Avoid The Wrong Customers For Your Business

The majority of business owners are desperately trying to close every single customer, and I understand why. We are all trying to cover our overhead expenses. However, you have to understand the “opportunity cost” of each customer you transact with inside your business.

Taking on the wrong client can seriously crush your business and especially in the age of social media, an upset customer will work tirelessly to trash your brand, regardless if you are right.

When it comes to sales and dealing with clients, you want to work on your people-reading skills and figure out what type of customer you are dealing with. You want to focus your energy on attracting good clients and servicing them to the best of your ability.

As a business owner, you genuinely want your customers happy with your products and services, and for the most part, you go above and beyond to make sure their experience with your brand is flawless. But unfortunately for you, that isn't enough for a certain breed of customers. We call these the “difficult customers” if you have been in business for a reasonable period of time, you will come across this type of client.

No matter what you do, they seem to be miserable all the time, they change their mind a billion times, and in the end, they look for reasons to badmouth your company and demand refunds for your services or products. Don’t stress, these types of clientele are very rare, but they do exist. You should still be on the lookout for these types of clients so that you can avoid them in the future.

How to know if you are dealing with a difficult customer.

· They seem nice at first but start being more and more aggressive with you

· They are impatient and always in a rush

· They complain about previous businesses

· They think they know your business or product

· They try and tell you how much to charge

· They always say they can find it “cheaper” somewhere else

· The list goes on

You as a business owner should not be trying to close every single customer. Instead, you need to turn the tables and figure out if the customer you are dealing with is “right for your business.” This applies heavily you are in a premium industry with high ticket products and services. If your instincts are telling you that this customer is going to suck your energy and time, you may want to think twice before you transact with them. Be polite but also be brief, never insult the client but don’t be overly desperate to do business with them. The worst thing that can happen to you is you burn all your energy trying to make this client happy and afterwards, they don’t care or appreciate your time and still leave you bad reviews for reasons that are non-existent.

We work with a lot of small businesses and do marketing for them. From time to time, we hear horror stories of how difficult customers have wasted our client's precious time and later on attempted to trash our client's reputation online. Difficult customers will always exist. However, you want to be able to filter them out ahead of time so that they don’t waste your company time, energy and resources.

Focus your positive energy on good clients that appreciate the passion and energy you bring to them. Go above and beyond for all your good clients and if you feel that the new client you are talking to is a great fit for your business, product or service, by all means, work with them, otherwise filter them out early on and avoid the heartache.

Good customers will always appreciate the effort you put into making them happy, and they will go above and beyond referring you to their friends and family. Focus on delivering great service to your good clientele. Go above and beyond for them, and your company will prosper.

I hope you learned a lot from this article and if you have a story that you would like to share, feel free to include it in the comment section below.