Episode 35 | Have You Ever Fired Your Customer or Client?

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Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup, and launched it in big box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family and self care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day. There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I am going to be your host for today. And today's conversation is going to be a little bit controversial, but extremely important for any new entrepreneur or somebody who's thinking about going into business. And the topic we're going to talk about is firing your client or your customer. We have spoken about this before, but not directly. We have spoken about your ideal customer or your ideal client, and that you will not be able to serve everyone, and that is perfectly okay. We've spoken about this when it comes to service-based businesses, because you won't be able to service everyone just by a capacity standpoint. And we also spoke about this when it comes to product-based businesses, in that you won't be able to serve everybody with your product because your product is designed for a very specific individual. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up at this point for myself is because we are in a very busy season with our product- based business, Also Sophia, as I'm recording this episode. We are in the heat of the shopping season for Eid and Ramadan, which is currently the main product line that Also Sophia is producing, and we are getting flooded. I'm so grateful, flooded with orders. And of course we will get some customers when we are flooded with orders that are not our ideal customer. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to serve these individuals. Yes, if they've come to you and they want to be your customer and they're willing to pay for your products. Of course, you graciously served them, you graciously give them the opportunity to be your customer but there'll be times when you say: Maybe this product is not the right fit for you. Maybe we will give you a refund and that's okay, because this is not the right product for you. You'll see a lot of this happening when it comes to CostCo customers. CostCo is a big box retailer that does wholesale, and they actually have memberships. So they have done things in their business model to help weed out the individual that's not the right customer for them. One of the things they've done is they've put a membership. When you have a membership to even shop at your store, you've already qualified your customers to be able to afford the products you're selling inside your store. You've also qualified them by saying: If you're not a hundred percent happy with the product, we will gladly give you a refund for up to 12 months, and that is a reason why you're buying the membership. You're buying the membership because we are giving you the best customer service possible, and if you're not satisfied with your product, we are giving you a very generous timeframe for returns. So they have committed to a very specific business model where they have said: Yes, we'll go above and beyond for our customers but our customers have to be able to pay for a membership, which means they should be able to afford the products in the store. And then they even say, if you're not satisfied with the membership and the service, we will fully refund your membership. At that point they're like: If you're not satisfied with all of these conditions, we are essentially saying bye. Because there's only so much you can do as a business owner, be it service or be it a product- based business, that will serve your client or your customer. What I want you guys to do for the activity for this podcast is I want you to consider a few clients that you may be serving now as customers. Or if you don't have clients yet, or you're a brand new to business, perhaps make up a few clients that you've seen in the past from other businesses, and I want you to consider a few scenarios. The first scenario being that this client wants to work with you and you realize pretty much in the first few encounters that they are not the right fit. How would you handle that situation? You could handle the situation in a few ways. You can continue serving the client and being miserable while doing it, or you could break it off completely at that point and say: You know what, this was a great go. Give them some compliments, say that you really respect their businesses and then you give them the reason why you are not able to continue with them. That way it puts the ownership of breaking the transaction or the relationship as a client and business owner on you versus on them. And it's an easier pill to swallow for that customer or that client, especially when they may not realize that they are a difficult client or a difficult customer, and they think that they're in the right. So by saying: Unfortunately, we don't have the capacity right now to take on more work, and then we will no longer be able to work together after this date. Or unfortunately, we're not able to fill that order for you because we are out of inventory. The reason you're saying this for them is because you know that they will never be satisfied with your work, and they'll be a harder client to deal with from a time and energy perspective. So think about a few clients that you would consider not your ideal client, but somebody who may look like the ideal client from the surface and then you realize very quickly that they're not the ideal client. How would you exit that relationship? Now, if you're very, very strategic and you want to write everything down, I suggest getting a notebook out and writing out a few scenarios so that way, when you do run into these situations, you have clarity and you will be like: That is not the right client for me so I am going to go and review what I had said to myself, what I was going to do when I hit this type of situation, and that way it'll be much easier to execute. Many business owners will just continue to sit in this very uncomfortable situation with a client or a customer because they feel like they have no choice. They