• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

nSiteful Web Builders

Building a Better Web - One Site at a Time.

  • Home
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Resources
  • Web Sites
  • Online Marketing
  • WordPress Support
    • Customized WordPress Training
    • 60-for-60 Sessions
  • Web Applications
  • Blog
    • Archive Listing Minimalistic
    • Blog Articles Grouped by Category
    • Case Studies
    • General
    • Portfolio
    • Reviews
    • Snippets
    • Techniques
  • Contact Jeff
    • Purchase Retainer Consulting Hours
    • About Retainer Consulting Hours

By Jeff Cohan, June 11, 2013

When a client trivializes your work, call a time-out.

Last updated June 18th, 2013 at 12:33 am

Passport PhotosIn the spring of my senior year at Harvard, I was awarded the contract to make passport photos for any of my fellow Quincy House residents who needed them.

By "awarded the contract" I mean that the assistant to the House Master was a friend of mine who knew I knew my way around a darkroom (that may have come out wrong…), and so she gave the project to me.

Everything went along swimmingly until an underclassman I shall call Philip came to pick up and pay for his photos.

I don’t recall what I charged for the set of photos, but I remember it was nominal and considerably lower than the going rate, and it was advertised ahead of time. People knew the fee when they sat for the pictures.

So I hand Philip his photos and ask for my fee, and he starts in on me.

Are you kidding? You want $X? Let me ask you… How much does one frame of film cost? And how much developer and fixer are needed for one frame of film? And how much did these two squares of photo paper cost?

I don’t remember my exact response. But I’ll never forget the encounter.

When a one-time customer trivializes your products or services, there’s not much you can do. Make the exchange. Bite your tongue.

When a long-term client suddenly trivializes your products or services, call a time-out. Something has gone sour, and you really ought to get to the bottom of it.

PS: Many years after college, I was gratified to learn that Philip, who pursued a career in government service, had once been referred to as the dumbest f***ing guy on the planet by an American Four Star General.

Related Posts

  1. How to Create Tooltips with CSS (Only)
  2. Fun with CSS3 Multiple Backgrounds
  3. CSS Descendant Selectors
  4. How to use Advanced Custom Fields with Genesis
  5. Bring your Facebook Fan Page to your Web site
  • Choose the best match.

Written by Jeff Cohan · Categorized: General · Tagged: Pricing

  • Choose the best match.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rick Meekins says

    June 14, 2013 at 6:37 am

    So true…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

mailchimp signup

Subscribe to get notified when new articles are published. Unsubscribe any time. No spam. I promise. Check out my newsletter archives.

social

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Recent Articles

  • Use Case for Custom Post Type: “In The News” March 10, 2023
  • Create a Custom Shortcode to Display a MemberPress Membership Price ANYWHERE on Your Website February 5, 2023
  • Avoid Direct Styling; Use CSS Instead September 21, 2022
  • Blog Tags: What They Are (and What They’re Not) August 5, 2022
  • How to Create a Simple Custom Events Plugin May 24, 2022

Filter By Category/Tag

Categories

  • Case Studies (7)
  • General (61)
  • Portfolio (5)
  • Reviews (12)
  • Snippets (16)
  • Techniques (38)

Popular Tags

Advanced Custom Fields Blogging Child Themes Content Marketing CSS CSS Grid Customer Service Custom Fields Custom Post Types Diagnostics Facebook FooGallery Genesis Gutenberg HTML Images iPhone Libra Live Chat Marketing Media MemberPress MemberPress Courses mu-plugins MySQL Photo Gallery php Pinterest Plugins Post Formats Pricing Project Management Security SEO Seth Godin Shortcodes Social Networking Surveys Taxonomies Trello Twitter Video Web design Web forms WordPress

siteground wp hosting

Web Hosting

wp101

EasyWordPresstutorialvideosforbeginners.
MemberPress CTA

Footer

Background

Web Sites | WordPress Support | Web Applications.

Formally trained in liberal arts and education (I have a B.A. in Government from Harvard and studied Secondary Education at Rutgers Graduate School), I have honed my skills in the communication arts and sciences as a teacher, trainer, instructional designer, writer, photographer, calligrapher, helpdesk manager, database programmer, and multimedia developer.

(I've also been a group counselor, waiter, bartender, bicycle messenger boy, computer salesman, carpenter's helper, financial analyst, and school board president.)

Tech

Systems since 1983.
Web sites since 1994.
PHP since 2001.
WordPress since 2007.

Contact

770-772-5134
Email Jeff
Send Money
All Ways

Copyright 2023, nSiteful Web Builders, Inc.

 

Subscribe

Pardon the interruption. I know popups can be annoying. But I’d love to have you as a subscriber.

Sign up to be notified when new articles are published. Unsubscribe any time.

* indicates required

Powered by MailChimp

×