Ask HN: How do you deal with clients' requests for tasks that are “below” you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you deal with clients' requests for tasks that are “below” you?

4 pointselevaet6 comments

Say you're an experienced mid-career web programmer, and your (good) client has been using a "no-code" solution to cobble together a website. They can't get it to do the thing they want, so they turn to you to figure it out. Do you do it to keep them happy, or politely turn it down?

How do you approach this dilemma, specifically where actual coding rubs up against these services that are no fun for people who write code?

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I would charge more than I normally do because it's obviously some stuff you are unfamiliar with. If you start becoming their maintainer for that solution you should be charging enough that you can pay someone else to do it and make some profit.

If they were really a good client, I'd say something like it's not my area of expertise, but I'll give it a look for five minutes. Often things like this turn out to be next to nothing or a simple misunderstanding on their part. If it turns out to be a bigger deal than that, I'd either recommend some searches they can try, someone else who might be more experienced, or offer to continue working at it at my normal rate with no promise of success. They then get to own the decision.

I don't really identify with the final part of your original post though. I code a lot, but I also use things like Zapier (and heck, Excel) and find them to be interesting domains of their own, even though it's not what I'd want to do full time. If you're a consultant, sometimes a bit of variety and an opportunity to see a customer problem from a different angle is to be savored.

Really depends on the client and your alternatives. Being the guy that "solves problems, even if they are out of the usual domain" can be quite valuable, assuming the client worth sticking with. On the other hand, "that's not my core thing and I'm more than busy with work that fits into my profile better" is also answer a good client should respect. But at least giving it a quick try to see if its something obvious is probably worth it.

The suggestion in the other comments to take it but (transparently) farm it out longer-term if needed is also a good one. "Not my usual thing, but I'll solve it and help you find someone to take care of it".

I just do it but hint that there may be someone cheaper for it.

Meetings are usually below me, but telling the client that they will be charged for the whole meeting including commute time makes them reconsider or do it remote. I'm always surprised how fast geople decide not to do meetings when there's a bill attached, but they don't consider it when it's full time work that costs the same.

One upon a time I was the IT guy for a marketing company. For this I was well paid, and I appreciated it. They needed help filling in doing data entry, and I was more than glad to help, after all... I'm being paid for it. I'd gladly sweep floors for that level of pay, if that were required. It's only temporary, after all.

If they are your personal client, consider farming the task out to someone who works in that area and tell the client that's how you plan to handle it. They can decide to accept the extra bill or find another way.

If you're a wageslave and it's really someone else's client, you have to discuss with your manager.

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