Chucking out customers

Steve, the boss at Eastwood Hi-Fi, makes a good point about turning away potentially troublesome customers in his August 6 post. I reckon it's good practice.

One of the joys of running a tech business is that many customers have either unrealistic expectations of the products or they have unrealistic beliefs in their abilities to use it.

The result for the tech (or the tech's boss) is many hours of stress and unchargable time and eventually returned products or disputed bills.

So when you sense a customer might be trouble, it's best to politely refer the customer elsewhere.

In a similar topic, Valerie Khoo in the Sydney Morning Herald's Enterprise blog asks "is the customer always right?"

The answer is an emphatic "NO!" Often customers have some very strange ideas that they are unwilling to ditch regardless of what advice you give them.

Once again, it's best to pass their custom on elsewhere.

I've been doing this a lot recently. I'm sick of spyware and I'm tired of computer setups with all manner of strangely setup applications.

I don't know if it's because I'm old and jaded or I've just become picky or because I'm just not hungry enough for the work, but I find I'm reluctant to do jobs that might have the slightest complication down the track.

I'd suggest any business owner really should have a line in the sand they draw with customers. While a disappointed customer might tell five or ten people about their experience, a bad customer might distract you from twenty good customers.