Get Rid Of Jackass Clients
Posted in Works on 09/27/2009 09:02 pm by adminA very good article from Forbes.com which counters the thinking that customers are king !
The customer is not always right–so fire your wrong ones.
Jackasses have been in the news lately, with President Obama caught on an open mike observing that Kanye West was one after the rapper made a fool of himself at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. Jackasses are always with us in business too. Robert Sutton in his book (using a cruder term for the same sort of person) The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, argues that talented yet disruptive employees always cause more harm than good. He says you need to either reform them or push them out. But what about when it’s not employees but clients who are difficult, who berate your team and make you waste time running around in circles? Should you just suck it up and make sure you hit the quarterly numbers? Or should you fire those customers?
Companies need to exceed the expectations of customers to create brand loyalty, as I wrote in “United Airlines Shows How Not to Run Your Business.” After all, it costs less to sell new products and services to current customers than to acquire new ones. But the old adage that the customer is always right is just plain wrong. Customers are not always right, and you should not always let them run all over you.
That might sound counterintuitive if your company is struggling just to scrape by in this difficult economic time, but you have to get rid of bad clients. Jackass clients, just like difficult employees, can destroy a business by destroying morale and diverting attention from growing the business. Cutting clients isn’t easy, especially if they’re big ones, but companies need to do it more often.
How do you know if you should fire a client? Look for these three signals:
First, too often executives, especially small business owners, spend so much time and energy servicing difficult clients that they’re unable to canvass for new business. Relying on just a few clients is a killer. Basing your whole business on one or two income sources is simply too risky. If you find yourself spending so much time and effort on one difficult client that you’re neglecting your other clients, or if you’re not able to search for new ones, then you know you have a problem.
Keep in mind the 80-20 rule. At most companies, about 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the clients. If you find you’re spending too much time on an unproductive client, fire them. Analyze where you spend most of your time and effort. You’re likely to learn that you spend the most time on the least important clients. That’s because more important clients already trust you and are therefore easier to please.
Second, remember that if your company is like most, your employees are your greatest asset. A good management team can squeeze profits out of bad products, and a bad management team can kill even the best ideas. The key is to retain your best people. In the long run they will help you make far more profits than the one difficult client who may drive them away.
If your employees look haggard and even the go-getters among them hesitate to take on a new project with a particular client, it’s time to investigate. Sometimes an employee will leave a company because of unhappiness with day-to-day client work, rather than because of bosses or colleagues. This is especially true in service industries like law, medicine and accounting, where one spends more time with clients than with co-workers. It is terrible to work in an environment where the client makes your life miserable and your boss fails to back you up. Everybody wants to work in a humane environment where they feel valued and supported.
Bad morale also exhausts employees and makes them unable to think clearly and plot the best courses for future success.
Finally, life is short. While we all have to put up with difficult situations and people sometimes, you can’t let chronically difficult clients affect the health and well-being of your family. If your kids or significant other tell you you’re especially grumpy, then think about whether a client is causing your stress, and whether that stress is worth it. Most of the time it isn’t.
High-paying jobs and the resulting benefits like vacation homes, jewelry and gadgets are great, but at the end of the day, always remember why you work so hard.