…from your problem customers. (Do this instead.)
Anyone who has worked in customer service, whether for themselves or just as a job, knows the feeling I’m going to describe today.
The shitty customer. But it’s worse than that. That person who is so unreasonable, unpleasant, unbearable that you find yourself putting off dealing with them.
Or when you do, you’re careful (see terrified) to avoid saying anything that might set them off. Make it worse.
But it’s no use. These foul creatures feed on causing problems. And cause problems they will.
Hiding from them isn’t going to work.
Worse, the fact that you’re even thinking this way is a sign that something bigger is wrong.
We’ve covered this before…
The customer is NOT always right.
And not everyone deserves to be your customer.
Instead of kissing this guy’s ass, let’s have some fun. How could you actively get rid of him? Make him think it’s his idea?
And once we’ve done that, how can we make sure that others like him will never make themselves customers in the first place?
We tend to think in terms of marketing and sales. How to convince people to buy, to become our customers. And of course this smart.
That’s why it’s so fun to sometimes think about how to get people to NOT buy. Not everyone, just the problem customers.
Put more kindly, we’re making it clear who our product is and isn’t for. This is a service to the customers as much as it is to you.
And done right, it strengthens the appeal of your product to the right kind of customer.
This is why smart businesses have left “the customer is always right” in the garbage heap of history where it belongs. Why they’ve moved on to a better, smarter way of doing things.
I recommend you do the same.
— Mark
