#cusomters

1) Dear jesus thank you...i never wanted to talk to you anyway. 

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is known as a leading authority on business management. Each year he fired the 10% of his bottom performing managers to save resources being wasted on them. He believed it was better to hire new managers than keep ones that weren’t meeting expectations. The same goes for customers: the bulk of your resources will be spent on the worst ones.

This might sound blasphemous, but I believe more businesses need to fire their customers. A bad customer is very dangerous for a young business. There are huge amounts of pressure to always say yes to a customer. The saying “the customer is always right” paralyzes many young businesses and hijacks their success when a bad customer comes into the picture.

Here are some typical “bad customer” red flags:

Unreasonable demands and expectations on you and your employees.

Unnecessarily complicated projects Indecisive, egoistical and otherwise irrational mindsets

Consistently changing their minds Forgetting the terms, boundaries and expectations of a project

Requests coming at the expense of helping other customers

Continual complaints about your pricing, features or options

If you have been in business for more than a week, chances are you have some customers like this. Do yourself a favor and fire them. The bad customers will suck you dry and will never be satisfied. You will find yourself endlessly bending over for a difficult customer.

If you dread receiving a particular customer’s email or phone call, you should consider telling them to find another solution. One of the most liberating things you can do is to tell a difficult client or customer, “I don’t think this is a right fit” or “We would be happy to suggest an alternative option for you.” Your happiness and sanity is not worth the 4 cents an hour you will ultimately make.

Firing a customer doesn’t mean ignoring them because you’ll just piss people off unnecessarily. Firing a customer doesn’t mean you have to be an a-hole. Be upfront, direct, and polite. Tell them that you cannot meet their expectations and are truly sorry, but this decision is for the best. Executed correctly, a bad customer will respect your decision and possibly even correct their bad behavior. One can only hope.