Regardless of the size of your business — big or small — as you work through your business journey, you encounter customers or clients who are not good matches for your business. In order to preserve your sanity, and the reputation of your business, it is best to avoid these bad customers.
Bad customers are customers who drain your time, energy, and resources. Most small business owners know by experience who their bad customers are. Unfortunately, bad customers often make it easy for you to spot them, because they do not respect you or attempt to work with you. It is important to remember that the following scenario is a possibility, not a probability.
Understand the Risks
It is important for a business owner to understand the risks associated with each type of customer. In order to minimize the risks, it is important that you know how to properly identify all types of customers and know how to avoid bad customers. If you are a partner, employee, or part-time worker at a small business and have the potential to encounter one of these bad customers, it is still important that you know how to avoid them. Hindsightrated.com allows you to review your experiences with a business in an easy, on-the go manner. Therefore, when it comes time for decision-making or comparing different options, all the information is right there waiting.
Characteristics of Bad Customers
- Bad Customers Do Not Respect You or Attempt to Work with You. They often view you as an incompetent nuisance or an obstacle in their way towards their goal. They do not take you seriously and do not care what impact they may have on your business.
- Bad Customers Are Resistant to Change. They will only accept change if they are the one who requested the change. Even then, they will often attempt to revert to the old way of doing things.
- Bad Customers Know How Important You Are to Your Business and Do Everything Possible to Feed Off Your Positive Emotions. in order to get what they want from you. This may involve them putting you down in front of others, or even playing on your sympathy for their own personal gain.
- Bad Customers Do Not Think Your Business Is Important. They have no interest in what you offer your customers or in how your business fits into their own lives. Their interest is only in themselves. A bad customer views your business as a nuisance that takes up time and valuable resources.
Terms and Conditions – Why Are They Important?
When bad customers have encounters with your business, one of the first things that they want to do is lay down the terms and conditions for their relationships with your business. This is where many business owners fall short. Business owners do not regularly set terms and conditions for their customers. They feel that the customers are their clients who should respect the business owners’ requests.
However, not all customers are the same. As a small business owner, you need to communicate in such a way that you set the boundaries of your relationship with your customer and make it clear what type of relationships you want to have with them. If you are uncomfortable setting some terms and conditions for your customers, then ensure that at least one of your partners handles this task. The relationships between the customers and your business benefit you both — not just the customers. While it is okay for customers to take up some of your time, energy, and resources to achieve their own goals, they must respect your time, energy, and resources as well.
Managing Expectations
It is also important to be honest with your customers, especially if they are not good matches for your business. As hard as it is to do sometimes, it is necessary in order to preserve the relationship with your customers and to have any hope of salvaging the relationships.
When managing expectations with your customers, be sure to:
- Be honest about what your business offers them and about the types of services you provide.
- Do not assume that they know what they want. Do not assume that they know what services you provide or how your business benefits them. Spell this out for them before you begin working with them.
- Explain to your customers what you expect from them in return for the services that you provide for them.
- Do not over-promise and under-deliver, if possible. This only damages your reputation and causes problems with existing customers.
Handling Stress
Being a small business owner is extremely stressful. It often leaves you feeling like you have no time for yourself. Although it is important to be productive, set aside some time each day to relax or to take a short break from your normal routine. This gives you a chance to reset your stress levels and to recharge. This does not mean that you take a vacation every day. Rather, it simply means that you set aside some time each day to sit back and relax.
It is important to remember that there is no way to avoid stress. Stress always happens, whether you have a bad day or not. However, the more prepared and willing you are to handle stress in your life, the easier it is for you to get through stressful times.
Final Thoughts on Stress and Bad Customers
Stress is always going to happen. As a small business owner, you must be ready to handle it. As a small business owner, one of your main tasks is to keep your customers happy and satisfied with your services. In order to do this, it is important that you identify which customers are good for your business and which ones are bad for your business.
Be prepared to handle customers every day. If you are unwilling to handle your customers as they come in, then call on a partner that is. Do not allow bad customers to walk in and out of your business whenever they feel like it. If you decide to have bad customers, always be ready for them and try your best not to make the situations worse than they have to be.
