm not sure" and give them customer services number (in the cases it won't turn into business). It depends on how busy I am to.

Evan
09-17-2012, 08:01 PM
It certainly is frustrating, though generally speaking, if it's more than "administrative" work you're doing, your time should really be chargeable, and people should know that up front. If you hired a receptionist, just as an example, while they may know some nuts and bolts of your business, they don't know definitive answers and certainly aren't the person these people want to speak to. Once you get to the "person in charge", people should be expecting that it is billable time. [I'm not saying that administrative time isn't billable, as it is -- but generally the time YOU spend is chargeable and often administrative costs are just absorbed into that billable cost.]

With that stated, I often don't speak to people without signed engagement letters, and the ones I speak to regularly are my business customers or are ones who have a history of business, therefore I'm less likely to be "burned". When people want to "vent" about their new business and how they're not sure how to set up the books, or how to account for things properly, I emphasize that setting up their books is certainly important and they should have someone who knows what they're doing help with it, and then note that I can provide those services. If they have a unique transaction that they don't know how to record -- "yes, those type of transactions often can be difficult to account for. Are you certain that there are no other uncertainties you have?" And refer them to your services. But the important thing with calls with people you haven't worked with before is to say "Certainly this seems important, but why don't we set up an appointment and we can discuss this." and this way they know they have face time (or even if it's by phone, but at a later time). You do not want to make yourself TOO available, otherwise they seem to keep going further and further.

That has helped me well, and hopefully may help others.

DeniseTaylor
09-21-2012, 12:43 PM
Hi

Your situation sounds exceedingly frustrating.

When you have an online business, you can create a frequently asked questions section, or write pages based on knowledge you have for a specific product/software/common problem, etc. You do the work once, post it, and people can use that information over and over. It's a win-win because that knowledge gains you traffic and visitors, which you then have the chance to turn into customers. But you're only investing X amount of time into those pages and have control over how much you invest.

When you do this for people in real time, it consumes your time, energy and after not being paid, generates negative emotion, so the return on investment is low or non-existent.

I once knew a repairman who loved talking to people on the phone. He would answer all their questions and generously gave away his knowledge. This gained him customers in return and a reputation in his neighborhood because people liked and trusted him. Some of the people he talked to wouldn't hire him, but many would. So that's one example of how that can work for an offline business. But realize, he wasn't a one-man show. He had workers and talking on the phone was part of his "sales" hat.

I think each business person has to decide where to draw the line for themselves and how to create a ROI with these situations. Perhaps helping to a point and then letting them person know that they are getting into billable hours and you have to stop. (They should understand this.) Or realize that helping is part of your promotion hat and not be offended when they don't continue.

If you're buried with other work, helping for no return can be exhausting/frustrating. If this comes up for you very often, perhaps you could generate some free information handouts to offer people. Make it very good and informative so it acts as promotion for your service. After that, they know they need to pay.

Otherwise, become skilled at saying, sorry, that is not a free service.

DeniseTaylor
09-21-2012, 12:44 PM
Hi

Your situation sounds exceedingly frustrating.

When you have an online business, you can create a frequently asked questions section, or write pages based on knowledge you have for a specific product/software/common problem, etc. You do the work once, post it, and people can use that information over and over. It's a win-win because that knowledge gains you traffic and visitors, which you then have the chance to turn into customers. But you're only investing X amount of time into those pages and have control over how much you invest.

When you do this for people in real time, it consumes your time, energy and after not being paid, generates negative emotion, so the return on investment is low or non-existent.

I once knew a repairman who loved talking to people on the phone. He would answer all their questions and generously gave away his knowledge. This gained him customers in return and a reputation in his neighborhood because people liked and trusted him. Some of the people he talked to wouldn't hire him, but many would. So that's one example of how that can work for an offline business. But realize, he wasn't a one-man show. He had workers and talking on the phone was part of his "sales" hat.

I think each business person has to decide where to draw the line for themselves and how to create a ROI with these situations. Perhaps helping to a point and then letting them person know that they are getting into billable hours and you have to stop. (They should understand this.) Or realize that helping is part of your promotion hat and not be offended when they don't continue.

If you're buried with other work, helping for no return can be exhausting/frustrating. If this comes up for you very often, perhaps you could generate some free information handouts to offer people. Make it very good and informative so it acts as promotion for your service. After that, they know they need to pay.

Otherwise, become skilled at saying, sorry, that is not a free service.

huggytree
09-21-2012, 05:20 PM
first off...these things will happen...hopefully not more than 1 or 2x a year

i get service calls and when i arrive no one is home....ive tried to charge them....they wont pay....it happens about 1x a year and im mad for a day and i get over it

there's nothing you can do, but dont work for this customer in the future!!....next time she calls say....hello? goodbye!

i get customers looking for free advice from time to time....if its a 1-2 min thing i give it....otherwise i dont

when she e-mailed you more than 1x you should have just stopped answering...she got everything she could out of you for free...she's a user(of course she doesnt see it that way)

your a business, not her friend.....id put a strict limit on free advice and let your customers know