Q: As a custom publisher, I work with clients who complain that an article or some other piece of writing isn’t “right” but can’t make any suggestions as to what’s wrong. I verify that content, quotes, etc. are accurate. “What exactly don’t you like,” I ask? “Well, I’m not a writer,” they say, “you’re the writer. Just fix it!” Have you any experience with that?!
A: Yes, I’ve occasionally run into that, though most clients I work with on the corporate side know they need to give you a little more to go on than some vague, nebulous sense that it’s “not quite right” minus any specifics.
A good question I always ask is, “What’s missing for you?” AND/OR, “If you had this piece side by side with one that you indeed thought had hit the mark, what would be the difference?” I realize these are all ways of saying the same thing, all ways of trying to quantify the missing element, but sometimes it just takes a different approach. Try to get them to show you a piece that DID work for them and figure out what’s different. Go through the list of possible culprits. Is it tone? Flow? Readibility?
Most importantly, and I feel very strongly about this, if they refuse or are unable to give you any specifics while at the same time confirming the accuracy of all the content, it’s not my problem any more. If I’ve made an extra effort to zero in on the problem and they’ve not been helpful at all, then it’s about their laziness, not my lack of effort. I realize that we have to make the client happy as our first goal, but what else can you do at that point? You might say, “Mr. Client, I really want to get this right. I pride myself on doing just that consistently with all my clients, but I’m not a mind reader. I’ve been doing this for a long time and this piece is typical of what I write for the rest of my clients, who have been very happy with my work for many years. I really don’t know what else to do at this point.”