Ken
Hey Brian, one of my steady clients is developing a young act that has some potential. Problem is, their backing tracks are bad and they don’t know how to use the wireless gear they have purchased or borrowed from me. I get at least one call each day when they are rehearsing to talk them through some fairly basic function. How much do I educate my clients and hold their hands for free? Bear in mind that they are always nice and appreciative.
Brian
Polite and appreciative should be part of any good relationship between a customer and a service provider. I wouldn’t let that have an effect on how much work you do for them for free. Let’s face it; favors simply don’t pay the bills. It’s great that they give you repeat work, but it sounds like you are repeatedly giving them something for nothing. I’d say it’s time to make them responsible for the money end of being a customer.
Ken
What’s a simple, easy (read; chickenshit) way to let them know I am happy to help, but I need to get compensated for my time and my knowledge without causing hard feelings or making them feel like I am being a greedy bastard. I mean, I am greedy and a bastard, but I don’t want them to know that!
Brian
I’d give them some kind of notice ahead of time. Say, at the beginning of the month, tell them that at the end of the next 30 days your policies are changing and you will begin billing for tech support. You could give them the benefit of the doubt and let the first stupid question slide each time they rent something, and then bill them for your time after that. You may have to act like a big business and pretend that this is something you’re billing all your clients for.
Ken
Yeah, my strategy lately is to offer to send a tech to them, and they decline, preferring to keep me on the phone. The other problem is that they don’t have the proper gear for what they want to do, so every solution is kind of a temporary fix until the next phone call. Again, I feel guilty about wanting to charge them for chewing up my time, but I know my time is worth something, right?
Brian
Your time has to be worth something. If you feel guilty about charging the client, maybe you should keep a detailed log of how much time you ac-tually spend babysitting them. That way, you’ll know at the end of the week exactly how much time you’re giving them. You then have the evi-dence in hand to justify billing them. Then, when they call again, tell them just how much free support you have been giving them lately.
Ken
I always feel that, in the long run, a more educated client will be an easier client to deal with because he understands what our job entails and will know, for example, that yes, we need a monitor engineer when we have Earth, Wind & Fire on stage. Knowledge is power, but also a sales tool. You agree?
Brian
It can work both ways. If I overeducate a small production client, my productions could turn into rentals. Then rentals turn into sales. Then they don’t need anything from you but service on the cheap gear that they bought because they thought they knew everything. Clients — they’re the teenagers of the business world.
Ken
I agree that your client doesn’t necessarily have to know Ohm’s Law to rent or purchase a piece of gear, but do you really feel there is such a thing as being overeducated? Or that it would hurt sales or rentals? Nobody has ever accused me of being too smart. I glean industry magazines like FOH, and read online reviews, and listen to those more experienced, like you, and even to those with less experience, but with a layman’s way of speaking the truth  hoping for those glimmers of insight or those “a-ha” moments of clarity. My clients are more like toddlers  they have the ability to stand on their own two feet and even to take a few steps, but then the doubts creep in and they stumble.
Brian
Well, all I can say is, let them stumble their way into your shop to keep renting more gear. Just make sure that gear is being rented out, not just loaned out.
E-mail the guys at anklebiters@fohonline.com
