This may sound crazy, but somebody gave me a good piece of advice years ago that has held me in good stead, which I thought I'd pass along to you: sometimes the best thing you can do is fire a customer.
At the time, I was running a software consulting business, and we were constantly running around trying to please our clients by building software that they *thought* they wanted but we actually knew wouldn't produce the desired result. Sometimes our clients were reasonable, and when we pointed out why their instructions were misguided, they would respect our opinion and rethink their strategy. Other times, however, our clients effectively told us to shut up and do what they were paying us to do, which was build whatever they told us to build.
This turned out to be disastrous for our company. Inevitably, we would build what they wanted, 3/4 of the way through the process they would realize that it wasn't what they wanted, and then they would yell at us for building something useless. In the mean time, our employees would get demoralized, the customer would want a discount on the remaining work, and the final product would be some half-baked hybrid of what we started building and the new direction.
That's when I learned that sometimes the best thing you can do is fire your customers. If they don't get the value that you are adding, or don't appreciate your service, or have unreasonable demands, allowing them to continue being a customer can do long-term damage to the viability of your company. First, there is the opportunity cost of what you could be working on if you were dealing with this person/client. Second, these customers are inevitably needy and high-maintenance and therefore low or no profit. Third, and most importantly, by forcing your employees to deal with these people, you are sending them a message that their professionalism or values or sense of quality doesn't matter. If you tell them that the customer is always right, and to do whatever they say no matter what, you are effectively telling them that their opinions don't matter even though they are supposedly professionals in their field. Fourth, these are the kind of people/clients that are never going to be happy, and always blaming you for problems that are beyond your control.
This is related to my previous post about customers coming third, while employees come first and products come second. If you clearly explain to your employees what types of client behavior is and isn't acceptable, and empower them to make decisions about what customers you do and don't want, you are empowering them as owners of the business. They feel like their time and expertise are valued, and they inevitably put it to use for the greater good of your organization.
If, instead, you force them to kiss up to an idiot or a jerk, no matter how offensive or off-base or misguided they are, you will end up with a work force that isn't motivated to serve any of your customers with the passion and quality that is a necessity for building a great company. So do yourself a favor, and fire the one or two customers that you know in your heart of hearts are not making you great. It may mean less revenue in the short term, but it will pay back in dividends.
--jsk
P.S. I wouldn't recommend doing this with a large percentage of your customers. If you find yourself wanting to fire more than a handful of your customers, that may be an indicator of a larger problem with either your source of customers, or the quality of your product/service!
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