Do you believe it's okay to fire a customer?

Absolutely and when done correctly they will not even realize you have fired them. I have to release several clients over the years. The last was a consulting client that was not taking action on the plans we made and then was complaining because nothing seemed to be working. After a few months of complaining and stressful interactions I knew it was not going to work. I started our conversation by asking what types of specific training she felt she might need to accomplish what we were planning. After making a list of this training I helped her to find the company that would best be able to help her with that and offered to release her from our contract so that she could work with them. Worked out great - she felt like she had come up with the plan and I don't have to deal with her anymore.
 

Hi Steve, 

Yes. It is more than okay to fire a client. There are people in this world that you line yourself up to help as a client who are unappreciative of what you are doing for them. 

They truly deserve to FAIL and live under the bridge in a cardboard box, thanks to their KARMA. 

Shed no tears for them. Don't you dare. 

Sometimes, they may just have too big of an expectation for the ZERO budget that they foolishly try to offer you. If you know what I mean. 

I've had to walk away from clients I've taken on that I had no business working with. 

People who don't have money to pay you. 

And, when you take them on out of the goodness of your heart with their ZERO budget to get them business, they turn around and curse and slander your name. 

You don't charge them your LABOR FEE (starting at $2500) and only tell them to pay for the AD spend  (measly $200 to $600), and they spit at you. Make up lies about you. Insult you. 

And, never genuinely appreciate you for NOT requiring them to have your well-earned $2500 fee to put all of your skills, knowledge, and, expertise to work in putting together their campaigns to make the phone ring with new customers. 

$2500 they DIDN'T HAVE, yet, you opened the door for them and WAIVED it to give them an opportunity to SUCCEED. 

Generally speaking, these kinds of people are where they are in their LIFE and BUSINESS because they CREATED it. 

Many of them are UNDESERVING of your kindness. They need to live another 100 LIFETIMES to UNDO the sh-t they've done to bring them to the place they are standing. 

MOVE. OUT. OF. THEIR. WAY. STEVE. 

Ask me how I know?

Leave them right there on the floor.  

Kicking in their TIGER blood. 

Walk away. 

Don't look back. 

You may turn to SALT if you do. 

Yes, it is acceptable.  The client may not be upholding his/her end of the business relationship and requirements, and if someone is asking him/herself this question, chances are the relationship is stalled anyway, which could lead that person open up to some reviews that aren't quite ideal.  Aside from this, there is a common practice (largely in service businesses) to cull out the bottom x percentage of clients (based on ease of relationship and billings), to replace with better, higher paying, more substantial clients.

I believe it’s ok especially when the client is never happy or they may ask you to do something illegal, unethical or immoral in the business setting that may affect your integrity or  business reputation. It all about how you handle it and if you will compromise your values. I don’t, I’ll explain the potential liability and/or outcome so they are aware, however I will only do what’s right for their business and employees. 

Maintain your position, evaluate the potential pushback and make your decision at that point what’s best for all involved. The client will respect you or maybe it will be a reversal of them ending your contract. 

Anyway, review the circumstances, evaluate your position and those involved, don’t make an emotional decision, think it through thoroughly, how will it affect you and your business, is there a compromise, then have a planned agenda of your concerns and have a meeting with your client and see if you can attain an amicable agreement. 

What’s your threshold and how much is it worth to you.

Absolutely. Not everyone is going to be a good fit together. In the end, you have to balance the needs of the client and your own. If they don't fit, then letting them go is the smartest things for all parties.

It happened to me last fall for the first time. It takes a lot to push me over the edge, but the client was so offensive to me that I knew I couldn't represent her in good faith to get her the work that she wanted. She kept pushing me to do things that weren't in her contract and discounted all the work I had accomplished for her. In addition, I didn't feel aligned with her ethics. Better for both of us to be done with the relationship.

Over the course of eleven years in my career coaching practice I've "fired" three clients.  None of these situations was pleasant, but each was necessary.  In my case, the client was not walking the talk, failing to show up for coaching calls, not completing the assignments required to move them forward, or not paying their bills on time.  In order for me to stand in my own integrity, I had to disengage from these folks.  Their behaviors did not make them BAD people, but I knew they were not serious about the work and they were not appropriate clients for Launching Lives.

100% yes. If a customer is a drag on the business and it becomes apparent that there is no possible upside in the relationship it becomes necessary to part ways. 

The reason: if you are not benefiting from their business your level of service and interest will drop, and unhappy customers talk. 

It is better to have the hard discussion about what is troubling you with that customer and possibly lose them than ruin potential future business with bad referrals.

The first question, is there something I'm doing to cause friction with this customer? If not, and the customer is taking a lot of time to service compared to others, and therefore unprofitable, then suggest they find another provider. Do it delicately not to create bad word of mouth.

A business owner that wishes to remain in business cannot afford NOT to agree with your comment.  However....you have to do so in a manner that does not put your business at risk or influence other customers.  This means you have to use calm, calculated finesse.

What I have done in the past is to calmly present a situation that the bad customer is not likely to accept and then it will be his choice to leave my business and not want to come back.  In my capacity as a consultant, that has actually been pretty easy for me to do since I am in control of my labor rate and time.  I can simply tell the bad customer that I charge $400/hr and I am available to work on his project for up to 9 hours per week.  Perhaps in 6 or 8 weeks, I'll be able to increase that time per week to 10 or 12 hrs.  This has worked for me several times.

In a retail business, it is a little trickier and usually requires a unique solution to each situation.  In one instance, an irate and often troublesome customer brought back a broken small appliance - a blender,  He said he used it only once.  I could easily see that the blades were bent and there were deep dents on the interior plastic top.  He had almost certainly put something metal into the blender and burned up the motor.  After listening to his story, I quietly told another employee to go remove all the other blenders off the shelves and then come back and whisper in my ear that she had done that.  I then told the irate customer that we had no ability to repair the blender and that he could send it into the manufacturer under warranty.  He demanded I replace it.  I stalled until my employee returned and then took the customer to the shelf area where we sold blenders.  Gosh, look at that, we are sold out and don't expect any in for months.  He demanded his money back.  I again told him that we can't do that because of national corporate policy won't allow us to do that when there is a warranty on the product.  This conversation was repeated several times at elevated volume and increasing expletives until he finally said what I was waiting for, "I'll never shop here again" and then he stormed out.

If you can remain calm and be creative, you can usually tell a bad customer to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip and think it was their idea.