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REAL ISSUES. REAL ANSWERS: Firing Customers

“When it became repeatedly obvious that the relationship was far more expensive than profitable.”


“We’ve fired customers who refuse to pay for services they requested, request work that isn’t profitable, or are belligerent with staff.”


“Several times, and more lately than in prior years. Business is good right now and we just don’t want to deal with difficult people.”

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“When they refused to pay by our terms and wouldn’t buy at higher margins.”


“Without pulling the trigger to quickly, you need to understand opportunity costs and realize what ‘Time Bandits’ cost you.”


“Most often for credit-worthiness.”

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“We don’t flat out tell customers that we don’t want to sell them. However, what we do is sell certain customers at a much higher margin to cover the extra aggravation. Also, we make sure to react quicker to other customers who we do have a win/win relationship with.”


“We have cordially declined ‘Trouble Clients,’ explaining that we are not able to do their work at a profitable margin. No one is ever happy to hear that, but our experience is that, the more upset they are, the less likely we were to turn bad into good. ‘Just walk away’ is our motto in these scenarios.”


“We will ‘fire’ a homeowner quicker than a builder. Some people cannot be made happy no matter what you do for them, others are searching only for the absolutely cheapest price they can find. After nearly 50 years in business, we can usually tell fairly quickly when we are dealing with that type of customer, and know that a single sale is not going to be worth the headaches that are sure to follow.”

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“We had a customer that caused a lot of problems and it would mess up our production schedule. After we ‘fired’ them, our remaining customers were amazed at how fast we could get their orders processed. Every day for approximately six months, I would stop working for a minute and savor how much better my job was without the ‘customer from hell.’ It was a very good move for us.”

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