Despite your best efforts to keep every event planning step smooth and seamless, event planners know problems to come up, and clients can get grumpy sometimes. Don’t lose your cool, though. By nature, you’re resilient under pressure. And you can tap into these classy and calming methods for dealing with and diffusing difficult event clients.
1. Recognizing the Difficult Event Client
Any frustrating situation can lead to general client frustration. However, there are some difficult client situations that require unique approaches to resolution. Start by recognizing which client pressures you’re dealing with so you can then apply the most appropriate responses and solutions.
- Everything’s a Crisis Client: The client that sweats the small stuff.
- Knows Everything Client: The client that knows more than anyone, including you.
- Constant Dissatisfaction Client: The client that doesn’t quite know what they want, they just know you’re not delivering.
- How Much Is This, Client: The super-focused, budget-conscious client.
- I Don’t Care Client: The hands-off client that can’t decide.
2. Communicating with Precise Words
When communicating with difficult clients or during high-pressure scenarios, be mindful of the words you use. Be precise and concise, avoiding jargon or overly-generalized statements that can be misinterpreted. Difficult times call for direct communication, exacting actions, and thorough transparency.
3. Apologize When Warranted
If you’ve dropped the ball in some way, acknowledge it and apologize. Avoiding responsibility will often make things worse, especially when all your client wants to know is that you’re in control of the situation. Don’t dwell on the apology, though. Instead, claim responsibility and then move to communicate the next steps toward realizing a solution.
4. Speak in Facts
When event planning gets hectic and things go awry, don’t allow yourself or your client to dwell on the “what ifs.” Stick to the facts of the present situation and steps to overcome obstacles. Focus on what you can control, not the weather, for example. And be diligent about sticking with what you know and can control to remedy the scenario.
5. Allow for Venting
Your event client could be under a great deal of pressure or stress unrelated to you or the event. But your event is not a focal point of said stress. Let your clients vent when they need to, and don’t take their sentiments personally. Sometimes, just saying frustrating things out loud can make them feel better, and they’ll be grateful you didn’t take much of their rants to heart in any way.
6. Be a Listener
Clients can sometimes be very clear about what’s troubling them. Other times, however, they’re not so great about communicating. As an event planner, you need to be an avid listener to verbal and non-verbal cues alike. Be keenly aware of what’s happening and ask for clarification when necessary. Stay proactive and in tune with your clients, and you will successfully avoid any unwanted difficulties.
7. Acknowledging without Agreeing
Your event clients may want to be heard, sharing their ideas and sentiments about the event. And you can always agree with these ideas, reinforcing to them that you do, in fact, hear them. But you don’t have to always agree. Instead, acknowledge and affirm, then present alternatives and expert suggestions for moving forward. Telling them no outright and throughout your partnership will only lead them to feel unheard and detached from the event planning process.
8. Document Every Step and Conversation
Event planners are masters at documenting and scheduling. But don’t forget to document every step and client conversation. These well-established timelines and notes will help you in difficult client situations later. For example, when clients forget they told you 100 people and now have 200 people on the guest list, you can avoid any issues by sharing documentation of the original conversation.
9. Focus on the Shared Goal
Whenever dealing with a difficult event client, try not to focus on the problem or pain point. Instead, focus on the shared goal and the path of tasks that lead to obtaining that goal. Don’t split hairs about misunderstandings that can’t be proven, disproven, or resolved. Keep your eye (and theirs) on the prize – a memorable and exquisite event.
10. Realigning Expectations
At the heart of every dissatisfied client situation is a misaligned expectation. Any client issues that arise can usually be resolved by realigning those expectations. Look to acknowledge where the expectation gaps are and then bridge them with solutions or ideas that help you both get back on the same page.
11. Under Promising and Over Delivering
As a best practice, event planners should always under promise and over-deliver. But it can be hard, especially if you had to sell yourself really hard to land the client in the first place. Just remember to communicate only what needs to be communicated. Build excitement with the event details you curate and savor the big reveals. Added value extras can go a long way with clients, too, especially should problems arise throughout the process.
12. Be the Expert
Don’t just tell your client that you’re in charge of things – show them. Don’t just say you’re the event planning expert – be the expert. Difficult clients will be swayed more by action and results than words and explanations. Be the savvy doer that you are and make things happen to smooth over any event planning wrinkles.
Don’t let difficult clients derail your event-planning magic! Keep it cool and classy by tapping into these ideas for bringing calm to any difficult situation. And learn more event planning techniques when you spend three full days at this year’s Event Planner Expo! Tickets are available right now, so get yours! It’s the one events industry conference of 2023 you don’t want to miss!
