The 12 Types Of Toxic Clients (and How To Identify Them)
In every business you have to deal with all types of clients. Some are very good clients, educated and who know how to value our work, regardless of how many times they need our services or products.
But other times we have to deal with clients who are not clean wheat. Rude, critical, anxious, insecure or those who ask us for discounts when it’s not appropriate.
Next we will know types of toxic clients that in every business we may have to find, seeing its main characteristics.
The 12 types of toxic clients, and their characteristics
The relationship with clients always depends on the context, on aspects linked to the time and place in which the interaction with them occurs. However, beyond that, we can recognize types of toxic clients taking into account that these are not hermetic categories and that they do not summarize the way of being of these people in all situations of their lives; We simply base ourselves on the type of predisposition they show to us.
Next Let’s discover the 12 most common types of toxic clients in addition to learning how to identify them and what problems they usually cause.
1. Controller client
The controlling client is one who, time and time again, is bothering us to find out how the project or the product we are going to offer is going
He is the typical one who is constantly calling us, proposes new proposals by email and changes the course of the project over and over again. They need to be in “control” of the situation and, since they cannot control us as if we were puppets, they feel that they have some power knowing what we do and what we stop doing.
Supervision is good, since sometimes things can go wrong in the production process or there is a detail that you would have liked to know so you could change it. The problem is that being constantly aware of what we do and don’t do is a real nuisance, since In addition to wasting our time, it gives us the impression that you do not trust our experience, perseverance and responsibility
2. Hypercritical customer
As its name indicates, the hypercritical customer is one who criticizes everything. He is never happy with what we have done, being demanding and perfectionist to extreme levels.
Certainly, it is your right to ask for the best, since no one wants to pay to receive something that is below quality standards.
The problem is that the hypercritical customer sees defects where there are none , or pay attention to those that do not have much importance. Our work is not enough for him and, on top of that, he is not able to see all the good we have done.
3. Impatient customer
The impatient customer You are constantly rushing, waiting to see if what you have ordered will arrive yet He seems to think that the more times he looks at how we are doing, the sooner he will have what he asked for. She makes us hurry, but we must always comply with what was agreed.
But to make matters worse, he is not the one who complies with being punctual. If we have asked him to present us documentation or to tell us on a specific date what he wanted, he simply tells us that he had missed it.
Since he is the client, He sees the right to ask others to hurry up, but he does not have to comply According to him, if he gives us what was agreed at the last minute, we will do our “magic” and we will be able to do our part within the stipulated time.
4. Undecided customer
Insecurity, indecision and fear of giving an explicit answer are the characteristics that define the indecisive client. He is not capable of choosing once and for all a proposal or option that we have told him. It is normal to have some indecision when establishing the first contact with a professional, but from there to not having anything clear at all is a big problem for us, since it consumes our time, energy and patience
It needs more proposals, more innovative ideas, something that is out of the ordinary, but then what was originally original turns out to no longer be so similar. Loops to start another project when the previous one has already been determined or, even, it had almost reached the end. He wants to change everything a little before the presentation.
5. Complaining customer
The complaining customer seems very hypercritical, as they never seem to be satisfied with the work we have done. This type of client is the one who always blames problems on other people, both on us as professionals and on other people involved in the process.
Needs a scapegoat on which to project his own failures He focuses on small defects instead of seeing the great advances or benefits of the product/service, showing a terribly biased vision and, on top of that, he says that others do not understand him.
This is usually the type of client who speaks badly of other professionals, which is why you have to be very careful. Speaking badly about other professionals can make us think that you have really had bad luck and now have the opportunity to receive a very good service or product. The problem is that this is not going to reach him, he is going to be very critical of what we have done and he is going to include us in his list of bad professionals.
6. Offensive customer
One of the worst. The offensive client is one who, when going to the professional, He does not have the deserved respect for him, even though he was the one who came for help He does not take our profession seriously, or makes unpleasant statements like “even my niece does this” or “I do this with my eyes closed.” But what does he know that we don’t know?
