Posted on: 20 May, 2002
Author: Dave Balch
Here's a concept to ... some ... just ... the trouble. We work so hard to get ... andthen work so hard to keep them, it's hard to grasp the ideathat we are better of WITHOUT Here's a concept to consider: some customers just aren'tworth the trouble. We work so hard to get customers, andthen work so hard to keep them, it's hard to grasp the ideathat we are better of WITHOUT some of them!Let's face it; some people just don't "get it". They won'tbe nice or reasonable, they need too much 'hand-holding', orthey haggle over everything. Lose 'em! Tell them politelythat they will be better off getting your product or serviceelsewhere.A local auto repair shop diagnosed a clutch problem and didapproximately $300 worth of repairs. About 2 weeks laterthe clutch failed when I was 80 miles from home, and I hadto take it to a local Nissan dealer. They told me that theproblem was one of the parts that had just been replaced.When I took the paperwork and bad part into the local repairshop, he looked it over and took the position that he had noway of knowing whether the part in question was really bador whether the part they gave me was, in fact, the part theyhad put in. I told him that I understood that but I didn'tthink that the dealer would have tried a blatant lie and,the dealer's factory part cost less than theirs. He mulledit over and decided to give me $150 credit because itcertainly looked like something wasn't kosher and, besides,I was being reasonable and they didn't want to lose me as acustomer. Just the previous week they had had a "screamer";someone who had a problem and came in there yelling andscreaming about it."I don't need that", he said. "I told them to take theirbusiness elsewhere." Sometimes you've got to 'fire' yourcustomers!I know a graphic designer in New York who had a client thatwas very slow paying. In fact, on several occasions he evenreduced their agreed-upon fee because of what he claimedwere "delays" caused by my friend that were totallyfabricated. He has asked her to do another project: shetold him "no".Some customers need to be 'fired'.In my software business the customers typically installedthe product on their corporate computer (not a PC, but alarge "mainframe"). The software arrived on a tape and theprocess took about 2 hours. Some of them installed it withno help from me whatsoever; some of them needed help openingthe box that the tape came in. The latter customers wereusually the ones that needed to be 'fired'.It's important to define what you consider to be a "good"customer or a "bad" customer. When someone crosses theline, you have to decide whether that particular person is"worth the trouble'. Only you can make the call, but youmay be surprised to realize that they aren't.If so, send 'em packin'. You can't please everyone, but youcan wear yourself out trying to, so if the match isn't rightyou both will be better off if you sever the businessrelationship.It only hurts for a second.Then, a wave of relief will flood over you and you'll knowyou did the right thing. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com