While today is the Age of the Customer, and you may have to kowtow to clients a bit more than in years past, this does not mean you need to put up with abusive, rude, inconsiderate, or unprofessional behavior.
Most clients are reasonable people, but some are not. Do not allow a difficult or unreasonable client to bully you. Should you be respectful? Of course. Should you follow orders? Yes. Should you let other people treat you badly or make you feel bad about yourself? Definitely not!
Consultant Howard Shenson said that for a client/service provider relationship to be effective, the relationship must be one of equals, of peers. While that sounds good,
I’m not sure it’s accurate and viable anymore.
In today’s marketplace, the clients are in the driver’s seat, and clearly, they know it.
No matter how good you are, no matter how big your reputation, the client controls the dollars and therefore controls you.
You exist to serve the client. Therefore the client/service provider relationship is more boss/employee than peer/peer. Vendors who think otherwise are, for the most part, fooling themselves.
Letters are typically spaced one, two, or four weeks apart. The intensity and aggressiveness of the collection letter increases as the series progresses.
The last letter typically states that unless payment is made promptly, the invoice will be turned over to a collection agency or attorney. Another effective tactic is to suggest that the customer’s credit rating may be damaged by nonpayment of the bill.
LETTER #1
This letter is to notify the customer that the status on their account is now in collections.
You should outline the efforts you have taken thus far in securing payment from the customer. It should also clearly state the course of action you wish the customer to take.
The tone of this letter should be less cordial than that used in billing letters as discussed above. Be polite to the customer, but be firm in your wording. Be sure to explain the consequences of not complying with the letter.
Tips for Business Greetings
• Send the greeting message within 48 hours after meeting the person. The longer you wait, the less of a positive impression it makes.
• In the lead, remind the person where, how, when, and under what circumstances the two of you first met.
• Be friendly and positive. You are trying to deepen the relationship and get it off to a successful start. Save complaints, concerns, or problems for another communication.
• If needed and relevant, give a capsule summary of who you are, what you do, and why the reader should care.
• Include all relevant contact information. Usually this is transmitted in the letterhead of a business letter or the sig file (see Part X: E-mail and Fax Correspondence) of an e-mail.
• Be helpful. Offer support, friendship, services, or whatever else you can do to help the recipient achieve his or her goals.

For example, if you are a landscape architect and often lunch with the lawyer in the next office who shares your enthusiasm for soccer, don’t forget to make her knowledgeable about the nitty-gritty of what you do, how you get business, how much you charge and so on. Sooner or later your lawyer friend will find herself in contact with someone who needs some landscaping done—perhaps a business which consults her about zoning problems connected with a new building. When this occurs, you want her to be able to mention your business confidently and knowledgeably.
The opinion your business peers have of you is also very important to your business. Being in contact with people in your field is one of the best ways of learning about new products and innovations that may be directly useful to you. In addition, consulting people in your peer group network is one of the common ways potential customers check out your business as part of deciding whether or not to patronize you. For some businesses (for example, a new pediatrician or chiropractor in town), it may be difficult to create good personal recommendations without a strong friendship and peer group network. For others (say a drain cleaning service or a butcher shop), the good opinion of friends may not be so crucial as is listing the availability of your service in all the right places, but it is still helpful.
Even a dentist, however, can do a great deal to establish a good friendship network in a hurry. One extremely kind and good-hearted dentist we know did just this by following his best instincts. New to a strange town, with few friends and very limited resources, he spent every spare moment visiting old people’s homes and fixing the teeth of the indigent residents free. After a few months, when it was apparent that he was sincere, some of the people who worked at the convalescent homes began to call him for appointments and refer their friends. The local dental society was so proud of his work that established dentists began to refer their overflow. Within a couple of years, our publicspirited friend had enough patients that he was able to buy the old Mercedes he had always coveted. To his credit, however, he still drives it over to one or another of the old people’s homes a couple of afternoons a month and fixes teeth for free.
La Blue’s Cleaners in Sebastopol, California, has been in business for more than 40 years. In addition to providing pick-up and delivery service to homes and offices, they are known in the community for extending a hand to the temporarily unemployed. If you are out of work they will custom dry-clean and press one suit or one dress and launder two shirts or blouses at no charge.
This information is posted on a sign inside the store which says “This is our gift to you so you will look your best at your next job interview.” Customers really appreciate it, and you can be sure that when they are back among the employed they bring their business to La Blue’s.