How do you handle an interaction with an entitled customer who first insists on renegotiating the terms of the deal after the service had already been rendered? Especially when they insist on paying for your service with “exposure” and then demand a public apology?
If you’ve been in business long enough, eventually you’ll run into someone who thinks that their follower count can replace their credit card.
Without a doubt, this fitness trainer handled this situation exceptionally well. And he did so by not getting too stuck into one line of thinking and assessing the situation before coming up with the best way forward.
The fitness trainer shared his story to Reddit’s r/MaliciousCompliance community. Recounting a frustrating experience with an influencer who insisted on a free meal and exercise plan in exchange for “exposure.” Despite backing down and agreeing to pay the usual way, it only took a week for her to then complain about the results, and she demanded a refund and a public apology. The trainer complied. He posted a factual statement about the plan’s focus on sustainable weight loss. Rather than focusing on quick and hollow gains. This ultimately benefited his business.
When you’re running a small business, or you are the small business, every dollar counts. At every turn, there’s another cost, an extra tax to pay. It’s bad enough that your friends want things for free. With vague mutterings about how “It costs you nothing.” But then you get complete strangers who feel entitled to a handout simply because they paid for a bunch of followers on Instagram.
You’d have to imagine that anyone running a business that is adjacent to or part of “the creator economy” must get it infinitely more often. Photographers, graphic artists, even fitness coaches. They probably can’t walk two feet without tripping over an entitled influencer. Who somehow thinks they’re the only one who has ever thought to insist they pay with “exposure.”
Author: Kayitsi.com