He does not listen to our explanations, nor does he respect our agreements. He does not give us calm, and to make matters worse he does not clarify what he wants. We don’t work for several hours in a row so that someone comes to us with bad words and tells us that we don’t work well. We are the experts in what we offer, which means we have every right to protect ourselves from these people They are people who can be given a touch.
Anxiety is what characterizes the anxious client, as can be deduced from its name. You need to know the project step by step before giving the green light for it to begin. The problem is that you need to make sure that everything is going to go well, both for the good use of your money and for your feeling of security. He fears that things will really go wrong, bordering on the pathological.
It is the customer who seems interested in the product or service but does not dare to pay for it because either he believes that it could harm him (for example, buying a cell phone and believing that it is going to explode) or he fears that he is wasting money. money (e.g., being scammed). It always gets worse He does not trust experience, he does not believe in anything he is told. No matter how much we insist that the project is going well, he doesn’t seem to believe it.
8. Customer angry with the world
This type of client is one who is toxic depending on what has recently happened to them. It is about that person who, either because of his personality or because he has had a bad day, today he has had to be angry with the world , and in that world we find ourselves. His way of expressing himself is mostly through shouting, and he does not spare dry expressions that can be aggressive and offensive.
They tend to be those who define themselves as direct people, who get to the point, but from being direct to, directly, saying everything with anger, there is a big step. Very much in line with the previous case, the client who is angry with the world is someone who is hostile, and although we can understand that a client does not always have to be happy that we serve him, it is necessary to calm him down a little. He cannot enjoy a good service or product if he already comes reluctantly.
9. Conflict avoidant client
We go from the client who is angry with the world to someone who is directly afraid of facing it. The conflict-avoiding client is one who He does not understand that he has the right to be uncomfortable with what has been offered to him, and he should say so This is a type of client who is trying to be a very good client, and is afraid that we will believe that he or she belittles our work. He sees tension where there is none.
The main problem with this type of client is that they approve over and over again everything we have presented to them, making us believe that the project is going in the direction they want. His innate fear of saying “no” means that, when things are very advanced, he can no longer hold it in and he tells us that everything we have done does not convince him. He says it at a good time! We have invested a lot of time and resources for nothing, making us start over from the beginning
Clients are not going to be our friends, but it is still good to feel that they give us good vibes. A client who is very, very difficult to work with ends up being an unpleasant client.
We don’t care about the money he is going to give us, if it is not comfortable to work with him it is not worth it. It may be because of the way he speaks, his superior looks, his speaking with a certain tone, the bad taste jokes he makes or the jokes that make us have bad “vibes.”
11. Client without obligation
In every professional relationship there is a first step that cannot be avoided: making contact. In this first contact, client and professional talk about what is offered, what they want, what the services are like and whether or not they intend to establish a professional relationship. This first step, once completed, implies two paths: either the relationship continues, starting the project, or it ends because the client cannot receive what he wants
The problem with clients without commitment is that they opt for a third way: not breaking the relationship but not strengthening it either. They are the typical ones who keep asking us the same thing over and over again, or they disguise it as a new question to ask but, basically, we had already told them. They are constantly making us lose money by offering you free consultations instead of offering you the product/service that we are experts in. We are not a free service. If you want the product/service offered, pay it in one go.
12. Customer expert in haggling
The expert haggling customer is one who thinks that, really, for doing our job, we are going to give them a discount or some type of special offer. He is the one who tries to sneak it in, making you very nervous.
Their vision of every economic transaction is that some lose and others win, instead of understanding that both whoever receives the money and whoever receives the product/service obtain a benefit. The prices are what they are and unless it is a flea market sale, they must be respected.
Conclusion
These 12 types of toxic clients are the most common that we can find in every profession. As we have seen, there are all types and for each condition, so you must be very careful and know how to fit each one of them. The variety of toxic clients that there are is also synonymous with a variety of problems, none of which we want for our businesses.
Set limits, specifying the prices of the product or service offered giving the occasional touch to avoid unpleasant comments towards our profession and clearly establishing the dates of fulfillment of each objective are strategies to prevent clients from ending up destroying our business.
