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  1. #26
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    Customers can get aggressive at times but its just best to try and resolve the issue as soon as possible and give them confidence you can sort it, also helps taking ownership too rather than passing it on to another member of staff.

    Abusive clients shouldn't be tolerated, if it gets really bad, then might be as well sending them on their way, refund and cancel their account.
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  2. #27
    I think its important to determine the term "abusive" in this context.

    If you are referring to rude and offesive customers, always seeking for the lowest deal, then I would agree, that such clients are part of every business and can be dealt with in a calm and understanding matter. Yes, sometimes they tend to ask much more for what they`re paying for, but if possible in some occassions - why not satisfy them? After all word of mouth is still a powerful tool in hosting marketing nowadays.

    However there is a completely different category of "abusive" if we refer to abuse of server resources, having a site too demanding for their current plan and in such cases its important to explain everything to them in details so they can realize the issue. Always offer solutions - cover any confusions and give the benefits. After that its solely their choice if they wish to cooperate to comply with the Terms or remain an "abuser" in which case the provider can safely decide to cut them off.

  3. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rado_Ch View Post
    I think its important to determine the term "abusive" in this context.
    I fully agree here. I've been called 'abusive' more than once by one specific company (who shall remain nameless until my data is safely out of their network), but the reality is that the staff of said company are abusive.

    In some cases, it's not really an "abusive client", but the staff replies that are, or the staff itself. These are the people that just cannot adhere to basic common sense and respect, the ones that shut off servers, websites and VPS' with zero warning, for 5 minutes of 'load'.
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  4. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Rado_Ch View Post
    If you are referring to rude and offesive customers, always seeking for the lowest deal, then I would agree, that such clients are part of every business and can be dealt with in a calm and understanding matter. Yes, sometimes they tend to ask much more for what they`re paying for, but if possible in some occassions - why not satisfy them? After all word of mouth is still a powerful tool in hosting marketing nowadays.
    Really? So if a customer phones up and swears at your staff, you try and satisfy them? I think that's a bad sign, it's not right to expect staff to be on the end of an abusive phone call like that in my opinion.

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by justcolo View Post
    Really? So if a customer phones up and swears at your staff, you try and satisfy them? I think that's a bad sign, it's not right to expect staff to be on the end of an abusive phone call like that in my opinion.
    Of course no one would want their employees treated unfairly, but that doesn't mean that the rep should not make an effort to turn the situation around...

    Many rude customers are just frustrated or do not understand a certain procedure. It's always important to try to be polite and helpful, as long as the situation allows it. Leaving a customer in a state of frustration can add to his already negative feelings and that can greatly reflect on the company reputation. Of course this is different on a case-to-case basis and as I mentioned sometimes the client cannot calm down after several attempts and there is really nothing much the person on the other end can do
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  6. #31
    Handling rude customers needs some patience and special quality from the support technician side.
    The first step should be to try to handle the client and fix his issues so that he can calm down. Once he is calm, its easy to make him more co-operative.
    However, in some cases as has been my experience with a few, its better to end the contract.

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
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    2

    Abusive Clients, what do you do?

    I don`t think it should be some special way to treat abusive clients. They do not deserve it. On the contrary, we should educate them. Specify the scope of conduct for that they to know the border. For example, the price of such and such, and not a cent less, sorry.

  8. #33
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    15
    regardless if that 1% is rude or disrespectful, they are still your clients and you should make them feel at home. If you dont then they will find someone else who will

  9. #34
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    Sometimes hosting customer is just like to confrontation and/or to cancel. Looking for a reason.
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  10. #35
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    Sometimes it only makes sense to cut them loose and fire them.

    Years ago, when running another services business, we had 1 cleint that taking up around 20% of our support staffs time week in week out, then whenever we failed to respond within a few minutes her husband would call and abuse us. This one customer who was paying us $100/mth was costing us far more.

    the 80/20 applies to service based businesses. 20% of your clients will utilize 80% of your support resources. The trick is to identify the 20% of the 20% - and getting rid of this small number can see remarkable improvements to your service with no more effort. So, per 100 clients if you can identify the 3 that are the most "needy' who also tend to be the most abusive and rudest as well, and fire them.

    Don't be afraid to "fire" the bad clients!

    As to abusive, have a very strict TOS and on the first sign of abuse refer your client to those said terms and point out the appropriate clauses. Next time, you just advise them that you can no longer do business with them and either refund or cancel their account at the end of their current term.

