Why You Should “Fire” Your Customers…

The customer is NOT always right.

As some of you know, I regularly answer questions on Quora about customer service topics. The part you don’t see is how I decide which question to answer.

It involves scrolling through page after page of questions. Wading and sifting through all the junk.

Conventional customer service drones asking about advanced calculations of satisfaction or whether it’s better to say “thanks” or “thank you…” Easy targets, and fun sometimes, but not usually what I’m looking for,.

But looking through all those questions, I’ve begun to notice a trend that I want to address here.

A lot of you are spending a lot of time, effort, and STRESS chasing after people who have no business being your customers.

It’s not your fault. We were all raised in the era of “the customer is always right.”

But here’s the thing…

“The customer is always right” is a management tool. It’s a crude heuristic.

It exists to simplify the intricacies of providing good service to a single phrase.

And it reeks of conventionality. 

What do I mean?

A lot of businesses think of Customer Service as something separate from, and often opposed to the sales and marketing side of the business.

Sales and marketing MAKES money.  Customer service COSTS money.

Sales and marketing deceive the customer, making him upset. Customer service cares for the customer, costing sales.

So it is in many businesses.

But not the smart ones. 

The smart businesses find a way for these two seemingly opposing sides to join forces.

To sell to customers while maintaining a high level of satisfaction (and retention) at the same time. To provide polite, fast, friendly service AND sell them additional products and services.

And to do all of this at MUCH lower costs, and with almost no management time and hassle.

This is a new way of doing customer service. 

It’s unconventional, and it’s not for everyone. Big businesses will ignore this (at their peril.) They’ve got the resources and momentum (for now) to tolerate this inefficiency.

But things are changing. Technology is informing and exposing us. And these old ways won’t work forever.

That’s why smart businesses are taking action NOW.

And one of the easiest ways to do this is to be selective about who you allow to be your customer. 

Most customer service problems are caused by a tiny fraction of your customers. What if these people could be actively repelled? Or at least discouraged from buying?

It would free up a ton of time and resources that could then be deployed against the remaining (best) customers.

The best customer service interaction is the one that never happens. 

Because there’s no problem. Happy customers buy from you again and again, with no need to contact you about any issues.

The people who cause the most problems often buy the least.

Regardless of what you sell, your product is NOT right for everyone. Rather than try to sell to EVERYONE, it often pays to come right out and tell people who should NOT buy.

Stop being so needy in business. “Fire” the potential customers who aren’t a good fit.

Embrace the 80/20 principle.