You don’t need to keep all of your customers. There are times when firing them would be good for your business.
Not every customer is worth keeping. In fact, it is better to fire customers who make your life, and the lives of your employees, miserable. For your business to grow and flourish, you need to know which customers are vital to your success.
Using the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule), you need to realize that 80% of your sales come from the top 20% of your customers. In the same manner, 80% of all your problems come from 20% of your customers ? and these are the ones you should consider firing.
Thus, you may need to focus on those who make your business more profitable and let loose those who are causing you troubles. This may prove to be more profitable in the long run since you can devote more time in keeping your best customers satisfied. So, which customer should you consider firing? Here are some of them.
Those who damage your employees’ morale. While you need to protect your customers against abusive employees, you also have an obligation to protect your employees against abusive customers. So, consider firing customers who are downright rude, vulgar, sexist or racist since they can damage your employees’ morale. Keep in mind that there are things that are more important than your profits.
Those with insatiable desires. No one needs customers who are never satisfied. So, if you have customers who don’t seem to be contented with your products and/or services no matter what you do, or are always complaining about one thing or another, consider letting them go. They will only sap your energy and test your patience to its limits but they would never be your loyal customers.
Those who suck you dry. Not every repeat customer can be considered as a high value customer, especially if they try to exhaust your resources just to get their money’s worth. The same is true for clients who expect you to finance their out of the pocket expenses and those who ignore your payment policies. These people take more and give less, and may eventually cause your business to lose money.
Those who use fear to motivate. Walk away from clients who threaten to fire you if things go wrong. This type of client can only dampen your creativity and productivity.
Keep in mind that you don’t need customers who make unreasonable demands and those who blame you whenever something goes wrong. Moreover, you don’t need customers who are hot-headed, use fear as a motivating factor and those who damage your cash flow and profitability. Your business can clearly do without them.
