Summary
It's on the mind of every business that it has to work with "Difficult Customers." In fact, there is a multi-million dollar training industry built around the assumption that we all have to work with difficult people. think leaving behind difficult cutomers would make us happy and more successful.
Problem
Nobody wants to admit defeat. The natural tendency is to hang on, try to adjust what WE do, and hope it gets better.
Even worse, money fears drive us to keep those difficult people around. Customers are not easy to come by -- we fear the loss.
Solution
1. They force you to make custom adjustments that drive up your costs.
Difficult customers want what you can't easily deliver.
2. Difficult customers drag your prices and revenues down.
Difficult customers have no idea why they should work with you instead of a competitor. Do you have customers that charge their customers a lot, but expect you to do more work for less? Or customers that are constantly complaining about your prices? This should tell you two crucial facts:
(a) your customer understands why customers value them; and
(b) they don't understand or appreciate the value you provide.
So they take advantage. On the other hand, your best customers KNOW the value you bring. If you like these people and want to keep working with them, be clear about what sets you apart and the value you offer and charge accordingly. If they are disrespectful and mean, get rid of them. It's bad enough that you're losing money; you shouldn't have to be abused in the process.
You can see how you're literally hemorrhaging profits in each of these situations. If your customer requires specific processes and systems to meet their customers' requirements and that would require that you either work 24/7, hire more people, or force the people that you have to jump through hoops at a moment's notice -- this is costing you money! It may not show up as a line item, but when you have people leaving their desks in search of specific papers, or creating reports that weren't expected, or sitting in meetings resolving problems you didn't anticipate, these are all unnecessary and hidden costs that are eroding your margins and driving your employees insane.
In the second case, you're dealing with a situation of corporate low self-esteem. You may have been so eager to put their name on your customer list, that you allowed your true value and profits to erode. You may be living in fear that you will lose them. But if you realize that this mean, unappreciative customer is literally taking up space that a wonderful, appreciative, loyal and profitable customer could be taking -- you may see things differently.
Credits
Strategy stew by Ivana Taylor
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