Comments on: Firing Customers

By: Ends

Ends — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:05:23 +0000

Guys, the equation is simple really;

If you’re a customer, you’d disagree.
If you’re a business owner, you’d agree.

That’s it.

By: Debby Wright

Debby Wright — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:43:15 +0000

SENSIBLE … Your article makes sense. In 23 years of being a business owner I have run into some clients who are time wasters and never appreciate hours of extra care and free repairs, products or services … they never refer any wonderful clients. The clients who never want anything for free and do not not take advantage of my staff … are a pleasure to give free service and extra’s to and they are usually the ones who refer other clients who are also wonderful clients to serve. People who are users are not good to have as clients, vendors or employees. Taker’s drain your energy and resources and the best thing to do is to remove yourself from their life. It is impossible to make a complainer, abuser, taker, happy and to waste your time and resources trying to change them thru your good deeds is not using good business sense. Tigers do not change their stripes. Appreciate your wonderful clients and give them everything possible. Cut loose the complainers and they will find a business to serve them that is appropriate to their style. Water seeks it’s own level. Be courageous, generous and honest in your business and you will be rewarded with like minded employees and clients.

By: Corissa

Corissa — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:55:19 +0000

I liked the article. I have subscribed to learn more and get ideas. This article actually made me feel better about instances in the past where Ive had to let go of a few just like those above. I always beat myself up for it though. This gave me that reaasurance that I did the right thing. It is better to let go of the hassles so that you can put more time and effort in the right areas.

By: Dave Trantham

Dave Trantham — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:51:37 +0000

Emma nailed it right on the head, this is an internal matter and each employee should be trained to handle this and not publish in such a childish way and waste the time of your current or future customers. I was going to use ereleases but believe I’ll go with a more professional company.

By: David Rogers

David Rogers — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:25:58 +0000

While there may, subconsciously, be a revenge factor on the part of eReleases in writing this article, the real message is that (in whatever business or industry) we need to more effectively manage our customers. I formerly worked for a financial PR firm and was constantly frustrated by the partners’ seeming unwillingness to better manage not only client expectations, but often excessive client demands — all while I was trying to serve the needs of multiple accounts simultaneously.

In the so-called “modern” world, much of customer service has become impersonal. It’s a breath of fresh air when you call a company and get a voice on the other end instead of having to negotiate through a recorded Q&A that has absolutely no relevance to your objective in calling the company. It’s kind of nice to get a birthday card from someone you are giving business to, or flowers from them if you are in the hospital.

But in this day and age, there are limits to the old adage, “The customer is always right.” People growing up with that philosophy now baldly abuse good and well-intentioned businesses with excessive demands — then look for reasons to get out of paying for the services or products provided. They are the minority, to be sure, but they are really playing havoc with the willingness of otherwise good business people to gracefully bend over backwards in serving the majority.

As Fabian said, this article was very engaging — although I am not really sure what the business purpose was for eReleases. Was it just venting? Or is it a marketing piece to persuade me to use eReleases to distribute press releases?

If venting, then I’m not sure this is the appropriate forum. If a marketing piece, it was good reading but does not compel me to use eReleases as my distribution service. It did, however, reinforce my belief that in today’s world we need to manage client expectations more efficiently, especially as they demand more of our precious resources, including the most precious: time.

By: Mark Eldon

Mark Eldon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:25:35 +0000

Lauren - It’s only “petty” if it’s not YOUR MONEY paying for staff to deal with time-sink unappreciative customers. “playground politics”??… - sounds to me like eReleases is a place of business, not a playground, and what the heck does “politics” have to do with anything Mr. Kennedy wrote about? Sorry, really don’t get that about your complaint.

Emma - Sounds like you agree with the LIE that “customer is always right” - the TRUTH is this “the customer is always the customer” and that is all. Until he’s not the customer anymore. Mr. Kennedy simply made the decision that these two clients weren’t going to be customers anymore.

You guys need to get your heads screwed on straight, like Claudia and Fabian and David.

This article was a breath of fresh air amongst the stale, vapid (but “professional”) writing that is all too common. Keep up the good work, Mr. Kennedy!

By: David

David — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:17:41 +0000

I loved the article. It is very well written and very engaging. And I too have “fired” clients. There are so many permutations on the 80/20 rule, it gets confusing (80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients), but difficult clients are not good clients. And typically they are not revenue generators. Finally, to the people that complained about the article, think about what ereleases does for a living. They are here to create attention, generate publicity, etc. And Mickie has certainly done that here as evidenced by these first five comments.

By: Fabian Burrell

Fabian Burrell — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:11:17 +0000

This article was well-written. So few articles engage me on the internet. I read it through to the end. Point well made. I am an independent journalist and pr professional and can’t tell you the countless times I have submitted work to a client and was never compensated. After a while, I would drop them from my client list and move on to work with the few that always recognize good work with fair wagess. Thank you for making me feel “right!”

By: Emma

Emma — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:04:20 +0000

I completely agree with Lauren. This is an example of poor customer relations/marketing on eReleases part. Learn to be more professional… and take responsibility for your part in letting such customers take advantage of you and your services. This doesn’t sound like an article trying to educate and inform your clients/customers. It sounds more like a complaint against your customers - and who knows how many others you talk bad about in other articles or when you’re working with others.

By: Claudia Kienzle

Claudia Kienzle — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:45:38 +0000

This was an excellent, worthwhile article. I’ve been in business as a freelance writer for almost 20 years and I’m just now starting to understand that not all work pays. It’s best to drop high aggravation clients even if it means you now have to work diligently to replace them or lose the income altogether.
Claudia Kienzle