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There are many different ways of determining, in starting your own company, when you’ve started to become successful — when your profits start outweighing your expenses, when you hire your first full-time employees, when you start getting press or even buyout offers—but in my experience, nothing is a stronger indication of a mature startup than being truly selective with the clients you work with.
This isn’t about managing client expectations — you should be doing that no matter what stage you are in your business. My business is college consulting, which does not include writing essays or otherwise doing work the students should be doing, but there are unfortunately plenty of students and parents that are looking for that. Generally, these prospective clients won’t explicitly ask when signing on, so I’ve always, since day one, had to make sure our service offerings are clear and tried to ensure nobody signs with us with that expectation.
Still, no matter how clearly you align expectations before signing a client, sometimes a chiropractic intervention becomes necessary. Whether the client is texting you at all hours of the night, missing meetings and being unresponsive, or any myriad of other potential problems, the first step is always to address the issue in a clear, respectful manner. The first step is to remind them of what you made clear when signing (i.e., “Just a reminder that we do have a 24-hour cancellation policy.”) It also doesn’t hurt to explain again why those expectations are in place (i.e., “If I don’t have at least 24 hours notice for missed appointments, I can’t make that time available to other clients.”)
Always take client concerns seriously and go above and beyond to make sure their experience lives up to your standards for your services. Someone that offers negative feedback or expresses displeasure — even impolitely -- is not automatically a problem client. These complaints only become problems when the client’s expectations are unreasonable. In my experience, misaligned expectations are the leading cause of strained client relationships.
If the reminders of your boundaries and expectations or your attempts to address client concerns are ineffective, you may be dealing with a problem client. Often, problem clients are also higher-paying or higher-profile than your other clients. Often, they know it, and assume that means they can get away with worse behavior. In the early days of your business, they’re often right. That’s why it’s such a clear sign that your business has matured when you reach a point where they need you more than you need them.
When you reach a breaking point with a problem client, my recommendation is not to fire them. A much better option is to offer a refund or to let them out of their contract. This keeps the client in control, while making it clear that you feel you’re doing everything you can on your end. No client has ever taken me up on this offer — in fact, in most cases it leads to their satisfaction levels improving.
Can you afford to risk losing a client? Probably, actually. Most businesses reach this point earlier than they realize, because even when the numbers indicate you can’t, you often can’t afford not to. Consider this: time is money, and problem clients are incredibly time-consuming. At a certain point, complaints and demands become unreasonable, and demanding clients are the least likely to respect boundaries. Even worse, they’re often still not satisfied even after you meet their demands. Your employees have better things to do, like providing excellent service to your other clients.
Besides, problem clients don’t just take up time, they contribute to employee burnout. Refusing to fire a problem client sends a clear message to your employees — their time and wellbeing is less important to you than the bottom line. Fostering loyalty and employee satisfaction sometimes means firing a problem client when they go too far.
It can be daunting to fire a client for many reasons, not least of which is the risk of negative reviews and damage to your company reputation. This is a legitimate concern, but if a client is already impossible to please, you weren’t going to get positive feedback from them anyway. Besides, most potential clients can sniff out an unreasonable negative review and won’t take it at face value.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you where you draw the line. But I encourage you to consider all the factors—including the emotional cost of dealing with them further—before you decide.
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