have not given themselves the opportunity to think about a strategy on how to exit that relationship. So by doing that now, you are basically saving yourself the headache of prolonging that split, and also the headache of considering the situation and what you need to do, because you've already pre-planned for it. I guarantee you, as you grow your business or as you start your business, you will be faced with this situation and so best to acknowledge it now, and try to tease out the solution now so that way you're not prolonging any relationship, business and customer, or business and client relationship longer than you should be. And it's hard, it's a very hard reality for many new business owners. They go above and beyond to the point where they don't feel like they're getting anything out of the transaction, and it's a big barrier that prevents them from moving forward. We have spoken about this when it comes to one of my friends, she owns the event planning business and she was trying to serve customers who are not her ideal client, and she was just feeling beat down. Until we said: These are not your ideal customers, you need to fire these clients. And fire's a really bad word, in our culture when you fire somebody or you let somebody go, it means that somebody has done something wrong. In this case, nobody's done anything wrong, you just say we're not the right fit. I think the biggest lesson you can take away from this episode is to say: You're not there to serve everyone, and it's okay to say bye to clients and customers who you may have had a relationship with for some time, but they are no longer serving you and you're no longer potentially serving them. Because if they keep coming back to you and saying they have all these concerns in these conditions, you're not really serving them. So no need to continue the relationship. That's hard for new business owners, but I think that is a great lesson to learn early on because then your mindset will shift. You will say to yourself: I have boundaries when it comes to my business, and how I will serve my customers and my clients. You won't be stuck in this situation where you're like: I need to take everybody on because I don't know when the next paycheck's going to come. That is the reality for many new business owners and entrepreneurs, especially as we are still in the middle of a lockdown and pandemic situation here in Canada and many areas around the globe. But when time permits and you are certain that you have an income that will support you without that client or that customer, I highly suggest to say goodbye, because it will only beat you down further. So the takeaways are yes, be mindful of where the cashflow is coming from especially in the beginning, but do not neglect your boundaries and how you feel when you're serving a client or a customer. If it's such that it's breaking you down and you're not feeling energized and wonderful after serving them, then consider letting them go. Of course, being mindful of the fact that you need that income potentially to continue to flourish in your everyday life. But keep it in mind that there is always other opportunities to get clients and customers. That's why we consider promotion such an important part of the equation when it comes to your business model. You really need to spend time promoting yourself and putting your name out there, and then of course attracting the best clients possible for your business. I want to just bring this up too because you might think it's only in business that you would fire a client or a customer, that's not the case at all. In healthcare, physicians and physiotherapists, and I'm sure many other healthcare professionals will actually fire their patients. The reason they do that is because if a patient is not compliant with their treatment plan, or if they have gone ahead and they've seen another practitioner. For example, if there's two physiotherapists treating a client at the same time, we generally say that's not allowed because if there's a situation that occurs where the patient gets injured, we're not sure what treatment plan may have caused the injury. If somebody is not compliant and they continue to see another practitioner that's doing a similar treatment plan, we may fire the patient. Physicians do this all the time. If the patient's not compliant, it's a liability on them and they may state that they are no longer seeing the patient, so they will fire the patient. Again, a tough reality for many people. Really strong words but something that needs to be taken care of. You need to set boundaries and you have to be able to say: Yes, we are the right fit. I'm comfortable having this business relationship with you. We're both gaining from the transaction. And then also saying: No, I'm sorry, we're not the right fit and I'm going to have to let you go as a client. That's completely okay, and when you do that, you'll feel a hundred times better. And again, by spending that energy and time promoting yourself, you'll eventually replace that client with somebody who's serving you as well as you serving them. Okay guys, again, a very short episode for this week, but a very powerful lesson for anybody who's just starting out in entrepreneurship, or anybody who's considering starting their own business. You are not serving everyone. You do not need to consider people who you don't feel are serving you, and of course be mindful of where your income is coming from. I'm not saying to be irresponsible when it comes to your cashflow, but what I am saying is to have the right boundaries, the healthy boundaries that will allow you to continue to flourish as your own boss. Okay guys, that's all I got for today. Remember, make a plan and take action and yes, you can have it all. I'll talk to you guys next time. Bye. So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now is time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story and tag us @BossItclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our Top 50 Tips for Starting and Scaling a Business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers. So don't miss out. 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