Do you believe it's okay to fire a customer?
It’s OK to “fire a customer”. You must have enough self-respect that to allow a customer to disrupt your business, and one who is apparently never happy with the product or service you provide, goes against your very being. Do you agree?
360 Comments
Answers (41-50)
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I think it's totally acceptable to fire a customer if they're doing more damage than good to yourself, your mental health and your business.
If you're starting to dread going to work because of them, it's not a great sign.
Absolutely, if what I'm doing is not helping them, or if they're not letting me help them.
I've also had clients I've charged up to 10% to 20% more, because they were slow and cumbersome and costing me time and money and hassle.
I'm in the business of helping folks be more effective and efficient. I give them plenty of leeway early on - if they didn't have problems we wouldn't be talking - but in the end it's about making and keeping commitments.
Absolutely. I look for clients that are good people, friendly, and who value my myself and my product. I regularly evaluate my clients and if one should not measure up, I kick them to the curb. One of my favourite clients is a 92 year old woman who is blind, lives alone, with no family in the area. After working on her yard we sit for awhile and crack jokes, she has a great sense of humour. She is cash poor and I have not raised my fees since I started with her10 years ago, so my renumeration is low but she is priceless. I do come across the odd client who is not appreciative of who I am or what I do and they are not clients for long.
I worked in a sales organization some years ago, and we would "trade" our bad clients with each other. Once in a while, it is a personality issue. Sometimes the more reasonable ones realized what happened and behaved for the new rep.
Of the remaining pain in the arsses, if it didn't work out we would laugh at each other's efforts and try to justify which of us got the worst client. Always over a beer. It became a badge of honor.
It makes the whole thing easier to manage, and we were a closer organization because of it.
My business is custom manufacturing and all projects are bid. Customers that have a history of unreasonable expectations are bid at a price that allows for the delivery of those expectations. I call it a PIA charge.
Absolutely, I don’t like to take that action ; but if that customer is actually costing you money therefore you need to cut the lost cause it goes against the law of business
Absolutely! I try to work with all my customers, but sometimes a person can be impossible to work with or satisfy.
In addition, in my business I teach martial arts for self defense. I had a student arrested for domestic violence and told him he can't train with us ever again, so he was an easy decision on a customer to fire.
Absolutely. I've had to do it when clients don't keep up their end of the bargain or try to get information to go around our process.
It is ok ! And sometimes very important too ! When they are very unreasonable, after try to talk reasonable and they keep texting you for hours on in !!