How much do you rely on ROI numbers?

I see alot of people that feel ROI is the "defining" number when it comes to business..

But I also see problems with people that spend to much time looking at the "bottom line"

For example, since a good percent of the people here are hosting providers..

Do you treat a customer that pays more, better then a customer that pays less?

When considering any option, do you first pull out a calculator and figure out your ROI?

While I do see the importance of ROI, I feel to many people let it drive there business, just wanted to get a idea how right I am.

You have to look at it from a service provider point of view. You're not at the top of the ladder. If you don't act on this and he keeps spamming, there's a good chance your upstream provider will shut you down for violating their TOS.

Shut him down immediately.

And about your point... you should treat your customers like customers. I think all our customers are important. The ones that pay $5.95 are just as important as the ones that pay $39.95/month. Their word of mouth brings us more business than I could go out an buy... so wereat them all equally.

I agree with you 100% however You know as well as I do that alot of business people put money before anything else and will step out of there way for that "high" paying client.

You're right... but I won't put any amount of money a client pays at a higher priority than abiding by the TOS of my upstream provider. If they shut you down you can't make $1

the reason you should attempt to treat all customers as equally as possible is ROI. a smaller guy can easily refer a bigger guy, and PR is a wonderful and dangerous thing.

Your rules though that are in place for your survival are there for a reason and cannot be broken without serious consequences, regardless of their input to your top line.

If someone's broken a rule, and had a justifiable reason why, I might let them stay, providing they agree that they are on probation and now know the rules completely. The second time, they would be history, period. The fact that he's done it a third time is crazy. You're lucky that someone hasn't complained to the right people, or you'd be out of business.

If they'd shut off fdc for that, they'd certainly shut you down. It will be someone way obove your host that has final say.

Besides, if that spam hits the wrong little script kiddie, you'll be down anyway.