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How Honest Should You Be with Clients?

My Mom is dying right now – quite literally. She’s on hospice and her condition just got worse. I own a small business, I’m the CEO, copy writer, and chief everything. I spent the entire last week in the hospital by her side.

Meanwhile, I have a business to run. Today I missed a major item for a client that I shouldn’t have. I missed it because while I’m sitting in the office I’m thinking of my Mom and the detail went right past me.

Here’s my question…is it okay to mention to clients what’s going on? The client asked me how I made the mistake – is it okay to tell the truth? The truth is that I was totally distracted, rushing to finish so I could get back to the hospital, and quite frankly, can’t focus.

  • I agree, just let them know what is going on, tell them that you need to handle your family, people understand, even if it seems businesses don’t

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  • Yep. Always best to be honest. People are human. They’ll understand, and if they don’t, you probably don’t want to do business with them anyway.

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  • Ask yourself this question: Would you want to work for a client that wouldn’t sympathize with the difficult time that you and your family are going through with your mom?

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    • Yeah, that’s a great question. I think they understood about 5 days ago…but now that she “hasn’t died yet.” They seem like they’re growing weary. It’s a problem with my focus…I guess if they leave during this time I’ll know the answer.

      Thank you.

      Reply

  • I recently went through something similar – first my father going into care but rapidly declining and then nine months later, his subsequent death and another family death within days of one another. When my Dad went into care, I told my client because I was unfocused and ended up referring out the work. For the deaths, it was another client and I had to tell them because I wasn’t able to meet any of my deadlines. They were understanding but it also was partly because the impact of me not delivering didn’t have a massive knock on effect. You need to make sure that they feel like you are going to be reliable in the future and make them look good to their bosses etc. I think being really clear about what they can rely on you for is important too. Be willing to let them go though. Better you direct them to a competitor or another and them feel good about you than you disappoint them over. Also, the new vendor will owe you big time. Sorry for your situation.

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