How to get rid of a client?

I don't think the OP mentioned anything about seeking to cancel a contract because of the client's nationality.
 
:D This is getting a bit crazy.

Just to clarify, it is just one particular client who keeps querying everything in the hope that they will catch me out and so they can get a reduction on their invoice. It's insulting, frustrating and time wasting to have to constantly reply to emails and respond to phone calls all the time.
 
ButtermilkJa said:
:D This is getting a bit crazy.

Just to clarify, it is just one particular client who keeps querying everything in the hope that they will catch me out and so they can get a reduction on their invoice. It's insulting, frustrating and time wasting to have to constantly reply to emails and respond to phone calls all the time.
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Know exactly what you are talking about. Glad you were able to discuss it and hopefully they might see things a bit clearer. We had some like that, and once spoken to were great for a while, but slowly and surely reverted back to type! I think it's more frustrating when you feel you are wasting time responding to e-mails/calls when you are trying to move forward and get work done for other more positive clients.
 
I would say that it is beter to just be honest with this client, but also to be polite when you tell them . Also I make all new trade clients deal C.O.D for a honeymoon period before I will open a 1 month credit account , unless of course they have a few trade references . This will reduce much financial exsposure when dealing with new clients . I have had to tell two trade clients to take a walk because they were putting bad pressure on the business with bounced cheques and generally rude attitude , once gone you can put more energy into providing beter service to good clients.
 
simplyjoe said:
get rid of the time wasters
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If the people in question are existing customers / clients then there is something wrong. As another poster wrote " It does not make good business sense to get rid of customers whether it be a celtic tiger or a celtic donkey".
 
rabbit said:
If the people in question are existing customers / clients then there is something wrong. As another poster wrote " It does not make good business sense to get rid of customers whether it be a celtic tiger or a celtic donkey".
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That is incorrect. When clients start costing a company money, it makes perfect business sense not to deal with them any more!
 
all of my customers are one offs so I don't like losing them, if the situation arises where a customer is wasting my time I tell them you are wasting my time.

If a customer is being a complete pain I'd double my prices to get rid of them.

I think the OP should put his or her prices up for that particular customer for the extra time it takes to deal with them but tell them the reason their price is rising.

Or send e-mails, letters and phone calls to them every 5 seconds until their bills are paid.
 
MandaC said:
That is incorrect. When clients start costing a company money, it makes perfect business sense not to deal with them any more!
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Rubbish. Customers should always make a company money, not cost it.
If a customer is costing a company money, it would make better sense to make money out of that customer than lose that customer completely.

As another poster correctly wrote "not everybody has the luxury of being able to choose who they do business with."
 
rabbit said:
Rubbish. Customers should always make a company money, not cost it.
If a customer is costing a company money, it would make better sense to make money out of that customer than lose that customer completely.

As another poster correctly wrote "not everybody has the luxury of being able to choose who they do business with."
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In my experiance I have had some clients who are very testing.

Alot of my clients have my personal mobile number as I would need to be contacted if there was an urgent matter while a project was on going. One guy would ring me on a sunday evening for matters that were far from urgent. I had to tell him he could only ring me between 7am and 8pm mon to fri unless there was a major emergency. (we also have an out of hours service which I rarely work)
Some clients think that they are your only client. I can understand the need to let clients go. Some projects, I have been more than happy to finish and have swore never to work for that person again.

There are some peoples business I can do without, and its foolish to think otherwise. some clients do cost businesses much more resources than others while expecting to pay the same.

Rabbit, Do you offer a service or are you a customer?
 
Rubbish. Customers should always make a company money, not cost it.
If a customer is costing a company money, it would make better sense to make money out of that customer than lose that customer completely.
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Here's a simple example.
Widgets Ltd sell a product to its customers for €100. This is also what the competition charge. It will cost widgets ltd about €60 in overheads and cost of sales and support, so they expect to make €40 per unit.
Frank Spencer has bought the product but uses €150 worth of resources.
How can you make money out of Frank Spencer? - if you raise the price of the product, many of your customers will go off to the competition.
A better solution would be to get rid of Frank, and continue selling to qualified customers that actually make you money.

It's just maths.

(Rabbit, I once thought the worst thing that could happen would be to lose a customer. I was wrong.)
 
From experience of dealing, in a service role ,with people who wear you out, and whom you can't get rid of, and about whom your conscience as regards your service to them is completely clear, here's what is done........a bit of passive agression.In other words, disengage gradually, continue to do the job but be unavailable at times as people like this in my job use up valuable time that should be given to others.
Slow anwering of emails and nofication to the person that such delays will occur do to heavy workload but will be attended to in due course,use of appointments and scheduling of times that calls will be attended to, these are usually effective. In other words, you retrain the person as to your availability. If your service continues to be good, the person will stay with you, if they are prima donnas who are not worth it , they will leave.
In my experience, sometimes with people like this, if you don't realise it at the start of the relationship and you are an efficient person, you can easily make a rod for your own back. However by putting a price on your professionalism and being a little bit more assertive, chances are you will resolve this
Obviously if this doesn't work, well then it comes down to economics versus mental health.
Unfortunately in my work, we can't get rid of our 'customers' but we try to keep them under control!!!
 
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