Do you struggle with getting clients to pay up or preventing clients from double booking you?

Do you want to know how to get clients to pay without resorting to a bunch of censored words and phrases, because you’ve lost your cool?

Then keep reading because in this installment of clients from hell series: how to get clients to pay, I’m going to teach you just that! During the last clients from hell chalk talk series, we talked about how to go about firing a client.

I received a bunch of feedback about that post. A lot of you didn’t know that firing a client is even possible and the right thing to do. Oh how I just love it when I can teach you something new.

Starting a business is a tough task, but it has it’s perks. When you’re working for someone, you play by their rules every step of the way- if you want to keep your job. In the world of being a solopreneur, you write the rules! It’s business on your terms.

So when a client is a problem or you believe that client will be the epitome of clients from hell, you need to fire them. But what happens when everything goes smoothly but when it’s time to pay up, they’re no where to be found?

If only every client was like the Lannister’s from the Game of Thrones, we’d be okay. As you know, “a Lannister always pays his debts.”

But unfortunately that’s not the case, is it?

This is exactly what happened to our good friend Cathy. I received an email from Cathy a few weeks ago and she writes,

“Ashley,

I’ve been watching all your videos on YouTube and the one that stood out to me was the one about double booking. Recently, I had a client that not only double booked with me and another broker, but then convinced me they were going to go with me. I found a carrier for them, set everything up and then sent a link for them to pay my fee. They didn’t respond so I called. They didn’t answer.

The auto transport carrier was scheduled to pick up the car the next day and I couldn’t reach the customer. Finally at 10:34 that night, I received an email from the client saying that they want to cancel their order and that they are going with the other company. I was forced to call the carrier and cancel with them. They were mad and left me a negative rating on central dispatch. I was more upset about the client than the rating but the rating made it even worse.What could I do differently in the future to prevent this from happening again?

Thanks for everything and I love your videos. You’re so kind to give away all this free information.

Cathy”

This email hit me close to home. Back when I first started as an auto transport broker, I didn’t have anyone to ask these questions to. There was no formal auto transport broker training available to me that would guide me through dealing with clients from hell. No amount of business courses and private coaching prepared me for one particular client.

Like Cathy, I wasn’t charging upfront because I was doing what all other auto transport brokers were doing. Charging on assignment. Once I found a carrier, I then billed the client. Well there was this one client who I tried getting in contact with numerous times and to no avail. Like Cindy, the car was scheduled to be picked up the next day.

So I wrote an email to the client saying if I don’t receive payment within the next 2 hours, I was going to cancel their order.

I was stressed out because the carrier had their information and I worried that if the carrier called the client to confirm pickup, the client could easily X me out of the equation.

I had two things going against me:

1) There wasn’t a signed contract between the client and I.
2) I didn’t have any payment information for the client.

Eventually the client did indeed pay my service fee but it took me writing a nasty but desperate email to that client which in turn, I didn’t get a review from them and I’m guessing that email was the main reason why.

So how do you get clients to pay and how do you prevent clients from double booking you?

1) Charge upfront: I can hear all the chatter chatter saying, “But Ashley, no one else is charging upfront and “Don’t other companies warn against auto transport brokers who charge upfront as scam artists?”

Before you get your turn in your pads and helmet, let me say this:

When you go to a Doctor, do you pay after or before services are rendered? When you hire a personal trainer at the gym, do you pay after your body looks how you want it to, or do you pay upfront? Most service professionals charge when the services are rendered. In your case you are doing a service, finding an auto transporter to pick up your clients car. Why should you work for free or on a good faith?

Now I know in some of my previous videos, I talk about how I charge on pickup, but that’s not the case anymore. I charge upfront except in special circumstances.

If you feel guilty about charging upfront you need to have a way to collect payment information when order is placed and then charge on assignment or pickup.

2) Broker/Client Contract: The next recommendation on how to get clients to pay and prevent them from double booking is to get them to sign your broker client contract when the order is placed. This way they are under contract which lessens the chance they will double book and refuse to pay.

Making clients pay for services upfront and signing a client broker contract is not a bad way to do business- it’s the only way! Unless you want to worry about chasing clients down for your dinero, I highly suggest you implement this into your auto transport business.

I hope this helps Cathy and for everyone else who wondered the same thing.

It’s time to get your game face on:

Have you ever dealt with clients from hell who refused to pay you or decided to double book? How did you handle it?

And if you’ve been fortunate enough not to have had this experience, let me know what you learned from this post and how you’ll infuse it into your auto transport broker business going forward.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading and sharing.