What Are Successful Business Owners Doing About Problem Customers?

Why would you get rid of customers? This will sound very foreign to most business owners who are desperately trying to find new customers and get repeat business. It may also sound weird that in a blog all about marketing, customer acquisition and building solid profitable relationships that we have this post dedicated to firing customers.

Let me stress that not all dollars are equal and not all revenue is good. Problem customers will suck the life out of your business so you’ll need to take a stand to not let toxicity go on any longer.

Not firing problem customers will likely cost you huge amount of time, money and aggravation. The old cliché is “the customer is always right.” Let me tell you that the customer isn’t always right.

Living this cliché that “the customer is always right” will cause you to live your business life as a doormat where you spend your time trying to please or retain problem customers. Unlike wine, problem customers don’t get better with time.

First let me clarify that I’m not talking about customers who have a legitimate cause for complaint. Customers with genuine complaints are valuable intelligent assets.

Customers with legitimate complaints are the ones that can help you uncover weaknesses in your business. They may even reveal where you’re losing money in your business that you wouldn’t know about because other unhappy customers didn’t complain – they simply stopped buying from you.

Fixing legitimate complaints from customers can strengthen even further your relationship with them and makes your business even more robust. When customers see you tending, responding and resolving their genuine complaint, they’re more likely to buy from you again and recommend you to others. This will make them feel validated, respected and taken seriously.

On the other hand, here are the characteristics of problem customers:

• They represent the percentage of the population that are never happy.
• They’re always wining, dissatisfied and feel like everyone’s out to take advantage of them.
• They still complain even if you shower them with gold and give your product or service to them for free, they’ll still find something to complain about.
• If you let them, they would suck the life out of you and your business.

So as part of your regular housekeeping activities, when you come across such customers, cut them loose as quickly as possible.

Problem customers are normally the low value, price sensitive customers who complain the most, waste huge amount of your time and who always need to be chased for payment. Your high value customers are your most profitable as they tend to pay on time, will treat you with respect and value your services.

Another important reason to fire problem customers is because apart from sucking up your financial resources, they can also cause you to lose out on opportunities. When you fire them, it frees up your valuable time and resources which can be used on focusing and building value with existing tribe members, and to also acquire new ones.

Problem customers can keep you from giving your time, energy and attention to high value respectful customers. Your tribe are the ones that keep the lights on, stick with you and promote you. So, firing these low value detractors gives you the time needed to show more love to your high value tribe members.

So, as you place your attention on these high value customers, it builds loyalty and can very quickly result in an increase in lifetime value and healthy revenue that far outweighs the loss of polluted revenue.

Firing problem customers also sends the message that you only have a limited supply of time and that you’re very selective about who you’ll work with.  And with limited supply, people have to play by your rules and pay accordingly.

Although business is hard work it should still be fun. So, don’t allow problem customers to suck the fun out of it as you will lose out on one of the major benefits of running your own business. If you find your business to no longer be fun, no amount of money will compensate for you being miserable.

If it’s no longer fun, you’re most likely not doing it right.  Take the time to periodically review which customers are causing you the most pain in your business. Cutting them lose will make you feel like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you’ll have the renewed energy to focus on high value tribe members.