Just the headline of this post is bound to upset some business owners who live and die by the old adage ‘the customer is always right’. If you are one of them, feel free to move on to another post. The rest of us are going to discuss the reality that sometimes, certain customers are nothing but a drain on business.
It is okay to fire clients. It is okay to come to the conclusion that your business is no longer a good fit for clients that seem forever unhappy. Firing clients doesn’t make you a bad business owner. Rather, it is a demonstration that you and your business cannot be all things to all people.
Clients Fire Their Vendors All the Time
A fantastic post on this topic from Search Engine Land’s Brad Smith starts with the premise that clients in the SEO and digital marketing world search for vendors they believe are good fits for their companies. Smith states, “they line up the RFP cattle call, or back-to-back meetings between a handful of agencies to contrast and compare.”
He is not wrong. In fact, let us take it one step further. Clients will fire their vendors in a heartbeat if they decide they are no longer a good fit. If you have been in business for any length of time, you’ve probably been fired yourself. This sort of thing happens all the time. So why do business owners not do the same?
When Clients Become Unprofitable
There are many reasons to fire clients, beginning with a lack of profitability. The truth of the matter is that your business exists for one reason and one reason only: to make money. In Salt Lake City, UT, Webtek Digital Marketing exists to earn a profit on SEO services, web development services, content marketing, and so forth. If they are not making a profit, they are going under.
The same holds true for your company. Every customer that prevents you from turning a profit on the goods and services you provide is doing just the opposite: draining your company of profits. Not only are you not making money on the unprofitable client, but you are also spending time and resources that could otherwise be used to generate profit elsewhere. You are losing on both counts.
Webtek says unprofitable clients come in many shapes and sizes. Some have unreasonable expectations that require far too much work. Others cannot seem to make up their minds about what they want. Every change of mind means more work, some of which you find nearly impossible to bill for.
When Clients Expect the World
Another big problem in SEO and digital marketing is expecting too much. Marketing has never been a sure game. There is always risk. It is no different in the digital world. Unfortunately, some clients want guarantees. Furthermore, they want the world but don’t want to pay for it.
SEO, web development, etc. are services. They are not tangible products that can be billed per piece. Therefore, billing is fluid. That makes it easy to get caught in a loop of continually offering services for which your company isn’t truly being compensated. You are trying to keep the customer happy but are not charging for the work being done. If you do decide to charge, the client threatens to take their business elsewhere.
This idea that the customer is always right is partially responsible for fostering customers who think nothing of running roughshod over their vendors. You may disagree, but many of us don’t believe the customer is always right. We believe it is okay to fire clients when they become a drain.