Identifying your bad clients and also knowing how to deal with bad customers requires a bit of courage and determination. It requires courage and determination because, even if you have succeeded in identifying them, how do you handle these difficult customers.
That is the issue. Like I said, it only takes great determination and courage in knowing bad clients or customers and dealing with them appropriately. It’s not every client or customer that comes your way that you must keep.
Many business owners still believe that every customer is a good customer as long as they pay for the goods or services. This is not true. This thought about marketing and business operations should be left out of the modern day marketing techniques, and should be a thought of the past.
How to Deal With Bad Customers (Identifying Them)
The thing is that having a business relationship with bad customers or clients is akin to having a parasitic relationship. In this type of relationship these bad customers or clients suck your profits up. These bad customers or client do not only suck you up, they also waste most of your time, energy and resources.
They are the ones who are never satisfied and almost always cost you more to serve than they spend. These bad customers or clients won’t pay their bills on time; they are rude and sometimes dishonest.
Unfortunately, many business owners like you, spot these warning signs that a particular client or customer does not fit into your business but you ignore them. This is because you lack the will and caprice to turn down a customer or client whom you know that will not add any value to your business.
Instead of saying NO to any bad customers or clients you end up taking up a business that wouldn’t yield any return. Most of the times, apart from taking up the business that wouldn’t yield return, the work generated often proves to be time-consuming and difficult or impossible to deliver on. On the long run, it goes on to draining both resources and profitability.
Interestingly, sometimes it pays to look past the lure of additional revenue and focus more on profit. You can start by dismissing the allegory that you should never say no to any customer.
The truth is; the customer is not always right, and their custom is not always profitable to have. On closer examination, your business may be better off without some of them. Just know how to deal with the bad customers or client after identifying them and you will be good to go.
What to do to identify bad customers
It is usually tricky in knowing bad clients or customers and getting rid of them. The trick is just the identification process. Set out the best customers and determine what differentiates these profitable customers from all the rest.
The real question is what are those standards that you have set to benchmark a customer or client as a good or bad one? You have to define those things or qualities you consider to be a ‘good’ customer or a ‘bad’ customer wise.
When a customer or client someone crosses the line, you then have to decide whether that particular customer or client is “worth the stress which you undergo during and after the business transaction.
You are the only one that can that knows how to deal with the bad customers and get rid of them. But after the whole thing you may be surprised to discover that they aren’t worth the cost and effort after all.
However, you just need to do a little research in knowing how to deal with those bad customers. Start by going through your existing customer database and ask yourself three questions:
- Is this customer strategically important?
- Is this a profitable customer?
- Is this a high volume customer?
How do you handle a difficult customer?
Now that you have succeeded in knowing your bad clients or customers, what will I do about it?
These could be the toughest decision ever. Many questions must surely scale through your mind. Is it ever okay to turn away business?
Well, this is dependent on the aims and objectives of your business. The truth remains that if your business has a clear cut vision, you have to favour the good customers and get rid of bad ones.
Once you have identified the bad customers or clients, the key is to subtly force these bad customers to either step up or move on. You can do this by always hiking the price of your goods or services. It takes carefully crafted price and product set ups that discourage the bad customers or clients. Once the price is very high, they will look elsewhere.
You may not necessarily call them and tell them. I think the best option is just to get your identification process right and hike your pricing.
Additionally, though this might be optional. If you have gotten to know the bad customers or client, you have no option than to send them packing. Send them packing, identify your ‘bad’ customers and tell them politely that they will be better off getting your product or service elsewhere.
Start now to know bad clients or customers and get rid of them from your business. They are just parasites.
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