The Quality of a Customer
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The Quality of a Customer
As you build your business you will work with many different customers. A lot of these customers will keep coming back and buying from you on a regular basis. That’s great!
Occasionally, though, you will get a customer who becomes a continual pain the rear (for lack of a better description). You probably know the type. They complain about everything, nothing is ever good enough, once they have complained about something there is nothing you can do that seems to make it right again in their eyes. This customer may keep coming back to make purchases from you even though they complain about every little thing or make unreasonable demands. There are some customers that you just can’t make happy no matter how hard you try.
It is important that you know that you do not have to keep every single customer. If a customer is taking lots of time to deal with or manage, if they are driving you crazy, if they are threatening your business in any way, or if there are continually problems with payments that they send you for items it is perfectly O.K. not to do business with them anymore.
Nobody likes to lose a customer, and it can be a bit scary to cut someone loose. However, by spending the time and energy you would have spent on a poor quality customer working with your good, high quality customers you will make much better use of your time and have a much more successful business in the long run. You’ve probably heard the expression “Time is money”. This is never more true than when you the sole owner, operator and employee of your business. The more time you spend with your bad customer, the more money you lose that you could be making with your good customers.
If you do have to “fire” a customer, be polite but firm about it. You can tell them that you have appreciated their business, but after reviewing their history with your company you feel that their needs would be better met elsewhere. You can recommend other places for them to shop if you are so inclined, or you can not. It’s up to you.
Firing a customer is not an easy task, but I guarantee that after you do it with a particularly bad customer you will feel like a giant weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you can refocus your energy on meeting the needs of your good, high quality customers.