When and How to Fire a Customer?

We all can agree on the fact that without customers there is no business. Businesses are always ready to go an extra mile to make customers happy. But, at times, some customers turn out to be worse and not worth the effort for your company. Here comes the point where you should think about firing such customers.

It’s not easy to fire a customer as they might have already become part of your journey. They can pay you thousands of dollars and give you more referrals, but if they are not professional with you and troubles you all the time, it may not be healthy to keep them.

All said, how do you know when is the right time to fire the customer? Let’s discuss the scenarios which lead to this decision:

When to fire a customer?

Unreasonable demands

If your customer is always demanding without any logical reasons and expects you to provide features/services which are out of your scope as mentioned at the initial agreement.

They want everything for nothing

You definitely would have faced a situation where the customer wants to use your complete potential to have all the premium features/service but not ready to pay the cost of it. Never agree on this as you need to invest a lot of time and money without getting anything in return.

They don’t listen to you

Most of us have come across customers who never listen to you and always just keep on bombarding without understanding the process or situation. Don’t go behind such customers as they will put in more trouble throughout the process.

Lack of respect

Yes. I agree that the customer is the king but that doesn’t mean that they can disrespect you and your company. Always have guts to fire the customer who doesn’t have any business ethics.

No proper response

We have seen customers who disappear after the first meeting and never responds to your emails/calls/messages.
This kind of customers lacks the ability to make decisions and also take you in the same boat which never leads to any destination. It’s better to stay away from such customers.

Points to be considered before firing a customer

Does losing this client hurt your company financially?

If you’re a startup and do not have the luxury of many customers then you might need to drop the idea of firing a customer. Check out the worth of keeping the customer and your revenue before losing any paying customer.

Have you considered a longterm effect?

It’s easy to fire a client but as per the expert’s opinions bringing a new customer to require more cost than retaining an old client. So try your best to improve the relationship with a client before deciding to fire them.

Are you able to get new customers?

Before firing a customer make sure that you are capable of getting new customers to maintain the revenue flow. Ideally, you should already have a new customer in your pipeline to fill the gap.

Have you Considered legal consequences?

Please check your agreement which you have made with a particular customer and check about the legal consequences which might incur the settlement amount for breach of the contract. If you think it is a big loss then don’t fire them.

Now let’s discuss the main agenda of the article — how to fire a customer?

How to fire a customer?

Whatever might be the reason to fire a customer but from your point of view, it is important to be professional and do it in a polite manner. Before firing them make them understand the situation and intimate them indirectly that you are at the stage of ending the relationship with them. I have come across a few customers who had turned out to be better after informing about the issue and our concerns.
Suggested Read: How to Deal With Angry Customers?

Now it’s important to choose the channel to fire your customers. Those channels are:

• Email
• Phone
• Face to face

Let us understand when to use any of these channels for firing the customer.

Email

You may want to use emails when:

• The issue is just because of the behavior of your client and it is already bought to their notice earlier.
• It doesn’t need much explanation.
• If you think to get into call or face to face meeting can turn the situation more worst.
• There are not many things to be discussed after firing the client.
• If you think there is no necessity for 2-way communication to make this decision.

You can use the email template below for inspiration:

Dear {CLIENT NAME},

Thank you so much for being with us over the past (months/years). Recently I’ve noticed many problems with our working relationship.

It isn’t easy to say, but unfortunately we are unable to serve you from now onwards.

We really appreciate that you had given us opportunity to work with you and we wish your business the best of luck in the future.

If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

{YOUR NAME}

Check here for more email scripts

Calls

You may want to use phone calls when:

• You might have observed that most of the times your customer have preferred calls over emails in the past to have conversations with you.
• It might be necessary to give them a detailed explanation.
• If you have a confidence that you would be able to take this conversation in a polite manner.
• Make a plan and schedule call with a customer.

Face to face

You may want to convey them on the face when:

• If you think that there are a lot of things to be sorted out before ending the relationship with them.
• There are any legal issues to be discussed and settle down.
• If it is a really big client and you are responsible for addressing to their top management as well

Above mentioned things are general guidelines and collected from experienced people but you don’t need to follow the same strategies. Nobody knows your customers better than you — so it is all in your hand to decide to choose a particular plan/strategy/process to fire the customers.

This article was originally published here.

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