How To Set Boundaries With Clients

Are your clients contacting you 24/7, expecting everything urgently, or maybe you're just finding it hard to do everything you need to? Here are some tips to help you set boundaries with your clients*.

*Remember though that these will be on a case-by-case, and you should talk to your team leader if you would like more advice.

Always keep in mind with these interactions that we need to be above the line at all times (OAR/BED). Please make sure you have also read the How To Deal With Clients Page before reading this page too. Clients still need to feel important and we don't discuss prioritising another clients work over theirs. We will also always try to go to the client with a solution rather than asking them to solve a problem.

My client is contacting me outside of office hours, what do I do?

All clients sign a terms of engagement that acknowledges our Mon-Fri office hours. If a client is contacting you outside of hours on your work phone, work email etc. respond the next working day. Your clients may often send things through after you have finished for the day but they aren't expecting a response until the next day.

If your clients are calling you or expecting urgent work after 5pm then they may need a gentle reminder that you leave the office at 5pm each day and won't be able to action requests after then. You could proactively suggest a check in with that client around 3pm each day to see if there is anything they need before you sign off for the day.

If any issues like this continue then please speak to the client account manager or your team leader.

My client expects me to reply to every email asap when I only check the inbox twice a day!

This is a great time to check in with your client over the phone/Zoom and set (or re-set) expectations with them. 

1. Confirm how many times a day they are wanting you to check their inbox and make sure it aligns with the plan they're on. If they have decided they want you to check their inbox more frequently and it will be too often to fit within their hours, that's okay. Let the client know that will take more hours than their current plan and you'll get their account manager in touch with them to discuss changing plan. 

2. Remind your client that you will respond to the emails when you are checking the inbox at X or X times daily, however if they require something more urgent than that, they are welcome to ring you as this is the best way to contact you for urgent matters.

My client calls me all the time, even for non-urgent things!

Suggest they start sending you WhatsApp voice messages instead of calling all the time. Frame it in a way that it's good for them and a positive 'I noticed we're using your hours quickly and want to make sure we're doing things the most efficient way possible for you'. Let the client know using WhatsApp also means that the client can see when you've listened to messages, and you can replay messages if you need to listen to instructions more than once.

My client is giving me too much work!

If the issue is that your client is consistently going over hours, chat to the client's account manager and they can discuss with the client about changing their service plan.

Try and delegate as much as you can to the global team, or even to the NZ team by using the overflow channel. If you don't feel that you can delegate a whole task, try and break it down and delegate parts of it. If you are having trouble figuring out what to delegate, check out the What Tasks Can I Delegate page, or speak to your team leader.

My client keeps jumping in and doing things that I'm supposed to do!

If you find a client is overstepping and continuously jumping in and doing the tasks that you're supposed to do for them, then an email may be needed.

The email would clearly outline for the client the tasks that you currently do for them (or are supposed to but they keep doing), and hopefully be the nudge they need to step back. You can also take this as an opportunity to suggest more ways that we can help them, and to get feedback from them about how things are going to so far from their perspective.

An example of such an email is below - this was sent to a client who was doing payroll tasks that the VA was already doing, so there was a double-up, and they were also manually reconciling transactions in the very early hours of the morning, before the VA had a chance to go in, and a lot of it was having to be reversed in order to reconcile them correctly to receipts and invoices.

Subject line: Payroll/bookkeeping tasks

Email text:

Good afternoon Mike,

After our WhatsApp comms today, I thought I'd pop together a list of the payroll/bookkeeping tasks we currently do for you, to make sure we are on the same page and that we're working as efficiently as possible for you, and not doubling up on things.

Payroll - tasks done weekly:

• Loading payroll / checking Synergy for hours worked

• Email comms regarding above to team as/when needed

• Adding any new annual leave requests to Mike's calendar

• Sending payslips

• Exporting pay details to Xero

Bookkeeping - tasks done every day:

• Checking inboxes for invoices

• Publishing receipts in Hubdoc

• Reconciling Xero - this is often done in the afternoon after we have had time to check for invoices/receipts that may have come in overnight to the inbox and/or Hubdoc

GST - tasks done bi-monthly:

• Reviewed and sent to Mike - this is done by Brenna and/or Account Manager, but we did notice that last month this was entered by someone else for the June/July period

• Return loaded into Xero

Ad hoc:

• Sending statements/reminders to clients with overdue invoices when asked to by Mike - this could be done on a more regular basis as part of a debtor process if ok with you? This would include reminder emails from Xero, then from the admin email, and then possibly follow-up calls where necessary 

Let me know if you have any questions about anything mentioned above, or if there is anything else you can think of that we may be able to take off your plate for you. Again, we just want to be working as efficiently and cost effectively as possible for/with you and adding as much value to your business where we can.

Kind regards,

Rochelle

It's okay to be honest with clients if you can't do a task in a certain timeframe, but offer an alternative. 

E.g. still a yes but on your terms. 'Yes absolutely I can work on that for you, but can I get it back to you by X time as I'm unable to meet that deadline/I have a meeting this morning'. 

If clients don't give you a timeframe for tasks at all, respond to their emails with acknowledgement of the email and let them know when you will do it by (if reasonable, add in some extra time, so when/if you get it back to them early it's a bonus, but it also gives you some breathing room).