at what point do you let your "bad" customer go? i got this customer who is a pain in the butt to deal...it's not like i don't want a paying customer but i feel like he is taking up more of my time compare to my other customers. should i let him go?

how do you rate your customers and how do you measure if he/she is worth keeping or cost you more than the account is worth.

You said he takes up a lot of your time, can I ask what he does? Just curious if he's just new, doesn't understand much and has a lot of questions or is it something else?

How is he a bad customer? He just asks too many questions?

he is rude on email, require more support than other and late on payment, every month.

late on payment, every month.

I'd say that would be about the time to let them go.

he is rude on email, require more support than other and late on payment, every month.
start imposing High Late Fees, :peace:

I'd say that would be about the time to let them go.
Yup, I agree!

Well, it depends on how much he is paying and how much you value your pride, etc...

If he is rude to your staff, then you should get rid of him immediately. There is no excuse to be rude to your staff, and you must treat your staff with the HIGHEST respect, which means terminate this customer. Would you allow someone to speak rudely to your wife/husband/partner?

If they simply ask too many questions and are using up your time, then you could perhaps send them an email with a list of your support features such as FAQ, video tutorials, etc.. and ask them to look at those BEFORE he requests help. If the problem continues, then tell him you've noticed he is using up more time, etc.. and that you want to work with him, but need him to take initiative and learn...

... or you could perhaps charge him more for the honor of requiring more help.

There is a big market for hosts who cater to customers who want to spend more $$ so they can ask little questions, etc... maybe he is a potential customer for this?

Well, it depends on how much he is paying and how much you value your pride, etc...

If he is rude to your staff, then you should get rid of him immediately. There is no excuse to be rude to your staff, and you must treat your staff with the HIGHEST respect, which means terminate this customer. Would you allow someone to speak rudely to your wife/husband/partner?

If they simply ask too many questions and are using up your time, then you could perhaps send them an email with a list of your support features such as FAQ, video tutorials, etc.. and ask them to look at those BEFORE he requests help. If the problem continues, then tell him you've noticed he is using up more time, etc.. and that you want to work with him, but need him to take initiative and learn...

... or you could perhaps charge him more for the honor of requiring more help.

There is a big market for hosts who cater to customers who want to spend more $$ so they can ask little questions, etc... maybe he is a potential customer for this?

perhap, let's face it. time is money. if you spend too much time on one customer...doesn't that also count as losing your resource?

perhap, let's face it. time is money. if you spend too much time on one customer...doesn't that also count as losing your resource?

I would agree with this statement with the following caveat - some of our most high maintenance customers have ended up bringing in more revenue with future referals and/or service orders. Without knowing the client and what their potential connections are and/or the potential for their business to expand I cannot say you shouldn't terminate the account, but I know of some clients that have been difficult to please and that have soaked up a lot of company resources have really paid off. Only you can determine if there is any potential benefit to continue the relationship.

Good luck!

I 100% agree with that. I have some pretty fricken annoying clients, but they pull referals and contacts out of their butt like none other. Truely amazing how these things work O.o

These "annoying" clients are usually the best, one thing that everyone on here mentions is to test your host for the first month, send in various tickets. etc. and check the response times. Perhaps some of these clients are people looking for good hosting, and just testing you.


--Michael

I'd say there are two camps of annoying customers:


The ones who know they're a pain in the butt, but ultimately pay off in fees or referrals.
The ones who righteously believe it is their God given right to abuse you, demand lower prices, whine about every little thing, argue about every promotion, they say they'd never refer anyone because you're so horrible (and they don't), but yet they still stick with you for some reason.


Camp one: nurture them and give them what they want because they'll drive growth.

Camp two: ignore them the best you can. Stick to your policies and adjust policies as needed to minimize their impact on your operations. Answer their questions, sure, but they haven't earned any extra mile service. If they're not paying for priority support, don't give it to them. If they're not happy, suggest they upgrade.

On that last point, we've actually converted some from camp two into camp one once they upgraded. They really needed better service, but we couldn't give it to them until they upgraded. Once they upgraded, they started getting more of what they wanted and the tone improved.

When do we let them go? When they stop paying or violate the terms of service. One special exception. As soon as they start a lawsuit or threaten to start a lawsuit, we kick their arse to the curb so hard they're finding those customer arses on Appollo missions last century. How can we do that? In our TOS, we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. Nobody needs a cancer gutting them from the inside.

I would never let a customer go unless they were verbally abusing my staff. I have customers with me 4+ years who still open stupid tickets that can be found in the knowledgebase once a week but I would never think of 'letting them go'

IMO unless they are abusing your staff or making employees feel uncomfortable then you have no reason to let them go, if the load from them asking questions is that stressful I think it is probably time to look for additional staff.