One client call Tuesday wrecked my whole week's schedule

I run a small agency and had a Zoom at 9am with a retail client in Austin. They asked for a full content audit and I quoted 12 hours of work, but they thought it was included in the monthly retainer. I spent the next 3 days redoing their calendar and sorting out scope, which pushed two other campaigns back. The kicker is they ended up happy with the audit, but I lost billable time for 4 other smaller jobs. Has anyone else had a scope mixup like that where you just eat the hours to keep the client? How do you handle it without burning your team out?

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charlescraig22d ago

Have you tried putting a hard stop on scope changes in your retainer agreement since that happened? I've been in that same spot before, and honestly, I've learned to eat the hours once but then I tighten up the contract language so it doesn't happen again. What works for me is sending a quick email right after the call that lays out what's included and what's extra, even if it feels repetitive. That way, when they ask for something big later, I can point back to that note and say "this was never part of the deal". It doesn't fix the lost week, but it keeps the next few months from turning into a disaster.