    TL/DR; Do not be afraid of firing a bad client - your business will be better for it.
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  11. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by RRWH View Post
    the 80/20 applies to service based businesses. 20% of your clients will utilize 80% of your support resources. The trick is to identify the 20% of the 20% - and getting rid of this small number can see remarkable improvements to your service with no more effort. So, per 100 clients if you can identify the 3 that are the most "needy' who also tend to be the most abusive and rudest as well, and fire them.
    Although this "strategy" has its perks, I don`t see it applicable in most cases. You CAN check your server stats and see which clients take most resources and you CAN compare them with the ones that most often come to chat/ticket/email/phone, but those are usually the people that want to learn and improve themselves. Those clients are actually very valuable because they are responsive to new knowledge and are cooperative when they have to read new info, instead of asking everything to be done by someone else. Even though those people can become a little irritating at times, this is simply because don't have the know-how and sometimes get frustrated in the learning process.

    The ones that are rude and uncooperative are usually the so called "freeloaders" - they can only pay you a couple of bucks per month, have a very small project, that utilizes low resources, but constantly insisting on an even better deal, more help and special attention. As I commented on them in the previous post, they also can be dealt with, but to a certain extent...
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  12. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by Rado_Ch View Post
    Although this "strategy" has its perks, I don`t see it applicable in most cases. You CAN check your server stats and see which clients take most resources and you CAN compare them with the ones that most often come to chat/ticket/email/phone, but those are usually the people that want to learn and improve themselves. Those clients are actually very valuable because they are responsive to new knowledge and are cooperative when they have to read new info, instead of asking everything to be done by someone else. Even though those people can become a little irritating at times, this is simply because don't have the know-how and sometimes get frustrated in the learning process.

    The ones that are rude and uncooperative are usually the so called "freeloaders" - they can only pay you a couple of bucks per month, have a very small project, that utilizes low resources, but constantly insisting on an even better deal, more help and special attention. As I commented on them in the previous post, they also can be dealt with, but to a certain extent...
    Abuse typically has little to do with server resources. Every once in a great while we get someone abusing bandwidth (can't really abuse anything else in a dedicated server environment like ours), and we usually let it slide. Sometimes we have to ask for extra money to cover the cost, but that's pretty rare. Even if we didn't ask someone to cover bandwidth overages, it's less than 1 out of 100 people where we would lose enough money that it would be a real financial burden to keep them on without charging extra.

    The real 20/80 rule comes in from support. It doesn't take much to find abusers there. Just ask your staff which customers are the most needy and unreasonable. Then inform those customers where your support boundaries are, and stick to it. If they don't like it, they can leave. If they respect your support boundaries, they can stay. Needing "A little extra help" does not get someone into the top 5%. The worst 5% of customers are the reasons your employees are looking for another job. Which would you rather lose, your best employees or your worst customers? Pretty easy decision for me. If you do this for the top 5% of your customers, it's easy to cut your support load in half. That's not a small thing, given how much your staff time costs. For us, staffing represents over 20% of our revenues. If 5% of my customers are eating up half of the staff time, the other 95% are not going to want to pay an extra 10% for their servers to make up for it, and I guarantee you that the 5% of customers who use up all that staff time don't want to triple what they pay us to compensate for the real cost of their constant harassment.

    The only solution is to set realistic expectations and hold people to it. 95% of people will not abuse the situation and will be understanding. 5% of people will take everything they can get. Perhaps coincidentally (but probably not), approximately 5% of the population are sociopaths (see http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next.../dp/0767915828 ), incapable of feeling any sense of obligation, guilt, or shame, and always behaving in as selfish of a manner as possible. Does that sound like the worst 5% of your customers at all? Statistically speaking, it should.
    Last edited by funkywizard; 10-03-2013 at 09:20 PM.
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  13. #38
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    If you're getting so much abuse that it's causing you too much hassle, you could ask them to leave. Of course, this is an absolute last resort. You reserve the right to deny anyone service should you see fit. Best to try and work with the customer and keep them calm if possible. Easier said than done in some cases though.
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  14. #39
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    If ditching angry clients is your motto then you should have never entered business - That is the art, the ability to deal with every possible person that does business with you.

    Hell I get angry when food joints get my order wrong, why? So I can get free food!

  15. #40
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    There's a difference between angry and abusive clients. There could be many factors that justify an -abusive- client. We all get angry customers from time to time, just got to take it in your stride and deal with it.


