Imagine finishing a web copywriting project, getting approval from your client, getting paid, and feeling the satisfaction that comes with that.
Now imagine that client comes back weeks later asking for additional edits on that approved copy, all because their spouse, friend, or nephew read it and thought it could be spruced up.
Scratch that. Not “or.” And.
This happened to me. And I fired that client.
Contract terms mean something.
Just to be clear, I didn’t fire the client for asking for extra edits, even though we had a clearly-communicated two-revision policy in our contract. I fired the client because the “asks” kept coming.
“My friend wants to change X to Y.”
“My wife doesn’t like the change my friend wanted, and she thinks Y should be changed to Z.”
“My nephew thinks this whole section of copy should be removed and completely replaced.”
“I know the project is finished, but after asking even more people what they think I should change, here’s a list of their feedback. Can you do this for me?”
No. No, I cannot.
Were any of the people copywriters, marketers, or any other relevant type of expert who might genuinely improve the copy?
No. No, they were not.
Did the client continue to ask nearly everyone he knew what they would do differently?
He sure did.
This continued for months.
I wasn’t making the changes that fell outside our contractual terms, but he kept asking.
What made this stranger is I wasn’t the person adding the copy to the client’s website. He would ask me to make changes in a Word document, send it back it him, and then he’d have his site manager add the copy to the site.
I mean… if he took the time to write up the changes he wanted so he could email me knowing I’d say “no” (again), he could have just as easily sent it right to his web guy.
And he must have done this at several points because the changes would be made, and he’d ask me to make edits based on other people’s additions or changes. We got to a point where the franken-copy barely made sense anymore.
Look. I’m not offended if a client shows copy to people to gather feedback or to make edit requests. Sometimes that’s just a part of the job.
But this needs to happen long before the client approves the copy and our contract is complete.
Approval-by-committee can be fine.
“Client Posses,” not so much.
That said, it’s only fine when the client (or your point person) gathers that feedback, makes decisions on what feedback they want to incorporate in edits and what they don’t, and then provides you with those edit requests collectively.
It’s even OK if you have several rounds of this, as long as it’s within the terms of your contract, or they’re willing to pay more if they want to go beyond that.
Your level of flexibility is up to you, but there’s professional, and then there are “client posses” like this example with people completely outside of the project being brought in.
Credit to Lori Widmer of the Words on the Page blog for the term “client posses.” She’s long recommended including a no-third-party / no-posse clause in freelance writing contracts to avoid these very issues.
Even with the absurdity of the situation, this isn’t when I fired the problem client.
I’d told him “no” repeatedly. But we hadn’t gotten to the point where I made it clear we wouldn’t be working together again at any point in the future.
That came soon after. You see…
The client felt entitled to perpetual edits, for free.
Hard pass.
Me saying “no” to his family and friends’ edit requests wasn’t strong enough I suppose. He also thought if anything in his business changed, I’d re-work the copy I’d written to account for those changes.
And he thought I’d do that for free.
Released a new version of a product?
He expected me to overhaul his copy to reflect that.
Offer a new service?
He though I’d write copy around it for him to add to his existing site.
And he didn’t want to pay for any of it.
Of course, I said “no.” He was welcome at that point to hire me for copyediting or to write new copy when needed. But he had other ideas…
Asking turned into guilt-tripping.
Again, just to be clear, our contract terms laid out how many revision requests were included. He understood this. He also wasn’t unhappy with the original copy for his site. He loved it.
He just didn’t want to tell anyone he knew personally “no,” even thought he wouldn’t stop asking them for suggestions.
This client was always a bit of an over-sharer about personal details in his life. And there were some significant hardships. I felt for the guy…
Until he started using these hard-luck stories, often about his kids, to try to guilt-trip me into doing the free edits he wanted. Life was so hard, after all, so how could I say “no” to helping him out?
The “client posse” situation. The insistence that I owed him free edits any time he changed something in his business. And then the guilt-tripping.
Nope. I was done. Even if he came back wanting to pay for something new, I was done.
And to be fair, I should have been long far sooner than I was. The moment I began dreading opening his emails because I knew what was coming, that should have been it. The first “no” or two where he still didn’t take a hint… that should have been it.
I fired this client. It took too long, partly because we’d had an ongoing working relationship before this project. But I’ve never been more relieved to fire a freelance copywriting client.
Don’t make my mistake. Do this instead.
- Make sure you include the number of revisions included in your contract. Make sure your client fully understands this, and that further requests might incur an additional fee.
- Follow Lori Widmer’s advice and include a “no-third-parties” / “client posses” clause in your contracts. Groups are fine, but clarify your point person and the final decision-maker.
- Don’t be afraid to say “no” if a client oversteps your contract terms.
- If your client refuses to take “no” for an answer, point to the project brief, contract, or whatever you have in writing, and propose a new paid project for the change in scope (if you’re open to it).
- Know when to walk away. And understand sometimes the best thing for your freelance business is firing a bad client. There will be others.
Have you ever had a client pressure you for continual updates? How about after they approved and published your copy? How did you deal with the situation? And if you’ve ever had to fire a client for another reason, I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below, or contact me if you’d like to share your story in a guest post on the blog or in a shorter EPUB feature.
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My contracts always specified a single key point of contact on their side and 1 or 2 rounds of revision depending on the project.
That’s exactly how I handle it too Sharon, and I highly recommend it! Absolutely fine if they have a team reviewing things and making suggestions, but they need to get it together with that point person before edit requests go back to their copywriter. This is also one of many reasons I love working with smaller businesses. I tend to work directly with the owner / primary decision-maker. So much easier sometimes.
As a side note, I’d worked with this client for several years before this “client posse” issue came up. So he was 100% clear on the revision terms of our contracts. He also raved about the copy he approved. It seemed like asking that first friend make him second-guess his decisions (which resulted in the brief that copy stemmed from), so he then kept seeking re-assurance from everyone he knew. And of course every has an opinion. So a reasonably long-term client ended badly because the client over-stepped boundaries due to what seemed like confidence issues.