Having a business can be incredibly rewarding but if you’ve worked with the public for any amount of time, you’ve likely experienced that 10% of your most difficult customers will take up 90% of your time.
And when you’re already juggling family responsibilities, a career and the rest of your life, it’s not a good use of your time to spend hours and hours trying to make an impossible, unhappy customer happy. You have far more important things to do and far less demanding customers to serve.
That’s why you should fire them.
That may sound harsh but I assure you, it’s not selfish, it’s smart.
Your business isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. You will be doing yourself and your demanding customer a favor when you part ways before you both end up in disappointment and frustration.
You can do this by being honest and politely explaining that you don’t think your business is a good fit. Or you can simply tell them you’re not available to take the specific order they’re requesting.
If you can identify a crazy customer early on in the process, it will help you fire them nicely and move on sooner. Here are a few red flags to watch out for to help you identify the crazies:
Their questions are accusatory from the get-go and resemble a CIA interrogation.
When you answer their questions, they still don’t seem to be satisfied or pleased. No answer is good enough.
They look for any and all ways to pay less while simultaneously asking for more.
They treat you like they’re doing you a favor by ordering and expect you to jump at their every request.
They’ve already friended and unfriended you three times on Facebook since you talked an hour ago.
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If you can fire crazy customers before they drain your energy and your time, your business will be more successful and you’ll have less gray hairs in the process!
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About the author
Christy Wright