I work as a general assistant/bookkeeper/web designer/designated young person for a fairly well known real estate company. One of my peers was in charge of the technical aspects of getting a simple WordPress website in order.

Client: I'm trying to publish a newsletter but I can't find my site.

Me: It says the IP address is unavailable.

Client: He can't take the website down. That's illegal.

Me: You haven't paid him for the past few months and you've hired a new social media marketer to redo the CRM he made.

Client: All of our things are on there! I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

Client: How do I log in to Google Analytics?

The client works for an online marketing agency. 

I sent a sample of my music to a client as an mp3 file in an e-mail, so he could hear some of my latest work.

Me: Here’s an example of my work. 

Client: I love it. Can you send me a copy?

Me: (completely flabbergasted)

I was talking with a new Client about hosting options for a new website I was going to create for her. I recommended my favorite hosting company to her.

Client: Great, so we'll use hosting company YYYY instead of company XXXX.

Me: Yes, that's what I recommend.

I start working on mockups of the new site. I check on the Client's old website two weeks later. Her old website is no longer online.

I e-mail the Client.

Me: Did you take down your old website?

Client: No, I transferred the old domain to the new hosting site you recommended. You mean the website wouldn't be transferred with it?

I'm starting to feel alarmed.

Me: No, that's a separate process. Do you have a backup of your old website?

Client: No.

I'm starting to panic. Now she has no website online. 

I call the old hosting company. They were able to restore some of her old website so that I could download the files, but not without a very tense and stressful hour on the phone.

These days I don't make any assumptions, and I carefully inform my clients about the differences between hosting, domains, and website file transfer options.

I was a potential client who was slightly older (in his 50s) who runs a multi-million dollar a year business. We discussed his website development goals and other tech-focused projects.

He appeared confused and suspicious of various topics that I had to clarify to him, such as the difference between a free and customized website.

Client: Now, why would I want a WordPress site? Those are free and so basic! (He says with a sneer).

Me: I was describing a highly customized WordPress site, which is different.

Client: Well, for now, let's just work on updating the website I had made 8 years ago. The developer coded it all himself. See if you can reach out to him to find out more about where to access the files.

I click on a few important links on the site. 

Me: Oh, the links aren't working, so leads can't inquire in those areas and customers can't view some of the products.

Client: Why would that be? Why isn't my site working?

We continue our discussion. Before we end our meeting, he checks his e-mail.

Client: How do I get rid of this e-mail from this guy? He keeps showing up in my inbox.

Me: Have you tried deleting it or flagging it as Spam?

Client: No, how do I do those things?

Anyway, he hired me for the project. I sent him an invitation to login to a Project Management dashboard so he can see the status of some tasks I was working on.

Client: I thought you were the tech expert here, why do I need to know how to do any of this.

Not sure what to do here. I'm realizing I'll have to be the one to have to walk him through many basic tech concepts - and spend months bringing him up to speed on some of the latest tech & communications trends.

I don't know if I have the patience for it.

I'm a freelance marketing professional, and I met with the sales manager of a truck dealership to discuss his interests in boosting sales & customer interest in their trucks.

Me: How are things going so far at the dealership?

Client: Not well. Sales have been down, and we’re financially struggling. I don't have time to do any marketing.

Me: That’s not good. I did some online research, and it looks like there are a lot of very negative reviews on Google and Facebook about the dealership. That’s likely hurting sales. Have you seen them?

Client: No, let me check.

I was a bit surprised by how unaware he was, as a large part of dealership sales are influenced by online reputation.

The client checked his iPhone and scrolled through Facebook.

Client: Wow, here’s a horrible review from two years ago. This is the first time I’ve heard of this!

Me: Take a look at them all. It’s helpful to respond to negative and positive reviews in a timely fashion if possible.

Client: Why would I need to do that?

I further discuss the details with him.

Me: Have you tried paid online advertising for your dealership?

Client: No, how does that work?

It seemed odd that they had done so little to market their dealership online.

The client followed up with me a week later and tells me they don't have the funds to put towards marketing.

I learned a year later that the dealership went bankrupt and was bought out by another company. I was not surprised.

I was at a meeting with a client and some of their employees. We were brainstorming ways to effectively manage some communications projects.

I didn’t want to overwhelm some of the less tech-savvy older individuals in the room.

Me: We could use Google sheets to coordinate tasks for now, and maybe use a more sophisticated project management system later.

Client: How do we use Google Sheets?

Me: It’s from Google, similar to Excel, but you can access it from your Gmail account. I can send you some instructions.

Client: I used to have a Gmail account, but my friend used my iPhone a year ago. So now whenever I try to see my e-mail I see hers instead.

One of the Client's employees: I don't know if I have a Gmail account either. I'll have to check. Do I just sign up for one?

This is going to be a slower process than I thought…

Client: I think there’s a virus in our YouTube video. We may have been hacked by our competitors.

Me: That would be weird. I haven’t heard of that one before. Let me see.

The client shows me the YouTube video with an ad.

Me: Oh, you mean the ad?

Client: Yes, how do we get rid of that? Maybe this will work.

The client proceeds to try to drag and drop the ad out of the video onto his Desktop to see if that would “remove” it.

I don’t even know where to start…

I am an experienced social media marketer, and I created a social media campaign for a financial client who needed help with communicating complex ideas in simple ways. I worked hard to make the posts as friendly, approachable, and easy to understand as possible. I wrote out my strategy and explained to them in detail my process.

My work had received compliments from the team, and I saw positive results online. They then told me that I had a new “contact” with the team. I noticed that she had never worked in social media marketing and was very new to the company. 

The new hire proceeded to re-write my posts that were scheduled for upcoming weeks and she criticized nearly every aspect of the posts in lengthy e-mails, from the imagery to the content. I even tried to explain to her why her edits didn't make much sense.

By that point, she was creating the posts (imagery and content), which weren’t in line with the overall strategy I had created, and she was complaining to me about it.

I quit and the clients' social media presence plummeted.