Firing Your Customers!

I’m going to debunk a myth that I’m sure you’ve heard and maybe even live by. I used to also until a few years ago. And that myth is this: "The Customer is always right". Um…not quite. :o )

The beautiful thing about the window cleaning business is that there are plenty of window cleaning customers to be had if the right markets are approached. So knowing that we have a huge pot of customers to choose from, why would we put up with the occasional customer or two or three who treats us wrong, disrespects us, or just flat out acts like a whacko.

The good news though is that the vast majority of the customers we deal with are very pleasant and we want to do business with ‘em. But for the one that isn’t, simply get rid of him/her.  Sounds harsh, but life is just way too short to be stressed out or bothered by someone who "doesn’t get it".

Here’s a situation that happened to me recently where I had to fire a customer…

It all began with someone (we’ll call him "Chris") sending me an email and me responding to that email. So far so good. In the email he asked me a couple of window cleaning related questions and he mentioned that Dick at smart mail services (the direct mail house for mailing postcards) hasn’t yet responded to the 2 emails that were sent to him.

Anyway as I mentioned, I responded, gave him dick’s phone number, and that was that. I guess Dick received a similar email from chris because later that day I received an email from Dick with two attachments which were Dick’s email responses. In other words, Dick did respond. chris just wasn’t getting the emails.

The next morning, I get a very rude email from chris wondering why I didn’t respond and what the deal was, yada, yada, yada along with a few choice swear words thrown in. Nice guy. The bottom line though is that similar to Dick, I did respond. He simply wasn’t getting the emails. Maybe he had his spam filters set too strong so the emails were directed to his junk folder. Or maybe it just got lost in cyberspace. I have no idea what the problem was. If it’s one thing I learned, when dealing with cyberspace, technology, and the internet, "stuff" sometimes happens. And I’ve especially noticed a few email issues when sending emails to yahoo email addresses which is the email address chris had.

But instead of picking up the phone and making a 30 second phone call to me, his solution was to blast out a rude email. I’m real easy to get a hold of at 256-546-2446. And as many of you reading this can attest to, I answer my phone 7 days a week. So there’s no excuse for someone to not pick up the phone and get to the bottom line of any situation vs sending out a lame brain email filled with obscenities.

So I promptly deleted him from my database, blocked his email address, and he’ll never receive any assistance from me for anything ever. I’m always creating different products (like the upcoming window cleaning directory and the social networking site) or putting out information for window cleaners. He won’t be able to participate or benefit from any of it.

Before I blocked his email address, I responded to his rude email in an abrupt way. And he wrote back with big, bold wording at the top that said "I’M A CUSTOMER". So I guess he thought because he paid a few bucks for my window cleaning program that it gave him a license to be a meathead. Sorry…it doesn’t.

So back to window cleaning…

Again, I need to emphasize, your window cleaning customers are usually great people to do business with. I’m sure commercial window cleaners have some stories to tell, but over in the residential market, we have great customers. On that rare occasion though, we’ll bump into someone who thinks that because they are paying you money, they "own" you. Run, don’t walk, from this type of person. Demand respect from your customers. You’ll normally get it by simply making sure you have created a top to bottom solid, high impact image for your company. When you’re recognized as a professional, you’re treated professionally and looked up to.

Whether you’re a new window cleaner or a veteran, it’s always tough to walk away from a cash paying customer. But what’s the alternative? You don’t want to spend any time thinking about this person or letting the situation fester or get stressed out about it, right? So drop them and move on. After I blocked chris’ email address and deleted him from my database, I promptly forgot about him and moved on to better things. There are just waaaaay too many customers out there who will pay you for your services without the "I own you" attitude. And in return, you’ll have a stress free profitable biz filled with wonderful customers. Can’t beat that.

—–Side note—————————————————————————————-

 A note to new window cleaners: Don’t be concerned with rude customers. I need to stress that they are rare. The last thing I want is for you to delay the start of your business because you’re thinking of that possible bad customer you "may" run into. Some people will look for any excuse to delay, so please don’t do that. Just target the right people with your services and create a rock solid image like I’m always talking about, and you’ll have a slew of customers in your business who are ideal customers. So stay focused and start rolling. 

—–Back to the newsletter———————————————————————–

Another type of customer you want to run away from are the time wasters. Actually in your situation out in the field, it might not so much be the customer who’s wasting your time, but the job wasting your time. We all need to make a profit, right? If not, then why are we in the biz? I’ve underbid a few window cleaning jobs over the years. It happens. Everyone of us will underbid sooner or later. Of course we get much better over time, but if I did drastically make a mistake on a bid, and it simply wouldn’t have been profitable to do the job on a repeat basis, then that customer was "fired".

Note: When an underbid occurs, do the job obviously. Complete it and complete it well. But simply don’t go back. What kind of reputation would you have if you did jobs and then immediately upped the pricing the 2nd time you did ‘em? I personally just wouldn’t go back or follow up with them if they were that unprofitable. A word of caution though…if you’re new to the window cleaning business, chances are great you didn’t underbid. It just takes time to master the proper speed to complete jobs at top profits. So if you’re new and you "think" you underbid, do the job, and then go back and do it again. If after the 2nd time completing the job, it was still unprofitable, don’t go back. At that point you know it was your pricing. And one last thing: You need to decide for yourself if a job is unprofitable and a loss. Each of us have different profit goals.

Ex: Although my average hourly was $45 to $50, if I slipped to $25 or $30 per hour on occasion for whatever reason, that was ok. Because it wasn’t common. But if I did a job that fell into the $15 to $20 an hour range, it was time to give it the boot. There are too many homes out there where you can consistently rake in much bigger bucks.

See ya soon and here’s to your profits!

Steve
256-546-2446

P.S. I titled this newsletter "Firing your customers", but that was mainly to get your attention. :o ) You’re not literally firing them (except if you run into a situation like I did with "Chris" above). You are simply making a decision to not continue working with them or doing their job anymore. It’s not common for this to happen as I’ve mentioned above a few times (since we all hate to walk away from jobs because jobs = dollars), but a strong dollar value has to be placed on your time at some point. If you’re making $15 an hour with a 4 hour job putting just 60 bucks in your pocket, I can guarantee you that you’ll make a heckuva lot more than that if you take 4 hours and pump out a few hundred flyers as described in chapter 7 in my manual. It’s simple economics.