Dealing With Clients Who Want Free Tech Support

After you’ve been in the Tech industry for a while, you’ll probably find a few of these. They’re clients or maybe even potential clients who view your actual services as unnecessary or undesirable but require your expertise and advice so they can solve their computer or device issues on their own.

They’ll often call up with a question about something not working right or an odd error message, and expect you to solve it for them free of charge, since you could just ‘tell them over the phone how to fix it’. How do you deal with these clients?

Draw The Line

An easy way to stop the request before it gets any further is to acknowledge the issue, listen to their description of what the problem is, since you would do that anyway for a potential client, and then when it’s your turn to offer a solution, simply say ‘Well, I have seen that type of issue before, but there are several things that could have caused that, and I can’t offer a certain solution without looking at it.’ That is often the case with computer issues, but if you actually do know what it is, then you can offer ‘Yes, I do know what causes that problem, and I’ll be happy to fix it for you if you bring it in.’

Reason With Them

If they want you to just tell them how to fix it, you could use a few different methods to convince them to come in. You could say ‘Well, if I told you how to do it and while I was telling you, I accidentally forgot a step, and something went wrong, I would feel responsible for it, if you bring it in, I can fix it for you, without you having to worry that maybe I missed a step and as a result your machine got damaged.’ You could offer an estimate if you are familiar with the issue, so they know how much to expect.

You could also say ‘Well, if I were to give an answer off the top of my head, without having had a chance to look at the machine, and because I didn’t have a chance to thoroughly investigate the problem, my solution was completely wrong, would you blame me? And if because of that, you told other people I don’t know how to work on computers, I would be out of business, and I wouldn’t be able to help anyone with my expertise anymore.’ If your competitor charges higher rates, emphasize that if you went out of business because you offered free advice all the time, they would be much worse off.

Alternatively, you could say ‘I’ll tell you how to fix it, and my rate as a consultant is (insert rate here). What payment option would you like to take advantage of? … I’ll be sending you an invoice for… Free advice is only worth as much as you pay for it.’ If they complain that they don’t think you should charge for that, just tell them that you can’t work for free, and expecting you to do so is tantamount to visiting a doctor and then refusing to pay for the medical advice and the visit to his office. Ask them what they do for a living, or what their job is, and ask them what they would say if they were asked to work for free.

Referrals

Of course, there are other options that don’t include refusing the job. Have you considered offering a discount in the form of referrals? For instance, if you fix their machine for them, or resolve their issue, you’ll give them 30 days (or more) to pay for it, and if they refer 3 paying clients to you within that time period, you’ll waive that bill, or give them a significant discount on it.

If they refer 2 paying clients, they can pay 30% of the bill, etc. If they have a large network of friends, this could be a good way to get referrals, and it will be worth it if the initial job’s cost was low. Of course, if the initial job is more than what you would get for 2 referrals, it may not be worth it, so take that into consideration.

If they become argumentative about it, this is a client you don’t want, so don’t waste time arguing about it, if they’re not willing to pay for your expertise, they’re not worth your time.

Bartering

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t barter services with other businesses. If someone who wants free tech support works in a business that has services that you currently are in need of, offer to barter services, tech support, a machine repair, or something else you offer in return for what they offer. Of course, you’ll want to comply with regulations regarding bartering, including reporting it for taxes, if applicable.

If you have any tips on dealing with clients who want free tech support, drop a comment below!