During the site development stage, the client was constantly bombarding the team with questions about the site, engine, and hosting. However, it became clear that the client was only asking for fun and did not understand any of it.

When it came to search engine optimization, the client became even more demanding with questions like "Why is it wrong? What are you doing and how?" Refusing to answer led to the client becoming angry and reminding the team that they were paying for services.

As a result, the team now spends 2-3 hours per day answering these questions without additional compensation. Dear dnray users, have you faced similar situations before and how did you handle them?

It can be frustrating for both parties when communication breakdowns occur due to a lack of understanding or unrealistic expectations. Clear communication and setting boundaries from the beginning can help prevent these issues.

When dealing with profitable clients, it's important to be accommodating and offer guidance.
However, if the client is not a priority, it's acceptable to inform them that training services are not included and would require additional payment.

Previously, you may have explained things to the client for free out of goodwill, but it's necessary to establish boundaries to avoid misunderstandings.

It's essential to balance the needs of clients while also ensuring that your business is sustainable and profitable. Communication and transparency can help manage expectations and prevent conflicts in the future.

It's crucial to communicate clearly with clients about consultation services.
Rather than offering free consultations, inform the client that your consultations are a paid service for a defined rate per hour.

Explain that you will provide a detailed report of your work at the end of the month and if the client wants additional consultations, they would have to pay extra.

If you deliver quality work, clients should recognize the value and agree to pay for additional services instead of expecting free advice.

Transparency and professionalism in communication with clients can help build trust and prevent conflicts over expectations and fees.

Developing and maintaining a website involves several stages:
1) Website development
2) Ongoing maintenance, such as updating content and making minor improvements
3) Advertising and promotion
4) Developing new features that were not initially agreed upon

It seems that your client pays for stages 1-3, and perhaps not for stage 4. As the service provider, it's important to focus on delivering quality work while allowing the client to promote themselves through their own efforts.

Clients pay for your expertise, so it's necessary to prioritize and safeguard your knowledge in order to deliver value to them. It's not fair to give away knowledge for free or allow clients to abuse their access to your expertise.

By defining clear expectations and boundaries, you can establish a healthy business relationship with clients and ensure that your work is fairly compensated.

When refusing a client, it's important to follow polite yet firm principles.

Principle 1: When refusing, provide reasoning that supports the refusal. The wording should contain factual references that leave an impression on the client that the situation is beyond the control of both parties.

For example, a bank corporate client was outraged at having to pay additional fees for a bank account transaction. A competent client manager would explain that according to the signed agreement, certain transactions are charged at a standard rate of 0.1% of the amount. This reference to established agreements and indisputable facts can help convince the client.

Principle 2: Avoid negative phrasing like "we can't", "we won't", or "we don't". Instead, offer a more peaceful and reconciling approach, such as "We can, but within these limits" or "What you're asking for is not included in our services." Referring to a valid reason can also lend credibility to the manager's refusal.

Principle 3: Offer an alternative path when possible. This shifts the focus away from the refusal itself and toward how the issue can be resolved.

By following these principles, it's possible to maintain a respectful and professional relationship with clients even in difficult situations. Communication is key to managing expectations and preventing misunderstandings.

You start out thinking it's gonna be a smooth ride, and then boom—the client starts throwing questions at you left, right and center about every single little detail. Some clients, let's face it, just love to feel like they're involved in the tech stuff even though they don't really understand what's going on.

When it comes to SEO, it gets even trickier. Clients think SEO is some magical thing where you just push a button and their site instantly hits number one on Google. They don't get that SEO is an ongoing process with lots of moving parts, and they want to know "Why is it wrong?" or "What exactly are you doing?". In reality, a lot of SEO work happens behind the scenes—tweaking metadata, optimizing load speeds, content creation, etc. These aren't things you can easily explain in a five-minute convo.

What I've done in these situations is this: First, set boundaries early on. Make it clear to the client that while you're happy to answer questions, excessive hand-holding is not included in the initial agreement. This should be part of your contract—something like, "Client consultation time is limited to X hours per week; additional time will be billed at $Y per hour." If it's not in the contract already, it's never too late to renegotiate, especially if you're finding that their constant questions are cutting into your actual work time.

Next, what worked for me was creating a FAQ document. I just started keeping track of the most common questions clients would ask and compiled them into a PDF or a web page I could refer them to. That way, instead of repeating the same explanations over and over, I just pointed them to the FAQ. You can do the same for the SEO process. Break down the steps you're taking and explain the expected timeline for results in a simple way. Even though they may not fully grasp it, it shows that you're doing something concrete, and it helps reduce the volume of questions.

If the client insists on daily explanations or meetings, start billing for that extra time. At the end of the day, your time is valuable. It's not fair to you or your team to be spending 2-3 hours a day answering questions without getting paid for it.

Don't be afraid to have a direct conversation with the client. Let them know that while you understand their concerns, you need to focus on the actual development work, which they hired you for in the first place. Sometimes clients just need to hear it straight.
Dealing with clients like this can be frustrating, but setting clear expectations and sticking to your guns will help protect your time and sanity in the long run.

To manage unrealistic expectations from difficult clients, it's important to set clear, achievable goals from the start and maintain open communication throughout the process. Address concerns calmly and offer alternative solutions while reinforcing the project's realistic scope and limitations.