Most of us have had our brushes with toxic people…the petulant neighbor calling the police on your afternoon backyard BBQ, the ‘Karens’ in a parking lot complaining about how quickly you opened your car door, college drinking buddies wanting to keep the party going well into your 30s, but what about clients? How do we navigate the murky waters of a toxic client relationship, and when is it time to walk away?
What is a toxic client? In our opinion, a toxic client is one who inhibits the ability of the team to thrive. This toxicity can take many forms, characteristics of which often overlap: passive-aggressive behavior, paternalistic/authoritarianism, narcissism, manipulation, intimidation, and leading by fear are just some examples.
Some agency cultures allow for the mistreatment of their teams by clients and consider it just part of the job. And agency management will often look the other way if the fees are significant or the client prestigious enough. But these short-term gains can quickly snowball into a loss for the agency due to low team morale, burnout, employee churn, and the time lost training new people, all of which ultimately leads to unhappy toxic clients leaving and then defaming the agency. Is it worth it?
How do we avoid or navigate toxic clients?
Do your due diligence. Why is the client looking for a new agency? What was the experience of the previous agency? Do our media friends or colleagues have any insights? Does their reputation precede them? Depending on what you find out, it might be best to say ‘thanks, but no thanks.’
Nip it in the bud. If you have already been retained and are starting to see some of the characteristics listed above, nip it in the bud. Do not allow unprofessional behavior to begin because if the client knows they can exhibit toxic behavior with no push back, it will only escalate. Start with an off-the-record phone call, but keep detailed records of the behavior. You might need to refer back to your notes should you need to follow up in a more formal way such as via email or to escalate the situation.
Set boundaries. Is the client writing to the team at 9pm and creating an unnecessary sense of urgency or demanding brainstorming sessions at 7am? Are you receiving requests that are wildly beyond the scope-of-work? Don’t cave to unrealistic requests that could negatively affect the team. Advise the client these requests will not be responded to after working hours and refer back to the original SOW for a reality check.
Communicate. Harvard Business Review refers to preemptive conversation techniques to establish rules of the game in communicating with the client in order to expose and correct confusing and conflicting messages. And although group chat/WhatsApp has become the go-to, recapping important conversations by email is still extremely important. Apart from communicating with the client on improper behavior, keep your team informed. Discuss the situation with them. Help them develop preemptive conversation techniques, and make sure they know you’ve got their backs. Provide extra service leadership during these difficult times.
Feedback session. If the behavior continues, have a formal feedback session with the client. The client may at this juncture recognize some of the behavior patterns which could be counterproductive to their reaching their KPIs successfully and, therefore, be willing to improve some behaviors. Alternatively, if narcissistic toxicity is at play, your client might not take the feedback session well, simply blame your team and make the decision to cancel the contract. (It’ll be ok).
Escalate it. If all else fails, request a review with a superior. Unfortunately your toxic client might just be the byproduct of a bigger problem…a toxic company culture. If this is the case, you are s#4!t out of luck. Time to take the high road and prep your exit.
Preemptive mitigation of loss. It’s always best to evaluate organizational scenarios at the moment you realize you are dealing with a toxic client. Ramp up new business strategies so that when the time comes, team members can be reassigned to other accounts.
The good news is toxic clients are few and far between. In our agency’s 15 years of existence and my 25 years of working with dozens and dozens of truly amazing and inspiring clients, we have had only two such experiences: one was manageable and improved when we set and enforced boundaries, and the other was not salvageable due to the egos involved who were unwilling to accept constructive feedback. Good riddance.
Indeed, the client is not always right.