I had an interesting comment from a client who decided he did not want to pay his bill. He said I should make sure to uphold my reputation in town.
The backstory: A signed contract with a $3,500.00 budget for conceptual design of a building remodel. It’s needed in a hurry for the big ICSC meetings in Vegas. We believe in client service and interaction, we’re spending the client’s money. We provided sketches at every step for the client’s input, we were given the green light each time. Finally at the end, we get chewed out because its “not what we wanted, we don’t like it”.
The client (a real estate broker) now thinks I should eat $3,000.00 worth of work (we came in under budget). He says he wants to recommend us in the future to other clients. I presume so he can try to avoid paying me again.
I’ve reminded him that reputation and recommendation works the other way as well. When you try to bowl someone over to make yourself the hero, remember that it can and will come back to you.
