Advice: "My biggest client treats me like a help desk. I want to keep them happy, but their neediness is taking too much of my time"

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Dear Quota Team,

I’m an account manager for a logistics software company, and one of my biggest clients treats me like their personal help desk. Instead of submitting tickets or emailing support, they send everything directly to me: billing questions, training issues, onboarding tasks. The guy even asked me about a password reset! I’m trying to be helpful because they’re a major account, but I’m losing at least half a day a week doing work our CS and support teams already handle. How do I redirect them without coming off as unresponsive or risking the relationship?

Buried in Chicago

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Dear Chicago,

You don’t lose clients by setting expectations, you lose them by becoming a bottleneck. Redirecting them isn’t unresponsive, it’s the only way to support them properly. Start by framing it as an upgrade, not a boundary: let them know the support and CS teams can solve issues faster and track them better than you can alone. Then loop those teams into every request until the client adjusts. You’ll still be their point of contact for strategy and relationship work, but the day-to-day tasks need a real process. Good luck!

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