Sometimes you have a client that is completely irrational. No matter what you say or do to try and please them it is not going to be good enough. Many years ago, while working for Rider University Study Tours as a counselor I had my first encounter with precisely this.
For those that don't know, Study Tours is a great educational program for students from Europe and Asia to come to the United States to learn English and immerse themselves in American culture. The students spend two weeks in a particular location in the United States and take English classes for three hours each day. I (along with other staff members) was responsible for the other 21 hours of their day, which included leading tours to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
The most stressful day was arrival and departure day. On these days we were sending bus loads of students back to the airport after their two week stay, cleaning up the dorms in which they stayed, and welcoming hundreds of new students to campus. Although it could be stressful, I like to believe that I managed a type of organized chaos.
On this particular arrival day we had many groups arrive on campus and check-in successfully. The groups arriving on campus were always very tired as many of them had traveled for close to 24 hours to get to the United States. This aspect didn't help them with their rationality, I assure you. The last bus with 11 students arrived and we were so close from being done. Of course, the last and smallest group was the most difficult.
The leader of this particular group did not like the accommodations that we had assigned her students. We had to split them up because we were simply out of available space. The worst part was, all the other groups had checked-in, were settled, and asleep. My hands were tied.
I walked around for hours with this woman showing her all the available options. She repeatedly yelled at me for splitting up her students. I finally had to call my boss at 1 a.m. and ask him to speak with her. I wasn't happy about doing this, but I was out of options. She yelled at him some more, hung up the phone and said to me, "I don't believe that I was actually speaking to a person. I think you called a recording."
I tried to persuade her that was not the case. I begged her to sleep in the available room that we had for her, and assured her that we would figure something out in the morning.
She screamed at me, "I will do no such thing! I WILL SLEEP IN THE GARDEN!" [By garden she meant the lawn in front of the dorm.] She continued her rage, "I know that if I go and sleep in that room tonight that you will forget about me tomorrow and I will be stuck there for the next two weeks."
I tried again to assure her that I would not forget about her, and that when my boss got here in the morning we would sort everything out.
After much coaxing, she finally obliged, But left me with this, "Fine, I will go to the room, but I will not shower, and I will not put on deodorant until this is solved, and you will smell me." As she said this, she lifted her arm up and put it in my face as if to get me to smell her armpit. Gross!
The next morning when I arrived at the office at 8 a.m. she was already outside smoking a cigarette, waiting for me and my boss. I tried to avoid her, for fear that she truly did sleep in the garden and that she smelled. By 8:30 a.m. my boss had arrived. She immediately recognized him and said, "I remember you from the conference!"
He smiled and said, "Yes, I was there. I'm sorry you had some trouble last night, let's see what we can do."
He walked into the office and talked to me about our options. I gave him the same options that I had given her last night. He relayed them to her again and she said, "Well that sounds great. It's exactly what I was asking for last night. I love you!" and gave him kiss on each cheek.
Steam nearly came out of my head. I spent hours with this woman going over her choices, and within minutes my boss had given her the same options and she was satisfied.
He did nothing differently than me, but the rapport that he had with her was enough to calm her. I was beyond frustrated.
Years later when I was in charge of the locations on the West Coast, I experienced this with my counselors. They would spend hours explaining something to a leader and I would tell the leaders the same thing the counselors had and in minutes they would be satisfied. I tried to reassure the counselors that it wasn't them, but the leader's perception of who had the power.
Sometimes you have to call in reinforcements, and sometimes you just can't please everyone no matter how hard you try.