Fire Some Customers
This week, I’ve made simplicity my main theme. I’ve been trying to find ways to simplify the “stuff” around me. “Stuff” can be anything from physical clutter to all the projects on the go or even clients.
I just read the following snippet on Seth Godin’s blog and it really struck me as one great way to simplify:
“Firing the customers you can’t possibly please gives you the bandwidth and resources to coddle the ones that truly deserve your attention and repay you with referrals, applause and loyalty.” Seth Godin
When it comes to firing customers, I’ve only had a few in the last ten years. It’s best to avoid clients that I think will lead to this situation, but sometimes it’s unavoidable and stars collide.
Recently, I had one where it was more of a mutual firing and last year I had a new client who I fired because they were unrealistically demanding for a tiny project but what really did it was when she screamed at me for doing what her assistant had instructed me to do and then didn’t even apologize when she saw she’d been wrong. I don’t work for rude people.
In both these cases, the feeling of unease had grown and it was a relief to loosen the chains that had built up.
Thank you to some of my favourite regular clients who are a joy to work with such as:
AMSSA (Lynn Moran and team)
Kicking Horse Culture (Bill Usher)
Creative City Network of Canada (Katherine Clark and Kelsey Hicks)
BC Touring Council (Joanna Maratta).
I certainly have other clients I love working with too, but the ones I mentioned give me regular and consistent work over time, they communicate easily, repay me with referrals, applause and best of all, loyalty. Thank you for helping make things simple.
Do you have clients you’ve fired?
Like you, John, I’m a small business owner that provides a service: publicity. I love working WITH folks, I don’t like working FOR folks. If I wanted to work for someone, I’d have a job, not a business. I don’t like it when people treat me like an employee–we are in a mutually beneficial relationship, and I think we should work as equals. After all, why bother hiring someone who has an area of expertise, and then tell them what to do? It doesn’t make any sense!
Yes, I’ve fired some clients, and you know what, it created a huge sense of relief, because it got rid of a lot of stress.
Glad to know I’m not alone, Rebecca. Thanks for sharing your experience. I certainly can relate to the lifting of stress that comes from a bad situation. (I enjoy your blog)
Well put Rebecca. I like that: “I work with people not for them.” That should be everyone’s motto whether they work independently or as part of a larger organization.
Ah….Sorry, I beg to differ…I work for people when they pay me. I make sure they get value because I am working for them…Its ok to work for someone, the rest is perception. Ditching a customer because he considers you as a service provider and makes you feel unimportant is not a good reason to ditch someone…
What Seth is saying is that some customers are just not worth our time because they do not value our work to its just worth. They will never be satisfied and the problem is not you, its them…those customers are black holes…they will suck you dry. A waste of time…which is better invested in customers that see the value…
A customer must be granted the right to be himself. Some people are demanding and not very nice all the time, fact of life. But if they value my work and the business relationship is fair, I will put up with their personality…and I will be graceful about it…
I think we must separate the Ego part and the Business part of the equation…firing a customer is a business decision in my humble view…(unless you are richer than I am….)
Serge, though I agree with you that having a client view you as a service provider is merely perception and frankly, we just need to get over that, I do think that it can have an impact on the relationship and thus, possibly the work that gets done.
In one of the examples in my post, my client was very much “being himself” and I suppose that if I’d been starved for work, I would have held my thoughts and stuck with the job, but I feared this was going to be one of the black hole clients you describe.
Thanks for dropping by. Very insightful.
I have to say, sometimes my sanity and stress level is worth more than money.
And, by opening up space, I may attract a client whose values are more in line with my own.
Just sayin’.