Appreciation for that coworker at the Denver networking event who spoke up

I went to a small business meetup in Denver last Tuesday and during the Q&A, a guy named Tom from an IT firm asked a practical question about handling client scope creep. It caught my attention because I've been dealing with that exact issue at my own job for months. His solution about setting a 3-strike email rule before any extra work really clicked for me. Has anyone else tried something like that to keep projects on track?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_white1mo ago

Hold on a second. I've actually tried a "3 strike" rule like that with my clients, but I want to gently point out something that might trip you up. The 3 strike email rule works fine for smaller, repeat clients, but if you're dealing with a big client that has a $50,000 contract, firing off three "strike" emails after every little scope change can actually make you look like the difficult one. I made that mistake with a client last year where I sent out my third warning over some small data entry requests, and it almost cost me the whole account. You might want to tweak it so the first email is just a polite "hey, this is outside our agreement" and the third one is a full stop, not just a warning. Otherwise, you end up chasing your own tail and looking petty instead of professional.

susan6491mo ago

@emery_white nailed it with that big client advice, saved me once too.

the_max1mo ago

I mean, I tried a two-strike rule once and ended up striking myself out before the first inning.