    Quote Originally Posted by thedediguy View Post
    If ditching angry clients is your motto then you should have never entered business - That is the art, the ability to deal with every possible person that does business with you.

    Hell I get angry when food joints get my order wrong, why? So I can get free food!
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  16. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by thedediguy View Post
    If ditching angry clients is your motto then you should have never entered business
    hmmm. Kinda true in that you will have angry people from time to time. I think it is important to have some tolerance. Someone swearing or something, depending on the intensity I would not call it abusive, its just someone annoyed, but if the level of abusive is really really unhealthy, then it really is time to let them go.
    I have seen real world examples of where abuse crossed the line, from simply an upset customer, to really something sick and disgusting, and in these cases, the customer really should have been locked up, not "Please come again"

    I would like to leave with a quote for how another company dealt with, NOT an abusive customer, but a customer that was clearly outside of their 'niche':
    One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

    She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

    Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

    In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”
    source: http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/w...tomer-service/

    You cant make everyone happy, and if someone really is upset with every level of your service then its time for the customer to move on.
    .

  17. #42
    I'm working for a small company doing online business (not hosting) and we don't allow anyone to abuse us. Customers who ask for discounts are ok to us. Abusing is something different.

    Our rate of abusive customers is < 1 %. If we identify an abusive customer we tell him very straight to move on.

    I think you should avoid spending any energy in customers like that. Especially if you are a small company without a support team that can handle this people.

  18. #43
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    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mad_matt View Post
    http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/w...tomer-service/

    You cant make everyone happy, and if someone really is upset with every level of your service then its time for the customer to move on.
    That is actually a pretty good article.

    I guess it all depends on how you define "abusive" as.
    If it's "ask for discounts, request things for free, etc and of course they choose the cheapest product/service you offer."
    Imo, this doesn't really count as abusive and these customers would be treated the same way as any other customer.

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by funkywizard View Post
    Abuse typically has little to do with server resources. Every once in a great while we get someone abusing bandwidth (can't really abuse anything else in a dedicated server environment like ours), and we usually let it slide.
    Ah see, that must have created the slight difference in opinions - although we do provide Dedicated Solutions, our main target area is Shared Hosting and I think we could both agree that server resource or any type of limitation abuses are a much more common occurance on this environment With managed Dedicated Solutions the customer pretty much owns the server and can utilize all its resources. In such case the hosting provider should just be there in time of need and propose a suitable upgrade if they see that the current server cannot handle the current traffic.
    Last edited by WHF-Rado; 10-04-2013 at 03:58 PM.
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  20. #45
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by funkywizard View Post
    Abuse typically has little to do with server resources. Every once in a great while we get someone abusing bandwidth (can't really abuse anything else in a dedicated server environment like ours), and we usually let it slide. Sometimes we have to ask for extra money to cover the cost, but that's pretty rare. Even if we didn't ask someone to cover bandwidth overages, it's less than 1 out of 100 people where we would lose enough money that it would be a real financial burden to keep them on without charging extra.

    The real 20/80 rule comes in from support. It doesn't take much to find abusers there. Just ask your staff which customers are the most needy and unreasonable. Then inform those customers where your support boundaries are, and stick to it. If they don't like it, they can leave. If they respect your support boundaries, they can stay. Needing "A little extra help" does not get someone into the top 5%. The worst 5% of customers are the reasons your employees are looking for another job. Which would you rather lose, your best employees or your worst customers? Pretty easy decision for me. If you do this for the top 5% of your customers, it's easy to cut your support load in half. That's not a small thing, given how much your staff time costs. For us, staffing represents over 20% of our revenues. If 5% of my customers are eating up half of the staff time, the other 95% are not going to want to pay an extra 10% for their servers to make up for it, and I guarantee you that the 5% of customers who use up all that staff time don't want to triple what they pay us to compensate for the real cost of their constant harassment.

    The only solution is to set realistic expectations and hold people to it. 95% of people will not abuse the situation and will be understanding. 5% of people will take everything they can get. Perhaps coincidentally (but probably not), approximately 5% of the population are sociopaths (see http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next.../dp/0767915828 ), incapable of feeling any sense of obligation, guilt, or shame, and always behaving in as selfish of a manner as possible. Does that sound like the worst 5% of your customers at all? Statistically speaking, it should.
    THAT is one of the best I've read. Actually nails my opinion. From my personal experience, there are customers who just demand too much for our own good. In this scenario, it is better to redirect the client to some other (unfortunate) business owner who just looks to acquire customers through unbelievable discounts.

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