High-maintenance customers can be difficult to deal with. They can also damage a photographer’s business with their time-consuming and stress-inducing behaviour. You know you’re dealing with a bad customer when:
10. An abundance of e-mails pour in and each one is marked URGENT!!!
9. They expect the photographer to work for free in exchange for a credit line and they want unlimited use of all the photos.
8. They talk down to the photographer: “Can we work faster?”, “Are we sure that’s the best camera angle?”, “Did we check to make sure everyone’s in focus?” and they demand to see the LCD review of every picture.
7. At a publicity event, they expect the photographer to help set up the product displays, hand out brochures, and wear a t-shirt and baseball hat emblazoned with their company logo.
6. After a company party, they scold the photographer for not getting a picture of the CEO’s wife’s sister’s family who were sitting somewhere in the ballroom.
5. They expect everyone in the photos to look like magazine cover models. Otherwise it’s the photographer’s fault and they shouldn’t have to pay.
4. After being promised free, next-day, rush delivery, they still call two hours later demanding to know why the photos are so late.
3. They change their mind every day: “We want a photo of our factory” . . . “We’ve decided on a group shot of our sales department” . . . “It’s a photo of our sales department in front of the factory and make it look like a Vanity Fair cover.”
2. They try to negotiate a lower price after the job is done.
1. They’re late to pay.
