Do you treat pro bono work differently to a paying customer?

Tom, one of my customers needed a video for a proposal he was pitching however there was one snag he did not have the budget. He managed to get some professional actors who were willing to help out in putting this great idea together and everyone was willing to do it pro bono on the understanding that if we got a green light everyone would be paid.

Tom then had to try and get a video guy on board who would do the video shoot as well as the editing of the video so it could be packaged nicely for his pitch. Tom managed to find a very good video guy who came highly recommended and he agreed to jump on board with the same understanding that it is a pro bono job and when the agent got sponsorship everyone would get paid.

The video shoot happened, everyone was pleased with the results but Tom came and told me the other day that he’d been waiting now for almost 2 months for the final product and it is causing him to lose sponsors and opportunities and that it had a ripple effect on everyone who is involved in this project. I asked Tom if he’d approached the guy and he said that his response was that he is very busy and he need to attend to paying clients first.

How does this reflect on Mr Video Guy and his service

Tom understands that paying clients get preference; after all you get what you pay for. However a 2 month wait is a bit extreme considering that everyone involved also did the work pro bono. This is a team project.

The impact of treating your customers differently

Treating your customers differently according to what and how much they pay can have a drastic negative impact on your business.

Tom recently signed up a very good client whose product is very visual and this client will need a series of videos done for her business as part of her product offering. She wanted to know from Tom if he knew someone he could recommend.
Tom’s first response was, “yes of course”, thinking he could show a return of gesture to Mr Video Guy who was doing a pro bono job for him but then stopped himself from recommending Mr Video Guy and recommended someone else.

Why did Tom do this?

In the back of Tom’s mind Mr Video Guy was taking for ever to complete the pro bono job and wondered if he is like this with all his clients and even if it did not take as long as two months for paying clients, he wondered how long paying clients had to wait for their finished products. You see, Tom also added that he had agreed to cover the cost of the video production and if Mr Video Guy had actually produced a product for Tom, he would’ve been paid as Tom had a sponsor who was 95% keen.

Recommending work you have not seen or used

The other reason why Tom did not recommend Mr Video Guy is because he has not seen his own finished product and while Mr Video Guy came recommended via a reliable source he felt reluctant to pass on details on work he has never seen.

What can we learn?

I think there is a very fine line between treating customers differently because of how much they pay. In my opinion you should never do this because it can cost you more in the long term. It can cost you word of mouth business. Social media being the perfect platform for people to recommend and talk about your service, you are losing out on free advertising.
Mr Video Guy should’ve seen the project as an opportunity to give himself a good reason as to why he should take on the job in the first place. In Tom’s case there was a big opportunity for Mr Video Guy to generate new business. For starter’s Tom’s line of work is a perfect alignment where Tom could send Mr Video Guy business. There was an agent involved who works with actors and entertainers who could use Mr Video Guy’s services on many different occasions. The video shoot, had additional entertainers and actors, one of them Tom knew needed videos done for his website. Now these potential clients are also asking the same question. “What is taking so long?” and questioning his service delivery.

Pro Bono Work, other terms are, Paying it Forward or Trade Exchange can all offer just as much value as a paying client it if pays off. Paying it Forward is an investment in yourself to give you the opportunity to show case your work to potential clients in the future.

The entire crew on the project all felt it was a brilliant concept and had a good chance otherwise they themselves would not have agreed to do this pro bono.

There is always an understanding that paying clients come first. However, all Mr Video Guy had to do was agree to a time frame for delivering the project. This way the client can decide for themselves if it works for them otherwise the client leaves with high expectations resulting in a great disappointment.